Fire and Flood
Summary:
Fire and Flood is a pulse pumping thriller, filled with so much action and tension that we ourselves are dragged into the race, kicking and screaming as Tella powers her way through danger. Sure to be a perplexing series for years to come!
My thoughts:
First up, I stormed through Fire and Flood and seriously questioned why I hadn’t picked it up sooner.
It’s hard to believe that this little bundle of awesome-ness has been sat on my shelf for the better part of 5 months gathering dust. And now it’s firmly sat on my special favourites shelf.
I instantly connected with Tella, her sassy and sarcastic attitude was just the kick the story needed to take off before the real action began. I admired her integrity and determination given her situation and it was pretty hard not to root for this girl from the offset.
Tella’s older brother Cody has a rare incurable disease that is slowly killing him and it is heartbreaking to follow Tella’s and Cody’s strained relationship as Cody slowly deteriorates but their sibling love shines through their humorous banter. So naturally when Tella receives a mysterious device with a message telling her she has 48 hours to report to the Pandora Selection Process in order to compete in a competition called the Brimstone Bleed, she doesn’t even hesitate. As the promised prize is The Cure, something that will cure any ailment or disease. but there can only be one winner.
Tella is swiftly swept into this seemingly sci-fi world as she enters the Pandora Selection Process as possible Contenders fight each other for Eggs. These Eggs are a complete mystery until they start hatching in the first ecosystem of the race. The Pandora’s are genetically engineered animals that are created for the sole purpose of helping their Contender survive the race. The Pandoras are amazing and adorable and a brilliant addition to a story already brimming with so much character.
The Brimstone Bleed itself lasts three months and covers four different ecosystems: jungle, desert, sea and mountain. In Fire and Flood, we see the jungle and desert portions of the race and this provides an interesting change of scenery as we progress through the book, this opens up the plot to so many more weather anomalies, hazards, predators and more and ultimately sets the pace and tension for the rest of the book.
Tella makes a decisive tactic to group with other Contenders, at first following the brooding and mysterious Guy Chambers before swiftly joining a more ‘homely’ group who are all there for one reason, to obtain the Cure for their loved one. This is a great move by the author as following a young girl whinge and whine her way through the jungle can and will get very boring, very quickly but chuck in a bunch of Contenders with wildly differentiating personalities and we have diversity. Diversity creates conflict, humor, intrigue, the list is endless, but one thing it isn’t, is boring.
Fire and Flood is a fantastic mix of action, tension and imagination. A cross betweenThe Hunger Games and Pokemon/Digimon. The Plot twists are often shocking and unexpected and I personally think surprising your reader is the key to good writing, and I was well and truly surprised…and freaked in some cases and I could not stop reading.
Though the comparisons to The Hunger Games are rife, the only thing that resonates with that series is the competition itself, but even then, the Contenders aren’t made to kill each other, and most group up and help each other out which doesn’t sound very Hunger Games-y to me. I’m merely using it as a bench-mark to describe the book’s premise as a whole.
Final Thoughts:
Fire and Flood is a refreshing read in a genre that has become all too repetitive and it will definitely be my go-to recommendation for a long while.
Salt and Stone
Summary:
An adrenaline fueled sequel, more than fulfilling my expectations for this exceptionally tense tale. Each scene just gets better and better and I cannot wait for the final climax!
My thoughts:
Wow. I need more.
If you thought Fire and Flood was a thrill ride, you haven’t read nothing yet.
We start the book back at base camp before diving right in to the next segment of the race: the sea. The group take on a few new members as the team paradigm changes. There are a number of boats to choose from and our group ends up on the large pirate ship, along with the addition of a few others and their Pandoras.
As we soon find out, this is just to lull them into a false sense of security before all hell explodes and leaves them wafting through the surging ocean in nothing more than life rafts.
Each leg of the challenge brings striking new dangers but what’s worse is that in this segment is we finally see the lengths of which the Brimstone Bleed runners will go to. They not only plan obstacles to pit Contender against Contender but they also rig those same challenges to make things even more difficult. With this in mind, it’s only a matter of time before the groups are fighting tooth and nail with each other.
After the ocean segment, we move to the mountains, brimming with it’s icy fury where the most obvious route isn’t always the right one. As we see in this segment, there is more than one way to trick our ambitious Contenders.
In the final chapters we see another side of the race, the final tests of dexterity, stamina and logic to be completed with the aid of Pandoras, and this little additional extra is heart-breaking and we barely get time to recover before we are lead behind the scenes and then left hanging. The answers we so desperately seek being held back, cruelly but intelligently, until the next book.
In Salt and Stone, we see Tella’s relationship with the Pandoras grow more profound, even to the point where she seemingly adopts those who have lost their Contenders, such as AK-7, the bear from Fire and Flood, who she quickly dubs Monster. I really love how passionate Tella is towards the Pandoras and we start to see how they in turn are drawn to her, in one particularly interesting stand-off.
In Salt and Stone we see an interesting development in our main protagonist Tella. In the first book, she was very lost, uncoordinated and happy to follow those that knew what they were doing. In particular Guy, who becomes the unofficial leader of the group and also seems to have a soft spot for Tella. But Tella has grown a hell of a lot since we first saw her six weeks ago and she finally takes the step to standing on her own two feet. Guy struggles to see her as an equal through his affections but he eventually allows Tella to make her own decisions and take care of herself.
It was interesting to see a character that was so conflicted between earning Guy’s affections and earning her independence and to see a character who seamlessly manages to achieve both is inspiring. It’s infuriating at times to see a character that is constantly the damsel in distress and the guy is always saving her ass but Tella saves the day more than once with her rational thinking over Guy’s. And none of this takes away from the romance sparking between the two, if anything, I thought it amplified the heartfelt scenes they did have together!
Final Thoughts:
Salt and Stone is one of the few books that didn’t fall victim to the second book slump and with good reason. Loaded with even more action, tension and plot twists than ever before, the pace never lets up, leaving you gasping for breath at the cusp of each chapter.
It’s hard not to fall in love with Victoria Scott’s world all over again. Each scene pulls you another inch off your seat until the final few pages where everything comes crashing together. You will laugh, you will cry and you will scream as Tella and the group are thrown into the claws of danger and be warned, not everyone comes out unscathed.
I for one, cannot wait for the next book and I’m eager to see what will happen beyond the confines of the Brimstone Bleed but one thing is for certain, Victoria Scott will certainly be one of my must read authors from here on out.
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