Azalea Ellis

This book was so much fun! I’ve really enjoyed the blossoming LitRPG or GameLit genre but have found most stories lack a realistic female character. Not so with this novel! Yay! Eve Redding is easy to relate to and I love her character arc for the tale. She’s starts off as a somewhat awkward teen who gets forcibly tossed into this VR world of combat and deadly brain puzzles. By the end, she’s leading her own team of awesome players. Like that phrase says, toss Eve Redding to the wolves and she’ll return leading the pack.

Eve has a few flaws but that made her more personable. She spent her first few seeds (level up points) on Beauty instead of something useful like Life, Stamina, Intelligence, or Strength. She learns to regret that later on, even kicking herself over it. This made me like her all the more. Also, she has selfish thoughts of how to keep herself whole & safe even at the expense of other players, and then she regrets such thoughts and actions later on. She juggles all this while trying to keep up with school work and hide her various injuries from her mom and brother (Zed).

The world building is great too. The readers get the bigger picture in pieces, just as Eve does, making it easy to absorb the rules of this new world. And it’s not just as simple as getting sucked into a game world. There’s more going on here and the humans aren’t the only sentient things out there. Plus, there’s consequences. Eve learns this early on too when another player, Channel, gets taken out. Eve vows to do what she can to rescue her. Bunny, Eve’s moderator, provides info on how the seeds work and other game logistics. He has no part in the trials (where all the monsters, blood, and death occur). He could be a hindrance or an ally, depending on how Eve plays him.

Over time, Eve builds a small team. There’s Adam, Jacquie, China, and Sam. Each has a special skill or two and while most are reluctant at the beginning to join forces, they eventually become a great team. I really loved the banter back and forth among these characters. Sam is the most intriguing to me because he’s so secretive about the specifics of his special skill. I also enjoyed hating on the Big Baddie, Nix. Yet Eve learns there’s something more to be concerned about by the end of the book.

My one tiny little criticism is that the characters too easily avoid being tracked when they want to. I felt there would be a log of their movements, like a cell phone can easily log your movements even when not in use. So I would have liked a fancy bit of tech or something along those lines to help them out instead of them simply doing questionable things when no one happens to be looking.

All together, this was a fantastic story. At 16+ hours as an audiobook, you might think it could drag here and there. Not so! It flew by! 4.75/5 stars.

The Narration: Natalie Duke gave a really good performance. She was perfect for Eve and I loved how she covered all of Eve’s emotions throughout this story. Duke had distinct voices for all the characters as well and her male voices were believable. Duke’s pacing was perfect. My one little quibble is that there are a few moments when the volume goes up or down – not so much as to trouble you if you have earbuds on. Just needs a little polishing on the technical side. 4.5/5 stars

I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Azalea Ellis. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.… (altro)

God of Blood and Bone is a scif-fi / dystopia book where we follow Eve Reddings who must participate to a survival game. A deadly survival game...

In general, I'll say : this is a good book. Eve is a strong and interesting character. Usually, a sci-fi book with female as main character offers a different vibe than the "classic/bad ass" man you follow through his adventures. This is a bit the case here (but Eve is also bad ass).

The story is well done. You can clearly feel some inspiration from other books like Hunger Games but still, the author adds her touch and offers something more sci-fi (with aliens :) ) than classic dystopia. There is a lot of action and the book as a whole is a page turner.

For a first book, this is very well done and I'll surely get the next one.

Score : 8/10

http://4nakama.net/2015/09/03/gods-of-blood-and-bone-review/… (altro)