The Radish

                         The Andromeda Evolution  is the second part of the book I did my last blog post on, The Andromeda Strain  by Michael Crichton .  It is set several generations after the original book, and discusses a potential re-emergence of the mysterious hexagonal shaped microorganisms that nearly caused a global crisis in the previous book (Disclaimer: as this book is the second part in one that I've already done a post on, so it will contain spoilers). Like its predecessor, this book hooks the reader on the first page and makes it difficult to put the book down. Before finding this book, I didn't think it would be possible to create one better than its prequel. I haven't finished the book yet, but from what I've read it seems like this book will not disappoint. It is exciting and enjoyable to read for many of the same reasons as The Andromeda Strain. Michael Crichton introduced ma...

  Kathryn Phillips “Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt.” Seventeen-year-old Alice Prosepine and her mother, Ella, have been living on the road their entire lives in an attempt to escape the terrible luck that seems to follow them around wherever they go. But when Alice receives a letter telling her that Alice’s estranged grandmother Althea Prosepine, the author of a famous cult-classic collection of dark fantasy stories called The Hinterland has died alone on her estate, Alice learns how bad her luck can get. After her mother mysteriously disappears, leaving behind nothing but an excerpt from The Hinterland , Alice must reluctantly team up with an Althea Prosepine superfan, Ellery Finch, and travel to her grandmother’s estate to find Ella. The two soon realize that Althea’s fairy tales might be more fact than fantasy. The main reason I loved The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert was the characters. They’re extremely well-written, with realistic aspirations, personalities, ...

    While Roadside Picnic's story and characters are extremely interesting, with the main character, Red, having significant character development as the book takes place over many years by skipping large groups of time.       Before the events of Roadside Picnic some sort of alien visitors arrive and create a large area filled with extreme dangers like slime that destroys anything it touches and an area completed destroyed by some sort of plague. However along with those dangers there are valuable artifacts like batteries that never run out and disks that can't be separated. These treasures cause scavengers called Stalkers to sneak past the guards and brave the dangers in hopes of getting fabulously rich; Red is one of these Stalkers.      What makes this setting so interesting to me is how limitless the possibilities it is. The book makes it extremely clear how only the well known parts are explored and that the closer to the cent...