review: a million suns by beth revis

Author: Beth Revis
Publication Date: 01/10/2012
Publisher: Razorbill
Pages: 387
Source: ARC

Godspeed was once fueled by lies. Now it is ruled by chaos. It’s been three months. In that time, Amy has learned to hide who she is. Elder is trying to be the leader he’s always wanted to be. But as the ship gets more and more out of control, only one thing is certain: They have to get off the ship.

Note: This summary is borrowed from Beth Revis' website, as the one available on Goodreads at the time of writing was questionable. This review will contain spoilers from Across the Universe.

Amy is the only human aboard Godspeed born on Earth. Elder is the only one among the shipborn that can lead the masses. Despite the differences between the two, they have one thing in common: figuring out what each other means, and reaching Centauri-Earth. But a ship the size of Godspeed harbors secrets, secrets that could change the very foundation for everything they've been working toward. And sometimes you don't know the answer you're looking for until you find the right questions.

It's only fair to start off by saying that while I liked Across the Universe, there were quite a few things evident that prevented me from really enjoying it. Some of these things were addressed in A Million Suns, some were not. In the former while I had difficulty wrapping my mind around the concept of Seasons, the biggest issue was the relationship between Amy and Elder, or rather, lack thereof. There was nothing given to explain any sort of attraction between the two nor why Elder would have been watching her. While there was nothing in A Million Suns that spoke on this, it almost felt that the views and information that we were getting from the two of them allowed for a more understanding perspective of their relationship. When Amy noted at one point that she wasn't sure if they were gravitating toward each other due to them being the only teenagers on the ship or out of true attraction, I found myself nodding emphatically. For the point to be acknowledged made all the difference in my being able to accept what was happening. So, while I'm not quite sure why they like each other, their being together on some level worked much better here.

My favorite part of the book is getting to figure out a mystery that we are presented with pretty early on. I hadn't any guess as to what was going on until just before it actually happened and then I found myself excited for the characters to be able to see for themselves. The part where they do is so beautifully formatted and written that I found myself smiling, trying to imagine just how it must have felt like for such a discovery. Leading up until this, and even afterwards, is the continued alternating perspective of Amy and Elder, which, personally, worked much better in espousing information in this book. Now that we have a better sense of them, it was interesting to see the decisions they made and being able to see what the other thought and their response. I think that of the two of them, I find myself liking Elder best. He's fairly level-headed and practical, but isn't afraid to do what needs to be done - but in the right manner. While Amy isn't my favorite female MC, her curiosity and intuition here serve the story well, and she and Elder balance each other out.

If you had some trouble with the first book, A Million Suns is definitely worth a second try. It tackles some issues you might have had, and presents a whole new take on Amy, Elder and the ship that is both interesting and quite addicting. I picked this book up and finished it all in the span of a few hours. While it doesn't end on a complete cliffhanger, it leaves you in a position where you wish you had the next installment in order to figure out what's going to happen.