Hail Caesar: Movie Review

I went to see Hail Caesar today, mostly on a whim.  Usually I have the movies I want to see planned weeks in advance, but this one wasn't even on my radar until about a week ago when I happened across a preview.  It looked reasonably entertaining, and I felt like I could use a comedy after the traumatizing effects of the last few episodes of Merlin (which is a fantastic show I may review in the near future).  But mostly I was intrigued by the idea of actors playing actors, and the portrayal of life behind the scenes in Hollywood's "Golden Age".

The movie boast a lot of recognizable names, including George Clooney, Scarlet Johannson, Ralf Fiennes, and Channing Tatum and is set in the 1950's.  It centers around Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin) the man in charge of a Hollywood studio, and all he goes through to keep movies on schedule, fill parts, and preserve the image of his actors. We follow him through several sets, all showing the different types of movies that were popular in the time period as he tries to find one of his lead actors, Baird Whitlock (Clooney), who has been kidnapped.  (Honestly I found viewing the different sets more entertaining than the finding of Whitlock and would probably watch that Channing Tatum musical sailor movie if they felt like making a "spin off").  The movie also shows, though doesn't really address, how different the life of actors at the time was compared to now; how the studio basically owned them and was in charge of their personal as well as professional lives.  
The ending was reasonably unpredictable (at least I didn't see that reveal coming) and while I'm still a little confused about why Whitlock was kidnapped at all, I don't think that really matters since the point of the movie was to entertain, not be a dramatic man hunt. 
Overall I was entertained by this movie and will probably watch it again once it starts making the occasional television rounds. 

Content Review: For the most part, this was a fairly clean movie, but correctly rated PG-13. There was some language, most bothersome the use of Christ, and several instances where sex was hinted at verbally, like "never done this without waking up next to a broad" and the implication of alleged "sodomy" in one character's past.  However, nothing actually happened during the events of the movie. 

Student Nurse: Help I'm Drowning

Well, when I started this blog, I'd never intended to actually post things about my life, but I've just started nursing school at Stephen F. Austin State University, and I've decided to chronicle my experience at least a little. This may be a little scatter brained, but here goes.

Two weeks ago today I had what I consider my actual first day in nursing school, with an all day long orientation.  Basically they went over the syllabi for the first semester classes, the dress code etc so we could jump right in to classes on Monday.  We even had reading to do the weekend before school actually started (which practically none of the almost 80 of us actually did. *sheepish look*).  One of the first slides they showed us at orientation was the one pictured above, "Welcome to Nursing School, where every week feels like finals week."  Not the most encouraging of choices.  They told us that if class starts at 8 the doors will be locked at 8 and you will have to wait for an hour or so for a break to get in.  Clinical folders must be in the drop box by 8am sharp Mondays or no credit. Test and overall grade, not just the two together must be at least a 75 to continue in the program.  If you are found to be out of uniform on clinical days you will be sent home and given an F day, three F days and your out of the program.   It seemed to go on and on.
The calendar's alone were enough to make a person's head spin.  I think I remember someone saying that the idea of orientation was to make nursing school less scary or something.  (I can't really remember the exact wording, a lot of what was said after 1 or 2pm didn't make it into my saturated brain.) However they phrased it, if that was their intention I think it had the opposite affect.  They'd told us to go home and consolidate in color code all of our syllabus calendars into one so we could easily see what we had when.  Chapters of reading, homework, virtual simulations, labs, going to actually hospitals in just a few weeks.  Ah! We hadn't even started yet and I was pulling at my hair.  Some days I'm at the school from 8 in the morning to 5:30 in the afternoon. To further complicate matters, there are variations in the schedule frommweek to week. It took me almost two hours to finish getting it all down and I just remember looking at my completed calendar and thinking "How am I going to keep up with all this?"  I was actually wondering if the professors remembered that as 19-20 somethings we are still supposed to be getting seven or eight hours of sleep every night.

On the first day of class I got there almost half an hour early to make sure I would definitely be in the room before 8, and I wasn't even sure I had the right books. (My back pack weights a ton by the way.  One of the textbooks weighs almost 10 pounds by itself.)  Honestly we probably all looked like a very large herd of deer in front of the headlights of a giant semi.  For the first couple of days I didn't even know for sure which class I was going to, I just knew which room I needed to be in at what time.  One of my classmates summed up most of our feeling really well during our first study group. The student instructor was telling us to make sure we went to our professors if we needed help and one of the guys in the front said,  "I wouldn't even know what to ask, I just feel like I'm drowning."
Luckily, by the middle of this week I felt like I was getting my head above water and now I think I am going to be able to swim.  I'm actually starting to kind of enjoy this.  I like my classmates, I knew several of them from prereqs and I'm getting to know more of my fellow students as we go.
We've got to wear our scrubs a couple of times and, not only do they make me almost feel like a nurse, I love all the pockets on mine.  Seriously, there like nursing cargo pants.  I don't even actually need that many pockets, but I still really like having them. Plus I think scrub pants beat yoga pants as far as comfort goes.
I have come to grips with the fact that weekends will pretty much no longer exist for me.  While my flatmates are able to sleep in or watch tv/movies most of Friday, Saturday, Sunday, I just get a whole day or two to catch up on the reading/homework I have to finish before Monday.  It's like every time I get my to do list down to a nice, manageable level and think "Hey, I might actually get to catch up on my show tonight", I realize I have three more things I'm supposed to finish as well. 
 Wednesday we got to practice finding injection sites on each other and then got to use different syringes and practice giving different kinds of shots (not as easy as stick in arm and push plunger, like I thought).  They had us using hot dogs, oranges and foam pads instead of each other luckily.  They even had us take them home to continue practicing/playing with them.  As long as we promised not to stick our pets or our roommates that is. 
 
Our first test was this Friday, over ten chapters, after only 5 actual class days.  I did my best to study during the week, but I still had other reading to do; we didn't even cover all the material for the test until Tuesday.  I studied for several hours after lab on Wednesday and quite literally all day Thursday trying to get ready.  I was so worried that somewhere going through all that information I would miss something important.  I think I did study everything I was supposed to, but nursing tests are hard.  When it's multiple choice there's usually more than one correct answer, maybe all of them are technically right, and you just have to pick the best one. They'd warned us it was going to be that way, but even with the foreknowledge it doesn't make it any less frustrating.   
I didn't do as well on the test as I like, I'm not usually happy with B's, but it wasn't bad for the first test. It turns out I was actually a little above the class average, so that made me feel better about it.  I'm pretty sure I can do better on the next one now that I have a better idea how the test will be set up. I hope I can anyway, but I guess time will tell.

Well, that was my first two weeks of nursing school.  I have a much better outlook on this now than I did two weeks ago.  It's going to be difficult for sure, but now I'm sure I can keep up and do reasonably well. 



  

Tips for College Freshmen

 

Well, the time has come for many of us to make our way back to our respective goulogs *cough* I mean colleges. :P
I'm about to start my junior year (my second "actually away from home" year) and I thought I'd write a post of things I've learned to help those of you who are making the trip for the first time.

Note: These tips are not necessarily in order of importance.

1. Don't stress too much  There's a lot of things to get used to when you first go to college and yes, it will probably be more difficult than your high school learning, but try not to get too stressed. Stressing won't help you.  Do your best, be aware of what you need to do to improve, but recognize that one bad quiz/test grade won't kill your chances of an A in the class. 

2. Don't hide in your dorm room the first few weeks. Trust me, it will be tempting (unless you don't have a good roommate) but don't hide in your dorm whenever you don't have to be in class. Venture into the scary world of the campus a little. Most colleges have activities for you to do, especially the first two weeks. Save barely leaving the room for midterms/finals week.

3. Try not to play on your phone before class. Again, this one is tempting, even if you're like me and don't normally play on your phone that much. The phone is just safer than sitting staring at the wall before the lecture starts or *gasp* speaking to someone near you. But seriously, you'll enjoy your classes more of you have friends in them.  Even if you don't end up with a best friend or even a study buddy, just having one or two people to chat with before class starts is really nice. So at least make an effort.

4. If your professor tells you to read something before the next class, READ IT. They will know if you don't do the reading.  And a lot of the assigned reading will probably come up on tests/quizzes. Even if you think you can skate by without it, you will at the least cheat yourself out of some learning and at worst you'll do poorly on a test because you don't have a clue how to answer half the questions. (One of my professors last semester gave written answer only tests, so if you didn't do the reading there was no multiple choice to help you guess.)

5. Use the study helps available. At least give them a chance. A lot of schools have a variety of options to help you learn like personal tutors or group lessons taught by a student who has already aced the class. I strongly suggest that if you have free study help options, you at least give them a try. Not everything will help you, and if they don't you can stop going, but some of them will help you improve your grade.

6. Time management is your best friend. Stay on top of your homework, reading and writing assignments. DO NOT wait until the day before something is due to start on it. You don't have to be weeks ahead, but do give yourself a little bit of a time buffer in case something comes up. Last semester I had a lot of reading, so I made myself a master schedule of everything I needed to read for every class so I wouldn't miss anything.  Maybe your not a list person but I like being able to see all my assignments so nothing falls through the cracks. (Otherwise you might end up slapping together a paper with one hour to go before it's due. Yes, this happened to me one time early on and trust me, it is very stressful and usually doesn't end well grade wise. Hence I now make lists.)

7. Talk to your professors. If you don't do as well on a test as you'd like GO AND SEE THE PROFESSOR. Most of them genuinely want you to learn and will be more than happy to try to help you. Most of my professors have given me great advice on how to do better when I have asked for help after a less than pleasing grade. Even if  you don't feel what they tell you doesn't helps that much, showing initiative will defiantly raise their opinion of you.  They will remember those office visits if they end up trying to decide whether or not to bump your 89 to a 90.

8. If a professor offers an extra credit opportunity DO IT. I don't care if you have great grades in the class, and I don't care if the assignment is boring/stupid. Do it. You never know, you might end up needing those extra points later in the semester. Not everyone offers extra credit so please, do yourself a favor and take them when you can.

9. Try to go to all your classes. Even if you can't stand to listen to the professor and feel like the class is a waste of your time, go. Attendance often factors into your grade. Some teachers will drop whole letters of you miss too many classes.

10.  Try to be at class early.  This factors into the initiative mentioned in tip 7. Your teachers will like it if you are already there, ready to go when it's time for class to start. ( Just don't be sitting there doing the reading for this class you should have done yesterday.) I always try to be there 10 or 15 minutes early. And then even if you are late, you won't be.

11. Don't study ALL the time. Yes, you need to study, usually for several hours a day at least, but don't study all the time. I know, I struggle with doing this especially near midterms/finals, but there comes a point where your brain will not hold anymore information.  Once you've study for several hours straight take a break. Go for a walk, go to the gym, watch a little TV, read for enjoyment; it doesn't matter what you do, just give your brain a rest. You'll be happier and will actually study better once you come back to it. (Just don't take so many breaks that what you need to be doing isn't getting done.)

And the part of me that won't let the TV volume be on an odd number not divisible by five is telling me not to stop at eleven, but I can't come up with another at the moment.

So anyway, I know these things have helped me and I hope they will do the same for some of you. If you have tips of your own, feel free to share them in the comments. Good luck to everyone in this year's academic endeavors. May all your papers be properly formatted and your Internet connection sound.

Age of Untron Review

Whoa, wrote this the week after the movie came out and thought I published it, but apparently I didn't.  Anyway, here is a belated review of Age of Ultron. 

Overall, I really enjoyed this movie.  I won't say it's better than the first Avengers, but it was still very well done and defiantly worth seeing.   All the major characters were back, and Barton even got a relatively substantial part.  Thor didn't get as much as I was hoping for, but there were a lot of characters that had to share screen time.  I love watching the whole team interact and there was a lot of really nice dialogue throughout. 

I liked Ultron as a villain and I think the story was interesting and mostly well done. The bit with the Hulk busting up the city could have been cut in my opinion. I feel like that really didn't serve a purpose to the story and was only there to add time to the movie.  And to show off Iron Man's newest suit.  

I really like the Maximoff twins.  At first I wasn't over thrilled with the idea of adding them when I first saw them on the previews; I was rather attached to Days of Future Past's Quicksilver and I felt like there were already too many characters in the move.  But I ended up really liking them and I'm looking forward to seeing more of them in the future.  Pietro was very different than the X-Men Quicksilver, which I was glad of so viewers won't have any trouble separating the two.   

There was a small glimpse into Natasha's back story, her initiation into the business, that I would have taken out. It makes since that that would be part of it, but I think the way they told us was random and doesn't really serve a purpose. 

I'm not real sure about Vision. I liked his character well enough, but I almost feel like we could have saved the world without him. *shrug* 

Age of Ultron was a really good movie and I think Marvel fans will be pleased with it. 

Some of my favorite things.  SPOILERS

HAWK'S  FAMILY! I love that. And then I got really worried he was gonna die and I was just like "No, you can't give him a family and then kill him. It's not right." So yes, I was very glad that he made it to the end. 

And I loved pretty much every line captain America had. Him and Thor have always been my favorites.

 It was sad that Pietro died. But my sister and I have decided there's probably around a 60% chance he's not really gone. They never actually said he was dead, just implied that he was.  Plus we can bring back actually dead people with alien juice. *coughCoulsoncough*.  No, I haven't forgiven them for that 'just because we can, we don't need a real reason or a good explanation" resurrection. 

And yeah, I love the new relationship between Clint and Natasha. It's really cute. :)

Once in Oz 1.5

This is the final installment of Once in Oz book one.  Note: This is not the wicked always wins witch. This is her predecessor.  (Started writing this series before they brought her in.)

“Ugh,” Toodles groaned in exasperation.  He’d barely clipped the piece of wood he was trying to chop, merely succeeding in knocking it over.  He set the block of wood back up again and raised the ax awkwardly over his head. 

The corner of Felix’s mouth turned up in half of grin.  “Use your back, not just your arms,” he called to him. 

Toodles managed to get a little more force behind his next blow, but the ax blade only went in far enough to get stuck. 

“She doesn’t even really need this much wood,” Toodles muttered, wriggling the ax free.

“Let me do it.” Felix held out his hand for the ax, which Toodles gladly surrendered.

The younger boy sat down on the ground a few feet away and watched Felix make short work of the log he’d been struggling with. 

“You make it look easy,” he said after a few minutes.

Felix shrugged.  “I used to do this all the time.”

For the next half hour Felix chopped wood and Toodles gathered up the split logs and carried them into the house. 

“How many more do you think it will take,” Felix asked, licking sweat off his upper lip.

“I don’t know,” Toodles answered.  “She said to fill up the wood box in the kitchen.  I keep thinking the next load will fill it up, but it doesn’t.”

“Mm,” Felix grunted, certain magic had something to do with that.  He was about to start chopping again when Natalie came over to them, carrying two wooden buckets. 

“The witch says she wants the floors shining before the sun goes down,” she started.

“Didn’t you sweep the whole house this morning?” Felix asked.

“Yes.  And now she wants the whole thing scrubbed.”  Natalie set the buckets down in front of them.  “She said for you two to take these to the river and fill them up.  Then we get to start in the kitchen.” 

“She’s sending us to fetch water?” Toodles said, grinning. 

“Don’t get excited yet,” Natalie said, glancing around the yard.  “The monkeys are going with you.”

Of course they are, Felix thought.  At least a handful of monkeys had been near them almost continuously since they’d begun two days ago.  They were always finding ways to harass their captives and interfere with their work.

Felix embedded the ax in one of the logs and picked up both the empty buckets in one hand.  He started for the front gate, Toodles hurrying after him.  Felix looked up at the afternoon sun, then at the house and sighed inwardly.  They wouldn’t be finished by sundown.  The witch had undoubtedly waited this late on purpose.    

Half a dozen monkeys waited for them at the gate, one of which was laying about at the others with Felix’s club.  For a moment, Felix had half a mind to snatch it from him and show him how to use it properly, but he thought it better just to let them form ranks around them and lead them outside the wall.  He felt a sharp jolt as he stepped out.

“Ow,” Toodles said, a step behind him.  “Was that the holding spell?”

“That was just to remind us she’s allowing us to leave,” Felix said in a measured tone, aware that the monkeys were listening.  “It would be much worse if we were trying to escape.”

“Worse?” The club wielding monkey chuckled.  “It would kill you.”

                                                   . . .

Natalie looked up from the table she was trying to wrestle up against the wall.  The boys stepped into the room, trailed by a monkey carrying Felix’s club.

“Toodles, you’re soaked,” she said. 

“Yeah.  I tripped,” he shot a glare at the monkey, “and spilled all the water out of my bucket.”

They spent the next few hours scrubbing the stone floors, taking turns going to the river for clean water as they needed it.  Despite their best efforts, as the sun sank below the horizon they still had two rooms to go. 

The witch strode into the room and glowered down at them.  “Not finished my pretties? I’m disappointed.  Well, if I can’t have clean floors I suppose I can at least enjoy teaching you a lesson.”  She smiled in a way that was anything but friendly and turned to leave.  “Once they finish in here, send them up to my study.” 

 Toodles, who had been inching closer to one of the water buckets, snatched it up and tossed the water at her.  The witch froze, rigid for a split second, then turned, sending an energy pulse through the room that knocked them all flat.  She locked her gaze on Natalie.

“Haven’t come to kill a witch eh?” she shouted, stomping over to them.  She reached down, grabbed Natalie by the throat and hauled her up.  “Did you think the water would do it?  Foolish girl, that’s just a myth.”  She lifted Natalie until her feet no longer touched the floor. 

The witch’s fingers tightened around her throat, closing off her air way.  “That is a mistake that’s going to cost you.”

Natalie tried to pry the witch’s fingers loose, tried to kick to free herself, but the witch only laughed and squeezed harder.  Picked up by a tornado, hounded by flying monkeys, enslaved by a witch, and now it would end, worlds away from home.  Natalie tried to blink back the tears in her eyes; if she was going to die she didn’t want to go out blubbering, but she couldn’t stop of few from rolling down her cheeks.

The witch grinned as Natalie’s struggling ebbed.  “Now, this is what happens to little girls who try to kill-ahhh!” She shrieked as if in pain and released Natalie. 

Natalie crumpled to the floor, gasping for breath. 

“No,” the witch growled.  “Not tears. Ugh, you horrible girl.”  She raised a hand to strike Natalie, but before she could, it disintegrated into dust.  “Nooo!” she shrieked again as the rest of her followed. 

For a few seconds the only sound breaking the silence was Natalie’s panting as she stared at the sand that was once the witch.  Then she felt a hand on her shoulder. 

“You all right?” Felix asked.

She nodded, still unable to get her breath.  Felix pulled her to her feet, then walked over to where the witch had stood.   He nudged a pile of clothes with his foot, scattering the green sand underneath.  The wicked witch of the east was no more.

                                                         . . .

“I found it,” Toodles said, hurrying into the room where Felix and Natalie were searching for the witch’s hat.  He skidded to a stop in the middle of the room, holding up a yellow cap.  “It was shoved in a boot in the hall closet.”  He took off his own hat and replaced it with the yellow one.  “What do you think?”

“It’s not really your color,” Natalie said with a smile, hopping off the couch she stood on. 

He grinned.  “Let’s have a word with the conductor monkey and see what he thinks.”

The flying monkeys were all milling about in the yard.  Since the witch’s death, they hadn’t dared lay hands on the captives, but they also hadn’t seemed eager to let them leave. 

Toodles strutted out in front of the group, who began shuffling their feet and flapping their wings nervously, pointing at the hat and muttering to each other.  The one with the conductor’s hat stepped forward and half bowed to Toodles. 

“You are our master now,” it said.  “What is your bidding?”

Toodles drew himself up and put on a stern face. “First, you are to return our belongings.  Then you will leave this place and never return.”

“As you command.” The monkey bowed low.  

“Good.” Toodles nodded satisfaction.  The monkey with Felix’s club came forward and gave it to Toodles and two others hurried off toward the house. 

“If you’re not quick about it, I’ll have your tails,” Toodles called after them.  He took the older boy’s weapon and handed it to him, grinning.  “Let’s have a look at what the witch kept in her pantry, huh?  I’m starving.”

Felix smiled and clapped him on the shoulder, following him toward the house. 

“I’m going to see about those beds upstairs too,” Toodles continued.  “It’s been ages since I slept in a real bed.  Then tomorrow we can go back to finding Glinda.  We’ll be home in no time.”

Short Percy Jackson Fanfic: Luke Learns About Annabeth

These are two selections from a very short story about Luke Castellan and others in Elysium  I was planning to write but haven't gotten around to.  The first one is the beginning, from right after The Last Olympian, and the other would be closer to the end of the short story, after The Mark of Athena.

 

Zoe sat near the edge of the Blessed River, listening to her sisters tell her about all that had happened since she’d died.  It had been over a year they said.  Strange, it seemed longer than that, and yet shorter at the same time.  There had been a battle for Olympus not days ago, and that was what had sent so many of them here.  She found that she wasn’t sad that so many of the huntresses had died.  They had died well, in defense of their lady and her home, and the Lady Artemis had seen to it that they had all been sent to Elysium.  Now, they were reunited, and all she could think of was how glad she was to have them here with her. 

There were many demigods arriving in Elysium as well.  They were gathered not far from where the former huntresses sat, those that had previously died, meeting those that had only just come.  It was a happy gathering, and even though they were demigods, Zoe couldn’t help but smile watching them.

Then her smile faltered.  She recognized the one that had just come.  Tall, well built, and, she had to admit, handsome, with a scar on the left side of his face.  He had been there when she died.  He was the one who had helped the Titans imprison Artemis.  He hung back from the other demigods, looking somewhat like a whipped dog that expected its master to return any moment.  When the other demigods noticed him, they all stopped speaking and a heavy silence fell.  Some turned away, walking farther into Elysium, several ignored him, and a few approached him, and spoke to him in tones too low for Zoe to hear what was said.  He looked confused, as if he couldn’t believe he was here, and wasn’t sure he’d stay.  One of the demigods seemed to be trying to convince him to go further into the realm with him.  The scarred boy refused.  Then, with all the new arrivals in, the crowd of demigods broke up, leaving only the hesitant one.

He is right to be hesitant, Zoe thought.  After what he did to the lady Artemis.  She’d heard a lot of other things he’d been doing since then as well.  Had the gods made a mistake in sending him here? 

She stood, and strode up to him.  “How, by Olympus, did you get here?”

 

“You tell him.”

“Oh no, I’m not telling him.”

“Well somebody needs to.  He’d want us to tell him.”

“Well I don’t want to be the one that has to do it.”

“Cease your bickering,” Zoe snapped, standing.  “I will tell him.”

No one said anything else as she left the building.  No one was sure how the news had come to them.  In Elysium, they only received news from the outside from newly dead souls, and they never heard anything from the other realms of the dead.  But this was big enough that somehow it had rippled through the entire underworld and gotten to them.  She wasn’t sure who had heard it first; she had learned of it from Jodi, a girl who had been a daughter of Hermes and Cabin Councilor at Camp Half-Blood before she was killed by a Cyclops.  She was the one who had called this meeting.

Zoe walked through the streets of Elysium city and out into the surrounding country.  She wasn’t sure where she would find him, but she half hoped it would take some time.  Unfortunately, it did not.  The first place she decided to look was in the large meadow, just outside of the orchard, where many of Elysium’s residents enjoyed spending time.  And there he was, sprawled in the grass under a tree, relaxing in its shade. 

Zoe took a breath and looked around.  There was no one else nearby, none that she could see at all. 

I suppose that is best, she thought, smoothing out her shirt while she tried to think of how she would begin. 

But then he saw her.  He sat up on his elbows and flashed her a grin that cut into her.  That grin that had annoyed her at first, then intrigued her, and now could melt her, and make her often solemn face return the smile.  But not this time. 

He’s happy now.  Will that make this worse or easier to bear?   She decided that it didn’t matter, this was going to be incredibly difficult either way.  You have to tell him.

She squared her shoulders and walked over to him.

“Hey,” he said, “what’s up?”  He reached up and took hold of her arm, trying to pull her down to sit next to him. 

She resisted, jerking her arm away and taking a step back. 

His expression clouded and he sat up the rest of the way.  “What’s wrong?”

Zoe took a breath, finding that she couldn’t look him in the face.  “Luke, something has happened.”

He stood, now concerned.  “What is it?”

“Annabeth,” she started, then made herself look him in the eye, trying to make her voice a little firmer.  “Annabeth fell into Tartarus.”

“What?”

“They were on a quest, and somehow she fell in through the upper world.”

He look away, his breath starting to come rapidly, and shook his head. 

Zoe took a step towards him, searching her mind for anything she could possibly say to him, anything to make this easier for him.

Then, suddenly, he turned and started to run.  Somehow, she knew what he was thinking.

“Luke no,” she said, starting to sprint after him.  “Luke, you can’t.  They won’t let you leave.”

If he heard, he wasn’t listening; he just kept running, but Zoe was a huntress, and she soon caught up to him.  She put her arms around his shoulders, across his chest, trying to hold him back.

“No, Zoe!” he said, struggling against her. “Let me go!  Let me go to her.  It should be me down there.  Not her.  Let me go.”

 His struggling weakened and he let himself fall to his knees.  Zoe tightened her arms around him as she let herself down as well, resting her cheek on his shoulder blade. 

“Let me go,” he said his voice breaking, but she could tell this time he didn’t mean it.   He went to his hands and knees, digging his fingers into the dirt, as the tears came.  Deep, gut wrenching sobs that wracked his entire body. 

Zoe found tears misting her own eyes, as she knelt there with her arms around him, shaking as he shook, her own heart breaking over his pain.  She knew how much he loved Annabeth, how much guilt he still had for the promise to her he had broken.  She wished with everything in her that there was something, anything she could say that would help him.  But she could not, so she simple remained there with him, hoping that at least her presence might be some comfort, so that at least he didn’t have to be alone in his grief.     

Under the Never Sky Trilogy

 

Under the Never Sky, by Veronica Rossi

 

 

 

This is a series I had never heard of until a professor recommended it to me a few months ago.  It has become one of my favorite contemporary young adult series, and I think other fans of The Hunger Games and Divergent will also enjoy it.

 

The story is set in the future, in a time after massive solar flares decimated earth, leaving a dangerous substance call "The Aether" as a permanent fixture in our sky.  The main character, Aria, has grown up in one of the sealed off dome cities that were founded right before the natural disaster.  Inside this shelter, Aria enjoys all the comforts of the virtual worlds that her home provides.  That is until one day an accident gets her labeled as a trouble maker, and she is kicked out into the Outside, the "Death Shop, where there are a hundred ways to die." 

 

She is found by an Outside "savage" named Peregrin, the son of a tribal leader who, as a result of genetic mutation caused by the centuries old natural disaster, has a heightened sense of sight and smell.  Thrown in together, the two of them are forced to find a way around their differences, and work together to achieve their goal to save both her people and his from the ever more dangerous Aether.

 

 

One of the things I really liked about this series, particularly the first book, is the contrast between Aria's very science fiction world and Peregrin's iron age world.  I think Rossi did a good job of building the separate cultures, and then of giving the characters very realistic biases and stereotypes against the group which was not their own.  I also like how well the tribal society of the Outside, as well as the rest of this fictional world, was thought out. 

 

Another thing I loved are the characters.  I thought everyone,  from Aria to Peregrin, to Roar, to Hess(one of the antagonists), was well developed, with a clear personality, backstory, motivation and flaws.  I like that they behave like real people and I loved watching them interact as their relationships and the storyline developed.

 

Which brings me to the third thing I enjoyed.  I thought the story was well done, and quiet interesting, taking me places that I hadn't expected to go with this series, but in good ways.  It definitely took a different spin to the young adult, futuristic dystopia.  I really enjoyed following the characters as they strove to save their people from the Aether and over all I was pleased by how everything played out. 

I will say that the last two chapters of the third book, Into the Still Blue, did feel a little rushed.  I would have liked a little more out of the last chapter especially, but other than that I don't really have any complaints.

 

I really enjoyed reading this series, and I would definitely recommend it.