Great new sci fi series by Veronica Roth. Love these types of books, and this one shows me why I should read more. Just fabulous.

(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)

Cyra is the sister of the brutal tyrant who rules the Shotet people. Cyra’s currentgift gives her pain and power – something her brother exploits, using her to torture his enemies. But Cyra is much more than just a blade in her brother’s hand: she is resilient, quick on her feet, and smarter than he knows.
Akos is from the peace-loving nation of Thuvhe, and his loyalty to his family is limitless. Though protected by his unusual currentgift, once Akos and his brother are captured by enemy Shotet soldiers, Akos is desperate to get his brother out alive – no matter what the cost. When Akos is thrust into Cyra’s world, the enmity between their countries and families seems insurmountable. Will they help each other to survive, or will they destroy one another?

Well, this was an unusual one. After the Divergent series (which was okay for what it was), the author decides to take this novel into space and fills it with corruption, violence and vengeance...and, of course, romance...

And, if I am to be completely honest, it worked for the most part. It took me some time to get the feel of this book but, once I was in, it seemed to move along at a decent pace and kept me interested most of the time.

However, it did fail to take advantage of the "space" aspect - really, this could have been set anywhere and you wouldn't have really known the difference. And that's not the beauty of science fiction - sci-fi should be instantly recognisable for what it is. And that is disappointing. Very disappointing. Also, could have done without the silly names (like 'currentgifts', for example) - felt like it was trying too hard to be sci-fi...

Overall, though, if there were another book in this setting, I would pick it up, just to see where the author would take it.


Paul
ARH

Carve the Mark is a finely written sci-fi novel, with beautifully drawn characters and a love story at its heart that is sure to give you all the feels!

I have so much to say about this book. I wasn't sure I would like it, not being a reader (or watcher) of sci-fi but Roth's book held my untrained sci-fi hand and guided me with ease through her world (and galaxy). This book is just beautiful! The prose is so crisp and even poetic at times in its restrained sparseness and the characters are so well conceived and their inner and physical journeys allows us to see their development in really organic ways. I feel like Roth has done us a service to allow time for her characters to react to their struggles and, in the case of the blossoming romance between Akos and Cyra, a love story that feels organic and true. A lot of the time, love story subplots can feel rushed and inauthentic. Not so with this book which has oodles of political intrigue and suspense taking the foreground.

It is clear that Roth learned a lot from writing her bestselling Divergent series and here with Carve the Mark we are seeing her at her absolute best. Some will complain about narrative pace. I think the wait is absolutely necessary (for plot and character development) and serves to yield a powerhouse second half of the book. Persist and you will not be disappointed. Engaging, totally immersive and so well written I was at times gasping at the absolute beauty of her prose. As in this incredible section of story:

We didn't quite know how to fit together, lips too wet, teeth where they didn't belong. But that was all right; we tried again, and this time it was like the spark that came from friction, a jolt of energy through my body...I pressed into him, feeling the rough stairwell wall against my hands, and his quick, hot breaths against my neck. I had wondered, I had wondered what it was like to go through life without feeling pain, but this was not the absence of pain I had always craved, it was the opposite, it was pure sensation. Soft, warm, aching, heavy, everything, everything (288).

Cyra narrates the above passage; a young woman whose brother, Ryzek has used her as his weapon for Cyra's currentgift (manifesting usually in adolescence) is pain - severe bodily pain shown in the shadows that creep along her arms, her face, her back. Everywhere. She has the ability to force this pain into other people and this is why she is her brother's favoured weapon and why the Shotet people are so afraid of her.

Trapped in service to her brother (for he knows her dark secret) Cyra has turned within - unable to trust herself or anyone else for true companionship (whether friendship or otherwise). When Akos, a young man from the other side of their planet arrives, a captive of her brother's, Akos is gifted to Cyra to help take away her pain. Akos's gift is to disrupts the current and stills her shadows. Through each other, they learn more about themselves and the unjust ruling of Cyra's brother. Intent on freeing Akos's brother from Ryzek's control, together they must enlist the help of renegades but not without putting their own lives at risk.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and await the next instalment with anticipation!

2017 seems to be the year of controversial YA. I feel like I have been writing a lot of reviews lately where I start it with "There has been a lot of controversy online about this book...". And here's another one.

A lot of people who fuel the fire in these debates haven't actually read the books themselves, which I find somewhat irritating! I like to form my own opinion, which is part of the reason I wanted to read this book for myself. I'll start off by saying that I really enjoyed the Divergent series - I liked the world-building, the characters, the plot. It was fast-paced but also had intense heart and emotions. For me, that series was stronger than this one. I didn't love Carve the Mark unfortunately. I really wanted to, the premise had a lot of promise, and there's no denying that Veronica Roth can write, she certainly can. I just found myself struggling to fully immerse myself with this book.

It was slooooow. A bit too slow. Now, I'm a fan of a good slow burn. But when I find my mind literally thinking of everything else EXCEPT the book my eyes are currently reading, then that isn't a great sign for me! There wasn't anything for my enjoyment to latch onto. The characters weren't compelling, I found myself a little bit lost in some places (probably because I wasn't very interested...), and it didn't bring anything refreshing to the table, alas.

The author of the Divergent series looks to the stars in this new Romeo and Juliet style sci-fi series that focuses on a budding relationship between two young characters torn between warring races on a distant planet. Ultimately a romance wrapped up in sci-fi and action tropes, it's a fun read probably tailored more towards a female audience with interesting characters and reveals as their abilities are unveiled.
A solid start to a new series that should find a home with fans of the Divergent books.

I DID NOT FINISH THIS BOOK AT 54% SO THIS REVIEW WILL BE PURELY A REVIEW OF THE FIRST HALF OF THE BOOK AND AS TO WHY I DID NOT FINISH THIS BOOK.

Cover Art:
I don’t really get this cover. It’s not very appealing and it also just looks like cuts in something and as far as I can tell the ‘carve the mark’ refers to when Akos is carving the marks into Cyra’s arm for the kill she made… So I don’t really get the point of the cuts made into whatever that is on the cover and what I’m assuming is meant to look like gold blood running out of them.. It’s just a little odd.

Writing:
So I loved the Divergent series, it is really good and written very well. This book wasn’t written bad, but the pacing was really bad! Everything is dragged out so much and there just isn’t much going on but a lot of writing about that nothing. This was one of the reason I stopped reading.. The pacing just makes it so hard to read. Don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy books with slow pacing some time but this was just too much and that joined with the plot itself was just not worth continuing.

Another reason this book really annoyed me was the names of characters, things and places. Most of them are sooo hard to pronounce! As I went along I started highlighting on the Kindle App every time I couldn’t pronounce a name. There was 15 in the first half of the book.. I don’t mind 1 or 2 names that I can’t pronounce because you can just look at them and move on with the reading, but because there was sooo many of them it was hard to keep track of who everyone is because I couldn’t keep track of the names. This meant that half the time I was confused and trying to figure out who everyone was. There is a glossary in the back, so why couldn’t a pronunciation guide be thrown in too…

Here is some of the examples of some of the names: Aoseh, Eijeh, Thuvhe, Ylira, Zetsyvis, zivatahak, etc.

Plot:
Honestly the plot is just kinda eh. I don’t even know really what is going on and I also don’t really think anything really has happened so far except a certain two people being kidnapped… and what the 2 of them are doing atm with the people who kidnapped them.. Besides that I feel like nothing else has really happened.

Characters:
I feel no connection to any of the characters at all. This book is done in Multi POV, following Cyra and Akos. Besides that the name is written at the start of the chapter it is hard to tell the difference between each POV. When Multi POV is done well you can tell by the writing which character is which, but this book there was no difference in writing between the 2 main characters and if I got distracted by something in real life I would have to go back and check who’s POV that chapter was because that was the only way to tell.

Overall:
The world itself is interesting and if everything else was done well then this could have been a really good book. But as it stands this isn’t a book I’m going to continue. I was at a point that I was forcing myself to read a bit of it and then falling asleep a couple chapters in. I was getting nowhere quick with this book.

So overall the pacing is bad, the names are so hard to pronounce, the plot so far is just dull and the Multi POV isn’t done well. This is not a good representation of Veronica Roths writing! Go read Divergent!!