Friday, October 30, 2015

Review Dead and Buryd by Chele Cooke - Out of Orbit Blog Tour

HEY GUYS!
I'm so so so excited for today's blogpost! As you can see from the picture above - I'm participating in a blog tour! Woohoo!
I know, I know - it already started at the 18th and I haven't told any of you about it, but that's because I wanted it to be a bit of a surprise!
And in honour of the Out of Orbit blog tour I'm reviewing the first book in the installment - Dead and Buryd.


Summary

"You're an inmate, not a medic. You should get used to that."

On the planet Os-Veruh, the native Veniche have endured a decade under the oppressive rule of a race of invaders, the Adveni.

When Georgianna Lennox, a Veniche medic, discovers her childhood friend has been sold into slavery, she seeks help from a revolutionary outlaw group.

As Georgianna's struggle to save one life ignites a battle to liberate her homeworld, is she about to discover that it is better to be dead than 'buryd'?


My opinion

Rate: 8/10

This book was great! 
I've said this in a previous blogpost before, but I'll say it again: I love stories with these political games and wars, because I feel like the best and exciting stories come from it.
And this book was really one of those great stories. The characters, the plot mainly and the world itself were amazing and so fun to get into.

I want to start with the world itself, because I found it genuinely a very original and fascinating world indeed. Because of the way the world is built I feel like we're in a futuristic and prehistorical setting at the same time.
The fact that the Veniche people are divided in tribes on the planet and that they live quite a primitive life underground, including other prehistorical elements such as the need to join to keep a bloodline going, for example, makes it prehistorical, but the fact that above them another kind from outerspace took over with its high developed technology makes it more futuristic.
While reading the story I felt like I was constantly changing worlds, from the primitive underground to this "alien" and technological upperground, which made the reading experience far more fun.

I think the characters in this book are pretty strong. I can imagine them being real human beings, or Veniche in this case, and not these predictable people we've all heard of already. A thing that caught my eye was how their ideals changed from person to person. Now this is pretty normal for every character, but the way it's put in the story, quite indirectly, by using their words and actions only made it better and far more interesting. It wasn't like our protagonist was explaining every little detail about the other characters, some background things she pointed out but the way these people are shone through their words and actions in a good and interesting way.

I do have to say that sometimes these descriptions our protagonist gives, aren't always wanted by me. Of course, explaining is pretty important in a very fictional world, containing elements that aren't very normal to the average human and seeing her struggle with her personal problems is also important for her character development, but sometimes it bothers me. I'll explain why:
These explanations and troubled thoughts sometimes become a bit too long, making it more difficult to get through story sometimes. Especially when used during exciting events. There was one exciting event which could've blown me away, if we wouldn't have spent much time with the protagonist's rambling thoughts on her relationship.
But luckily this wasn't very often!

I really liked how Cooke opened the story.
Starting with giving us a quick overview of how Os-Veruh was taken over by the Adveni and with a quite mysterious event was a very attractive way to open up the story. 
By opening this way, Cooke uses an interesting method to the reader's attention;
she puts some questions and knowledge in your head first, so that you want to figure out the rest to complete the picture.
I've seen some other authors do this too, but I don't know in this case I found it even more appealing especially because the other event was so fast paced.

I like saying that reading this story felt like watching a series, which is a good thing by the way. In series you have these different perspectives on the story from different people, some knowing more than others or going through different events that don't seem to fit the story at all or seem to be kind of part of the story and kind of not.
Well, it was something like that, only then the other perspectives excluded. The book is only written from Georgianna's perspective and in this perspective very interesting things seem to happen all at once. Some have to do with the actual plotline, others introducing another secret buried (not buryd, haha) in the ground, slowly finding its way up through the ground. So you don't just stick to the storyline - you get more out of it. More events, more problems, more mysteries, which make me very excited for the next book.

AND THAT ENDING YOU GUYS...
Wasn't actually that mindblowing.
BUT it wasn't bad either. Not at all actually.
So when I reached the ending I was expecting this mindblowing and heartbreaking cliffhanger which would make me die for a few seconds.
In reality it didn't turn out that way. When I reached the ending, it actually felt like I was already getting into the first chapter of the next book, making me afraid that the ending wouldn't have that wow-factor I was aiming for. And it didn't.
It had something even more interesting.
It ended in such a subtle and secretive way that I first felt like: Wait, this is it? and then I felt like: Oooo, I like this.
The way it ended just fitted to the story itself, with its secrets and mysteries and its rebelious character. It was perfect.

Overall I really enjoyed reading this book. I felt connected to the characters and I loved the world and the story itself. I'm really pumped for the next book - Fight or Flight!


Giveaway

There is a tour wide giveaway during the tour.
The prizes include;
A full set of Out of Orbit series in paperback and a £25 Amazon giftcard
Ten ebook sets of the Out of Orbit series

Here is the link to the giveaway;
    http://chelecooke.com/giveaways/out-of-orbit-giveaway/

And I want to thank Faye Rogers for reaching out to me and asking me to participate in this blog tour! It was very fun to do and I'm happy she introduced me to this great series!
And as for you guys - make sure you join the giveaway! I promise you - the books are worth it!

Until the next blogpost then! :)

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