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Paradigm
"If I ask you to do something, will you do it?"
"Maybe."
"Maybe?"
"Well, I don't know what it is yet. But I'm guessing that death is the alternative, so I'm prepared to be reasonable." Sam Cooper is seventeen. He drives a cherry red 1968 GTO that he won on a bet, and spends his days exploring the open roads of the great American West. He should be living the teenage dream, but post-collapse America is a hard place to survive.
The United States is long dead, basic resources are getting scarcer, and no one on Earth has seen the stars since before he was born. Vast tracts of the country are now empty as people huddle together for safety. In all this chaos, Sam has survived on his wits and occasional luck. But a visit to the walled and prosperous Century City results in a split-second decision that changes everything. Soon Sam is on the run from the ruthless Carolyn Bast, and by something much more dangerous: MUTHA-a powerful artificial entity that has been watching and waiting for Sam's return from the barren outlands. Sam unknowingly carries the key to something MUTHA can't live without, something so dangerous that others are willing to kill him, or worse, to ensure that the great plex never possesses it.
Sam can't stay one step ahead of them forever. His only hope is to unravel the secrets of his peculiar past and awaken the incredible power that sleeps within-because even in his beloved GTO, without the truth, Sam will never succeed in outracing the nightmare to come.
"Maybe."
"Maybe?"
"Well, I don't know what it is yet. But I'm guessing that death is the alternative, so I'm prepared to be reasonable." Sam Cooper is seventeen. He drives a cherry red 1968 GTO that he won on a bet, and spends his days exploring the open roads of the great American West. He should be living the teenage dream, but post-collapse America is a hard place to survive.
The United States is long dead, basic resources are getting scarcer, and no one on Earth has seen the stars since before he was born. Vast tracts of the country are now empty as people huddle together for safety. In all this chaos, Sam has survived on his wits and occasional luck. But a visit to the walled and prosperous Century City results in a split-second decision that changes everything. Soon Sam is on the run from the ruthless Carolyn Bast, and by something much more dangerous: MUTHA-a powerful artificial entity that has been watching and waiting for Sam's return from the barren outlands. Sam unknowingly carries the key to something MUTHA can't live without, something so dangerous that others are willing to kill him, or worse, to ensure that the great plex never possesses it.
Sam can't stay one step ahead of them forever. His only hope is to unravel the secrets of his peculiar past and awaken the incredible power that sleeps within-because even in his beloved GTO, without the truth, Sam will never succeed in outracing the nightmare to come.
396 pages, Paperback
First published June 21, 2013
6 people are currently reading
488 people want to read
About the author
Helen Stringer
16 books83 followersHelen Stringer is the author of the middle grade fantasy novels Spellbinder (UK title: The Last Ghost) and The Midnight Gate, as well as the novelette The Blood Binding. Her most recent novel, Paradigm, is a fast moving scifi adventure set in the not too distant future. Helen was born in Liverpool, England, and now lives in a barn in Northern California, where she reads, writes, and looks after an embarrassing number of cats.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
August 8, 2013
Actual rating: 1.5
Recommended: for people with Botox injections, specifically on their forehead and around their naso-labial lines. I wish I could have sent the publisher a bill for such treatments before I started reading this book, because now I fear I have prematurely permanent creases on my face from hours of going "whaaaaaa?"
In some writing classes, the professor might assign certain exercises to get the creative juices flowing. One such exercise would be to throw random subjects and phrases into a hat, have the students draw several topics from it, and build a story around it. That's the best way I can describe this book, because much of it made about as much sense and ultimately left me slack-jawed with wonderment because shit was so random. This is not going to be one of my better reviews, this is going to be a confusing, muddled mess of a write-up because I absolutely cannot sort out the mess that is this book so that I can formulate a decently coherent and organized criticism. I'm going to be rambling and ranting all over the damn place.
I make notes when I read; I write down confusing terms, significant passages, important characters, etc. I had 5 solid pages of notes written down for this book by the time I hit the halfway point because there was so much terminology and new concepts thrown at me. As I grew frustrated with the lack of plot progression and comprehension, I stopped reading to reread my notes, then realized that I still can't understand a damn thing...because not even my notes made sense. Then I just gave up taking notes altogether, gritted my teeth, and finished off this book the way one would quickly swallow a tablespoon of Robitussin. It had to be done, but it sure as hell was unpleasant. This book has been the most frustrating one I can remember reading in terms of readability; as for enjoyment, just forget it. I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who will find the premise of this book fascinating, the writing spectacular, the characters intriguing. I'm just not one of them.
Usually dystopian books are written around a message, a theme. Something simple, like "it's wrong to play god," "zombies are people, too," "don't eat tapeworms, they'll take over your head." I think this book was trying to send a lot of messages about society in general, about technology, about the destruction of giving too much information and too much power to the wrong person or machine. It's an ambitious endeavor but it didn't work for me. The messages and themes, if any were intended, were absolutely lost in translation because of how poorly written and constructed this book was, overall.
Spaghetti Western
Tibetan monks in saffron robes
MUTHA (Molecular Universal Tertiary Hyperspatial Analogicon)
Muthaboard. Muthascreen
An evil, beautiful, ice-cold blonde ex-military mercenary and/or conglomerate
D.E.T.H. Inc. (Devastation Engineering & Tactical Havoc)
Divigends
Hyperspatial plex
Hermes Manufacturing Industries
A black poncho-wearing assassin girl of "sixteen summers" of the mystical, fierce Hakkadun, some branch of a New Zealand Maori tribe
The Last Generation
Like the sound of that? You might find it intriguing. You might be more wrong than you ever have been in your life. You know what this book needs? A freaking glossary. Don't get me wrong, I love world building, I love figuring things out for myself, I appreciate the fact that the author trusts in my intelligence enough to not spoon-feed me information, and instead glean out information on my own as the book progresses. This sort of gradual world building, vocabulary-building, lingo-creation works in some books, it did not here. I found myself absolutely confused because the terminology is shot out of nowhere, without clues as to what they were. The problem, of sorts, is the narrator. Sam is a smart guy, he's very knowledgeable about the secrecy of all these corporations and their secret projects, due to his scientist parents and their work as researchers within Hermes Industries. He may understand them. He may know what a probe, what the effects of C.L. Primos entails, who Chen and Shanti Ghara is, how the Four Collapses of society happened, but you know what? Like a know-it-all, self-absorbed teenager that he is, Sam is very stringent with his information, and by the time events and history are halfheartedly explained to us, I had already lost my patience with this book about 150 pages ago.
The setting is the future United States. The skies are not blue anymore, but yellow. There are no stars visible in the sky. There are privileged people living in the big cities, but those are rare. It seems that the people living in the cities lead much of the same lifestyle that we do now, but the atmosphere and environment is not well-described enough for me to get an actual sense of what it is like. All I know from the book is that the cities are clean, bright, and must be self-sustaining. People not so privileged live on the outskirts of town, they are the poor, miserable Outsiders just trying to subsist. Even worse off are people living in the completely uncivilized Wilds. There are scavengers and Rovers driving around terrorizing, raping, pillaging (surprising that they drive, since gas is a rarity. Sam can barely find the gas to power his stupid little muscle car). For some reason, despite the lack of resources, and the Wild West atmosphere, there are still convenience stores lying around...it's not a huge detail, but one of the niggling details that bothered me about the setting of this book.
The main plotline in the book is that of Sam trying to discover who and what he is, and find out the great mystery of MUTHA. That's the short summary, for me to actually sum up all the events and places and things that actually happened to get to that final mission would be to get from A to Z, with stops at B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, etc. along the way. And not necessarily in that order. The events in this book do not flow, they do not make sense, the writing is lacking in quality, and the plot is all over the place. As an example of the stellar quality of the writing, let me present you with an actual analogy used in the book: his attitude is so stiff, it could have been a metal bar.
The characters are haphazard and inconsistent. Sam frustrated me to no end, the book is narrated not in first person, but from his point of view, and I hated it. His common sense and decision-making process is flawed, his thought processes may make sense to him and to the author, who knows his character inside and out, but for me, I could not get into his head and foresee what the fuck he was going to do next at all. If you like a guessing game, be my guest, but I like a little bit of rationality from my characters, and Sam just didn't cut it for me.
His behavior aside, the things that happen to him are too coincidental to be believable. More than once, he gets into impossible and improbably situations, and almost every time, it feels like deus ex machina is used. For those unfamiliar with the term, here is the Wikipedia definition:
Sam gets into convenient situations that move the plot along too easily to be believable. There's a degree of suspension of disbelief, and mine was exhausted very early on in the book. Take this example, Sam encounters a dying old man in a random alley in a city where he just entered the previous day, only to have the man hand him the device that's the key to what he's been searching for in his quest to find the truth about MUTHA. This happens very early on in the book, and is not a spoiler, by the way. The events in this book are simply implausible.
For example: the Paradigm Device. In the hands of the monks. In TIBET. From San Francisco.
Sam is also contrary in his actions vs. actual thoughts; in short, he's fairly stupid at times. He's supposed to be savvy, intelligent, knowledgeable. You might buy it, considering he's been on his own for a long time, and alone in the dangerous Wilds of the future dystopian United States, no less. His actions during the length of the book do not reinforce his alleged street-smarts at all. He trusts people again and again whom he inwardly feels he shouldn't...it's like, someone who says, oh, I know I shouldn't go back to my abusive boyfriend because I know he'll hurt me again, but I'll do it anyway. That's a rather reprehensible comparison, to be honest, I don't mean to make light of domestic abuse at all, but Sam's decision to trust certain people, despite fully knowing better, is so utterly ridiculous.
The romance...I was wrong to think there wouldn't be romance. It's almost insta-love as Sam is super-impressed with the ninja-girl stalking out of the shadows to kick a bunch of grown men's asses (I'm not kidding here). He, again, implausibly runs into Alma again and again, and moons over her in the most idiotic way. The romance feels completely forced on us, and is completely unnecessary as far as the plot goes.
I would say you can skip the first half of this book, and you would not miss much. I wish I did, the plot really did not pick up until the second half, and it would have saved me a lot of frustration and confusion from the random tossing-about of terminology that never got fully explained until much later on in the book. I also felt the cast of characters was unnecessarily large, and that's not usually a cause for complaint for me, but I felt the majority of the characters presented didn't contribute anything significant to the plot, and are therefore unworthy of the amount of memory space they took up in my brain during the arduous task of reading this book.
Actually, I could say the same about the entire book. It's not worth the amount of information it's taking up in my head.
An ARC of this book was provided to me by Netgalley.
Recommended: for people with Botox injections, specifically on their forehead and around their naso-labial lines. I wish I could have sent the publisher a bill for such treatments before I started reading this book, because now I fear I have prematurely permanent creases on my face from hours of going "whaaaaaa?"
In some writing classes, the professor might assign certain exercises to get the creative juices flowing. One such exercise would be to throw random subjects and phrases into a hat, have the students draw several topics from it, and build a story around it. That's the best way I can describe this book, because much of it made about as much sense and ultimately left me slack-jawed with wonderment because shit was so random. This is not going to be one of my better reviews, this is going to be a confusing, muddled mess of a write-up because I absolutely cannot sort out the mess that is this book so that I can formulate a decently coherent and organized criticism. I'm going to be rambling and ranting all over the damn place.
I make notes when I read; I write down confusing terms, significant passages, important characters, etc. I had 5 solid pages of notes written down for this book by the time I hit the halfway point because there was so much terminology and new concepts thrown at me. As I grew frustrated with the lack of plot progression and comprehension, I stopped reading to reread my notes, then realized that I still can't understand a damn thing...because not even my notes made sense. Then I just gave up taking notes altogether, gritted my teeth, and finished off this book the way one would quickly swallow a tablespoon of Robitussin. It had to be done, but it sure as hell was unpleasant. This book has been the most frustrating one I can remember reading in terms of readability; as for enjoyment, just forget it. I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who will find the premise of this book fascinating, the writing spectacular, the characters intriguing. I'm just not one of them.
Usually dystopian books are written around a message, a theme. Something simple, like "it's wrong to play god," "zombies are people, too," "don't eat tapeworms, they'll take over your head." I think this book was trying to send a lot of messages about society in general, about technology, about the destruction of giving too much information and too much power to the wrong person or machine. It's an ambitious endeavor but it didn't work for me. The messages and themes, if any were intended, were absolutely lost in translation because of how poorly written and constructed this book was, overall.
Spaghetti Western
Tibetan monks in saffron robes
MUTHA (Molecular Universal Tertiary Hyperspatial Analogicon)
Muthaboard. Muthascreen
An evil, beautiful, ice-cold blonde ex-military mercenary and/or conglomerate
D.E.T.H. Inc. (Devastation Engineering & Tactical Havoc)
Divigends
Hyperspatial plex
Hermes Manufacturing Industries
A black poncho-wearing assassin girl of "sixteen summers" of the mystical, fierce Hakkadun, some branch of a New Zealand Maori tribe
The Last Generation
Like the sound of that? You might find it intriguing. You might be more wrong than you ever have been in your life. You know what this book needs? A freaking glossary. Don't get me wrong, I love world building, I love figuring things out for myself, I appreciate the fact that the author trusts in my intelligence enough to not spoon-feed me information, and instead glean out information on my own as the book progresses. This sort of gradual world building, vocabulary-building, lingo-creation works in some books, it did not here. I found myself absolutely confused because the terminology is shot out of nowhere, without clues as to what they were. The problem, of sorts, is the narrator. Sam is a smart guy, he's very knowledgeable about the secrecy of all these corporations and their secret projects, due to his scientist parents and their work as researchers within Hermes Industries. He may understand them. He may know what a probe, what the effects of C.L. Primos entails, who Chen and Shanti Ghara is, how the Four Collapses of society happened, but you know what? Like a know-it-all, self-absorbed teenager that he is, Sam is very stringent with his information, and by the time events and history are halfheartedly explained to us, I had already lost my patience with this book about 150 pages ago.
The setting is the future United States. The skies are not blue anymore, but yellow. There are no stars visible in the sky. There are privileged people living in the big cities, but those are rare. It seems that the people living in the cities lead much of the same lifestyle that we do now, but the atmosphere and environment is not well-described enough for me to get an actual sense of what it is like. All I know from the book is that the cities are clean, bright, and must be self-sustaining. People not so privileged live on the outskirts of town, they are the poor, miserable Outsiders just trying to subsist. Even worse off are people living in the completely uncivilized Wilds. There are scavengers and Rovers driving around terrorizing, raping, pillaging (surprising that they drive, since gas is a rarity. Sam can barely find the gas to power his stupid little muscle car). For some reason, despite the lack of resources, and the Wild West atmosphere, there are still convenience stores lying around...it's not a huge detail, but one of the niggling details that bothered me about the setting of this book.
The main plotline in the book is that of Sam trying to discover who and what he is, and find out the great mystery of MUTHA. That's the short summary, for me to actually sum up all the events and places and things that actually happened to get to that final mission would be to get from A to Z, with stops at B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, etc. along the way. And not necessarily in that order. The events in this book do not flow, they do not make sense, the writing is lacking in quality, and the plot is all over the place. As an example of the stellar quality of the writing, let me present you with an actual analogy used in the book: his attitude is so stiff, it could have been a metal bar.
The characters are haphazard and inconsistent. Sam frustrated me to no end, the book is narrated not in first person, but from his point of view, and I hated it. His common sense and decision-making process is flawed, his thought processes may make sense to him and to the author, who knows his character inside and out, but for me, I could not get into his head and foresee what the fuck he was going to do next at all. If you like a guessing game, be my guest, but I like a little bit of rationality from my characters, and Sam just didn't cut it for me.
His behavior aside, the things that happen to him are too coincidental to be believable. More than once, he gets into impossible and improbably situations, and almost every time, it feels like deus ex machina is used. For those unfamiliar with the term, here is the Wikipedia definition:
"a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem is suddenly and abruptly resolved, with the contrived and unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability, or object."
Sam gets into convenient situations that move the plot along too easily to be believable. There's a degree of suspension of disbelief, and mine was exhausted very early on in the book. Take this example, Sam encounters a dying old man in a random alley in a city where he just entered the previous day, only to have the man hand him the device that's the key to what he's been searching for in his quest to find the truth about MUTHA. This happens very early on in the book, and is not a spoiler, by the way. The events in this book are simply implausible.
For example: the Paradigm Device. In the hands of the monks. In TIBET. From San Francisco.
Sam is also contrary in his actions vs. actual thoughts; in short, he's fairly stupid at times. He's supposed to be savvy, intelligent, knowledgeable. You might buy it, considering he's been on his own for a long time, and alone in the dangerous Wilds of the future dystopian United States, no less. His actions during the length of the book do not reinforce his alleged street-smarts at all. He trusts people again and again whom he inwardly feels he shouldn't...it's like, someone who says, oh, I know I shouldn't go back to my abusive boyfriend because I know he'll hurt me again, but I'll do it anyway. That's a rather reprehensible comparison, to be honest, I don't mean to make light of domestic abuse at all, but Sam's decision to trust certain people, despite fully knowing better, is so utterly ridiculous.
The romance...I was wrong to think there wouldn't be romance. It's almost insta-love as Sam is super-impressed with the ninja-girl stalking out of the shadows to kick a bunch of grown men's asses (I'm not kidding here). He, again, implausibly runs into Alma again and again, and moons over her in the most idiotic way. The romance feels completely forced on us, and is completely unnecessary as far as the plot goes.
I would say you can skip the first half of this book, and you would not miss much. I wish I did, the plot really did not pick up until the second half, and it would have saved me a lot of frustration and confusion from the random tossing-about of terminology that never got fully explained until much later on in the book. I also felt the cast of characters was unnecessarily large, and that's not usually a cause for complaint for me, but I felt the majority of the characters presented didn't contribute anything significant to the plot, and are therefore unworthy of the amount of memory space they took up in my brain during the arduous task of reading this book.
Actually, I could say the same about the entire book. It's not worth the amount of information it's taking up in my head.
An ARC of this book was provided to me by Netgalley.
August 7, 2013
It's really ridiculous how difficult it was to get through "Paradigm", but nonetheless, I survived the journey. Oddly, I don't feel like I came out of this read feeling anything for the characters, scenarios, or really anything in it. It was a disjointed dystopian tale that had very little directive or focus to it in the beginning, muddled its way through the middle, and even when events started picking up in the latter third of the tale, I didn't come out of the experience thinking about the story, its respective world or realm, nor did I particularly enjoy this read at all.
Matter in point, I'm having a very difficult time trying to think of ways to summarize this novel, because the vast majority of this work was meandering and overwrought. The only important point to the prologue was the reveal of a key, and despite an action sequence that involved monks being murdered, there's very little intrigue to be had in the events because there's a clinical disconnect. Fast forward to the actual story, and we see two teens - Sam and Nathan - as traveling companions. Quite a few terms are thrown around like MUTHA, and don't expect them to be explained until a good 2/3rds into the book. This book had a serious case of T.M.U.T - or Too Many Unexplained (or Underused) Terminologies. I hated that because it's not as if the story needed to have them - they felt like they were just thrown in to "sound" smart or sci-fi based. Most of the terms had really little to no function in the story and felt frustrating to meander through.
There were times when I thought this story tried to poke fun at itself and with the overarching cast, but for the most part, the humor fell flat in its delivery, because it was either forced or rather obvious in factors delivered in the story. The characters themselves were difficult to follow in their respective motivations. Sam felt like a robot with little sentience, Alma was just a cool character stereotype who served as a loose love interest and showed up at the most convenient times. Nathan was okay, and the twist involving him later in the story could've been much more if the narrative didn't feel so disjointed, and if his character hadn't stayed out of play for as long as he did. The other characters I couldn't really care less about, including the rather bland villains.
If you want a brief summary of this novel, here it is: Sam and Nathan travel across the country in a dystopian U.S in a 1967 GTO. Sam comes across a device that's sought after by unruly parties, which has to do with a sentient programming entity called MUTHA (why MUTHA's role wasn't defined far earlier in the story - I have no idea. I felt cheated once I figured out it was part of an experimentation involving humans, computational systems and DNA, because that could've been developed and vetted throughout the narrative much sooner). Ultimately, Sam comes across many odd characters in the chase for the "Paradigm", but learns he has more of a connection to the device and MUTHA than he bargained for.
That sounds simple in respective thematic, but with the complicated way this story was told and how it wanders in many places with nothing happening and the narrative dragging its heels with the dry prose, I could see people having a very hard time maintaining interest in this novel in order to get to the parts where the explanations click into place. I think the only reason why this isn't getting a 1-star rating from me is because it's not the worst narrative I've read. But honestly, I wouldn't recommend it for a YA sci-fi read. It was quite underwhelming.
Overall score: 1.5/5 stars
Note: I received this as an ARC from NetGalley, from the publisher Mediadrome Press.
Matter in point, I'm having a very difficult time trying to think of ways to summarize this novel, because the vast majority of this work was meandering and overwrought. The only important point to the prologue was the reveal of a key, and despite an action sequence that involved monks being murdered, there's very little intrigue to be had in the events because there's a clinical disconnect. Fast forward to the actual story, and we see two teens - Sam and Nathan - as traveling companions. Quite a few terms are thrown around like MUTHA, and don't expect them to be explained until a good 2/3rds into the book. This book had a serious case of T.M.U.T - or Too Many Unexplained (or Underused) Terminologies. I hated that because it's not as if the story needed to have them - they felt like they were just thrown in to "sound" smart or sci-fi based. Most of the terms had really little to no function in the story and felt frustrating to meander through.
There were times when I thought this story tried to poke fun at itself and with the overarching cast, but for the most part, the humor fell flat in its delivery, because it was either forced or rather obvious in factors delivered in the story. The characters themselves were difficult to follow in their respective motivations. Sam felt like a robot with little sentience, Alma was just a cool character stereotype who served as a loose love interest and showed up at the most convenient times. Nathan was okay, and the twist involving him later in the story could've been much more if the narrative didn't feel so disjointed, and if his character hadn't stayed out of play for as long as he did. The other characters I couldn't really care less about, including the rather bland villains.
If you want a brief summary of this novel, here it is: Sam and Nathan travel across the country in a dystopian U.S in a 1967 GTO. Sam comes across a device that's sought after by unruly parties, which has to do with a sentient programming entity called MUTHA (why MUTHA's role wasn't defined far earlier in the story - I have no idea. I felt cheated once I figured out it was part of an experimentation involving humans, computational systems and DNA, because that could've been developed and vetted throughout the narrative much sooner). Ultimately, Sam comes across many odd characters in the chase for the "Paradigm", but learns he has more of a connection to the device and MUTHA than he bargained for.
That sounds simple in respective thematic, but with the complicated way this story was told and how it wanders in many places with nothing happening and the narrative dragging its heels with the dry prose, I could see people having a very hard time maintaining interest in this novel in order to get to the parts where the explanations click into place. I think the only reason why this isn't getting a 1-star rating from me is because it's not the worst narrative I've read. But honestly, I wouldn't recommend it for a YA sci-fi read. It was quite underwhelming.
Overall score: 1.5/5 stars
Note: I received this as an ARC from NetGalley, from the publisher Mediadrome Press.
September 1, 2013
I won a copy on Goodreads Firstreads.
Sam Cooper and his friend Nathan drive around the country in a 1968 cherry red GTO. The world is in bad shape. After multiple economic collapses and natural disasters, the United States is no more. Most people live a bare existence life. The skies have turned yellow, no one has seen the stars for decades, and large tracks of land are barren and water is often toxic.
Sam usually sticks to the Wilds (the scarcely populated areas). But when Nathan convinces him to go to one of the walled (and more prosperous) cities, everything chases with one split-second decision. Suddenly Sam and Nathan find themselves on the run from the leader of a group of mercenaries and a group of scientists who have secret plans for Sam. Never knowing whom he can trust, Sam encounters many deadly and helpful characters as he runs for his very life. On top of all of that there is MUTHA, the powerful artificial entity that has been waiting and watching for Sam to return from the barren wastelands.
In a lot of dystopian novels, the story revolves around some of the few surviviors of some great cataclysm that destroyed almost everything. In Paradigm, it is more like a chain of dominoes falling one by one leading to the end. There are economic factors mentioned including many that are occuring now. Out of control pollution and scientific research have also played a hand. Finally overuse of natural resources and natural catasphores have hit . This scenario is much more believable than a single cause for humanity's downfall.
The characters are great. The characters have real-life strengths and weaknesses that help to define them. You don't see cookie cutter heroes and villians who never seem to think about what they are doing. In fact characters can change from villian to hero or hero to villian.
There is a nice flow to the story with a well-balanced mix of action and drama. The story will pull you along and make you want to keep reading.
A good recommendation for fans of many genres. Action, dystopia, young adult, sci-fi, suspense fans could all be drawn to this story. This is a stand alone story but I can easily see more stories to come.
Sam Cooper and his friend Nathan drive around the country in a 1968 cherry red GTO. The world is in bad shape. After multiple economic collapses and natural disasters, the United States is no more. Most people live a bare existence life. The skies have turned yellow, no one has seen the stars for decades, and large tracks of land are barren and water is often toxic.
Sam usually sticks to the Wilds (the scarcely populated areas). But when Nathan convinces him to go to one of the walled (and more prosperous) cities, everything chases with one split-second decision. Suddenly Sam and Nathan find themselves on the run from the leader of a group of mercenaries and a group of scientists who have secret plans for Sam. Never knowing whom he can trust, Sam encounters many deadly and helpful characters as he runs for his very life. On top of all of that there is MUTHA, the powerful artificial entity that has been waiting and watching for Sam to return from the barren wastelands.
In a lot of dystopian novels, the story revolves around some of the few surviviors of some great cataclysm that destroyed almost everything. In Paradigm, it is more like a chain of dominoes falling one by one leading to the end. There are economic factors mentioned including many that are occuring now. Out of control pollution and scientific research have also played a hand. Finally overuse of natural resources and natural catasphores have hit . This scenario is much more believable than a single cause for humanity's downfall.
The characters are great. The characters have real-life strengths and weaknesses that help to define them. You don't see cookie cutter heroes and villians who never seem to think about what they are doing. In fact characters can change from villian to hero or hero to villian.
There is a nice flow to the story with a well-balanced mix of action and drama. The story will pull you along and make you want to keep reading.
A good recommendation for fans of many genres. Action, dystopia, young adult, sci-fi, suspense fans could all be drawn to this story. This is a stand alone story but I can easily see more stories to come.
July 5, 2021
I'm not sure if my disappointment is from being burned out on dystopian fiction (pandemic blues maybe?) or if this one just wasn't for me. I wasn't really feeling the story and I really struggled to feel pulled in.
October 1, 2013
2.5 stars
arc provided by Mediadrome Press through netgalley
Incredibly disjointed.
I appreciate it when an author doesn't dumb things down for the reader, but what happened here is that the reader is "dropped" into a series of very confusing situations, and while they do start to kind of make sense near the end (which makes for an incredibly frustrating reading experience), the book lacks direction, it attempts too many things without successfully achieving them.
There are too many new concepts being thrown at the reader without prompt explanation, for instance:
"“What are those?”
“Digivends,” said Nathan, matter-of-factly. “Awful things.”
Sam stopped the car so a woman carrying a baby could cross the street, and as he moved slowly forward again he noticed a boy walking up to the nearest box. Sam watched with interest as he dropped some coins in a slot on the side.
“What’s a—”
He never finished the question."
And when they're explained:
"“What…” he whispered, still hardly able to form sentences. “What is a digivend?”
“Another winner from Hermes Industries,” said Nathan. “A few coins and you get a hit of the plex.”
“The plex? They’re accessing the hyperspatial plex? Why?”
“Feels good, I guess.”
“They don’t look like they feel good.”
“No, well, it kinda fries the brain after a while. Leaves a craving, though.”"
They're not really explained. This book needed a glossary.
The world building had more than just a few contradictions, and the plot was riddled with plot holes.
I really liked Alma and Nathan - Sam not so much, which, considering he's the main character, was a bit of a problem. But he always had a snarky quip at the ready - and he's really not as funny as I suppose he was intended to be. His character was also somewhat inconsistent. While I liked Alma, her appearances were always too convenient, and to be honest, I didn't feel the romance at all.
But it was entertaining, so if you're willing to overlook some randomness and confusion, give it a go.
January 23, 2016
Book Info
Paperback, 396 pages
Published July 13th 2013 by Mediadrome Press
original title Paradigm
ISBN 1482346540 (ISBN13: 9781482346541)
edition language English
other editions None found
Source:Netgalley EARC
Book Buy Links
AMAZON
B&N
BOOK SYNOPSIS
"If I ask you to do something, will you do it?"
"Maybe."
"Maybe?"
"Well, I don't know what it is yet. But I'm guessing that death is the alternative, so I'm prepared to be reasonable." Sam Cooper is seventeen. He drives a cherry red 1968 GTO that he won on a bet, and spends his days exploring the open roads of the great American West. He should be living the teenage dream, but post-collapse America is a hard place to survive.
The United States is long dead, basic resources are getting scarcer, and no one on Earth has seen the stars since before he was born. Vast tracts of the country are now empty as people huddle together for safety. In all this chaos, Sam has survived on his wits and occasional luck. But a visit to the walled and prosperous Century City results in a split-second decision that changes everything. Soon Sam is on the run from the ruthless Carolyn Bast, and by something much more dangerous: MUTHA-a powerful artificial entity that has been watching and waiting for Sam's return from the barren outlands. Sam unknowingly carries the key to something MUTHA can't live without, something so dangerous that others are willing to kill him, or worse, to ensure that the great plex never possesses it.
Sam can't stay one step ahead of them forever. His only hope is to unravel the secrets of his peculiar past and awaken the incredible power that sleeps within-because even in his beloved GTO, without the truth, Sam will never succeed in outracing the nightmare to come.
My Thoughts
Who can resist a road trip in a futuristic environment taken for the most part in a cherry red 1968 GTO? Not me! Thank you to goodreads member and avid fellow reader Denise Zaky for cluing me in that this was an available to read on Netgalley because I very much enjoyed meeting Sam, Alma, Nathan, Vincent and the rest of the characters who inhabited "post-collapse America" as envisioned by author Helen Stringer.
For me this story combines the world inhabited to a degree by Mad Max, the scavenging, the lack of proper amenities, the power hungry who think that this new United States is theirs for the taking and it also combines the sci-fi technologically advanced world of The Terminator franchise in the sentient AI MUTHA. Both of these story lines center on one main male character being the hero that everyone gravitates to and whose ability to overcome overwhelming odds time and again is in some part due to skill but also due to help at critical times.
Sam Cooper is a bit different it is true, his abilities are not those of your average human thanks to an experiment before he was born, but he is no less compelling of a character than that of Max or the younger John Connor.
The world gave me shivers, even though it came across as a bit more civilized in some areas in others Sam really had to watch his back. The action was fairly quickly paced, the secrets revealed about Sam's origins were telegraphed well ahead of when they were let out but still hit hard when the reader was privy to his reactions, the characters all "fit" their individual roles quite well as I bonded emotionally fairly quickly with Sam and Alma and I grew to detest and abhor just as quickly the character of Carolyn Bast.
This is so much more than a teenage boy wandering around in his car, it is a story with heart and hope and courage that lifts you up as you become more and more involved with what is happening. I could have happily stuck around with Sam a lot longer but unfortunately like everything good the book came to an end!
[EArc from Netgalley in exchange for honest review]
October 12, 2016
There are so many things to love about this book. First of all, Sam is a fantastic main character. He is a teenage boy with interesting abilities, but one who still mostly thinks and acts like a teenage boy. He is a guy that most guys will relate to and most girls will halfway fall in love with. Plus he drives a really cool car.
Another thing to love? Helen has avoided the stereotypical love triangle that is so prevalent in YA lit. That isn’t to say there isn’t an element of romance in the book, but the triangle is absent, which is a HUGE plus for me. Also, the book stands perfectly well on its own. I would LOVE to read a sequel, to find out what happens to Sam next, but a sequel is not necessary. Too many times, I feel like authors kind of force readers into reading their next book by not really ending the last one. I HATE that kind of cliff-hanger. Make me love the characters, hook me with the plot, create a world I can see and feel and touch in my mind, and I will want to read the next book – you don’t have to manipulate me into it. And Helen has done that – I loved the world-building, the plot was a page-turner, the characters are fantastic.
Another thing to love? Helen has avoided the stereotypical love triangle that is so prevalent in YA lit. That isn’t to say there isn’t an element of romance in the book, but the triangle is absent, which is a HUGE plus for me. Also, the book stands perfectly well on its own. I would LOVE to read a sequel, to find out what happens to Sam next, but a sequel is not necessary. Too many times, I feel like authors kind of force readers into reading their next book by not really ending the last one. I HATE that kind of cliff-hanger. Make me love the characters, hook me with the plot, create a world I can see and feel and touch in my mind, and I will want to read the next book – you don’t have to manipulate me into it. And Helen has done that – I loved the world-building, the plot was a page-turner, the characters are fantastic.
August 22, 2014
2 stars
Enjoyable but full of flaws, Paradigm is bound to have legions of readers falling down the giant plot holes that pop up throughout the entire novel and reemerge more confused than ever.Because nearly every goddamn revelation comes with a ton illogical crap that with even the slightest thought unravels completely.But thankfully after a 11 hour flight I wasn't up to using a smidgen of logic so I found this book fun and a nice way to pass time in a plane with a broken AC who stayed on the tarmac for an hour before lifting off.
Sam was enjoyable.The girl who's name I've forgotten was fun to read despite not being particularly rounded.I loved the car.Wished there was more experiments and less running around but whatever.
I guess there isn't much to be said about this book other than the basics.So if you do plan on reading it try to find that off switch for your brain.
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC
Enjoyable but full of flaws, Paradigm is bound to have legions of readers falling down the giant plot holes that pop up throughout the entire novel and reemerge more confused than ever.Because nearly every goddamn revelation comes with a ton illogical crap that with even the slightest thought unravels completely.But thankfully after a 11 hour flight I wasn't up to using a smidgen of logic so I found this book fun and a nice way to pass time in a plane with a broken AC who stayed on the tarmac for an hour before lifting off.
Sam was enjoyable.The girl who's name I've forgotten was fun to read despite not being particularly rounded.I loved the car.Wished there was more experiments and less running around but whatever.
I guess there isn't much to be said about this book other than the basics.So if you do plan on reading it try to find that off switch for your brain.
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC
July 12, 2021
In a fully established yet still broken down post apocalyptic world, Sam has been alone for a long time. Full of gut wrenching action and badass characters, this book easily became my new favourite. Very different beginnings and endings, the story is seamlessly blended in the middle. If you like post apocalyptic, young adult, science fiction books, this might be just what you need to pick up next.
Check out my full review here!
https://radioactivebookreviews.wordpr...
Check out my full review here!
https://radioactivebookreviews.wordpr...
October 23, 2013
(I got this book from NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.)
This novel range from "okay" to "I like it". It is interspersed with good ideas and easily recognisable characters, and although some of the latter are a little bit on the cliché side, they still manage to stand on their own. (And let's be honest: at some point, I do want clichés. I do want to picture the badass poncho-wearing girl slashing at enemies with knives in her hands and razor-blades woven in her braids. In fact, the illustrator in me wants to draw that.)
The villains were a little over the top at times, but I liked that they were also chessmasters, laying plans within plans within plans. Too often in books, I find the antagonists too simple-minded, so when I find one that actually remembers to anticipate, I'm glad.
What I liked less in "Paradigm" was how it could easily become confusing. It relies a lot on the reader's intrisic understanding of vocabulary and concepts that is, indeed, part of regular readers' of sci-fi... but not so much of others. Even though I managed to follow most of the technological ideas conveyed throughout the story, there were still moments when I had to flip back a few pages, or wonder if this or that explanation held water scientifically, or was just resting on wibbly-wobbly scientific notions. (My own knowledge in that regard isn't fail-safe, so I can never be sure.)
The plot, too, is a bit all over the place. On the one hand, it gives off nice vibes of a mad chase; on the other, it also made me feel like the characters were always running around right and left, conveniently finding each other again, too. Things go fast, and you may not notice such details on the moment, but for me, they had a nagging tendency to come back to mind later. (I guess the main character, Sam, was confusing as well: he's supposed to be smart, yet some of his reactions seemed to run contrary to the Sam I had learned to know until now.)
Last but not least, the romance part was simply useless. I enjoyed Alma's badass streak and no-nonsense attitude, but friendship would've done the job just as well.
I'd give it a 2.5 stars, but decided to round it up to 3 here on Goodreads all the same, because all in all, "Paradigm" kept me entertained. Still, I feel it necessary to point out that younger readers might be confused now and then by how the world is presented.
This novel range from "okay" to "I like it". It is interspersed with good ideas and easily recognisable characters, and although some of the latter are a little bit on the cliché side, they still manage to stand on their own. (And let's be honest: at some point, I do want clichés. I do want to picture the badass poncho-wearing girl slashing at enemies with knives in her hands and razor-blades woven in her braids. In fact, the illustrator in me wants to draw that.)
The villains were a little over the top at times, but I liked that they were also chessmasters, laying plans within plans within plans. Too often in books, I find the antagonists too simple-minded, so when I find one that actually remembers to anticipate, I'm glad.
What I liked less in "Paradigm" was how it could easily become confusing. It relies a lot on the reader's intrisic understanding of vocabulary and concepts that is, indeed, part of regular readers' of sci-fi... but not so much of others. Even though I managed to follow most of the technological ideas conveyed throughout the story, there were still moments when I had to flip back a few pages, or wonder if this or that explanation held water scientifically, or was just resting on wibbly-wobbly scientific notions. (My own knowledge in that regard isn't fail-safe, so I can never be sure.)
The plot, too, is a bit all over the place. On the one hand, it gives off nice vibes of a mad chase; on the other, it also made me feel like the characters were always running around right and left, conveniently finding each other again, too. Things go fast, and you may not notice such details on the moment, but for me, they had a nagging tendency to come back to mind later. (I guess the main character, Sam, was confusing as well: he's supposed to be smart, yet some of his reactions seemed to run contrary to the Sam I had learned to know until now.)
Last but not least, the romance part was simply useless. I enjoyed Alma's badass streak and no-nonsense attitude, but friendship would've done the job just as well.
I'd give it a 2.5 stars, but decided to round it up to 3 here on Goodreads all the same, because all in all, "Paradigm" kept me entertained. Still, I feel it necessary to point out that younger readers might be confused now and then by how the world is presented.
September 7, 2016
Early YA Apocalyptic Adventure That Has It All
I like my post-collapse apocalyptic dystopias to be challenging with a touch of threat, but not so grim and depraved that they read like YA snuff films with an extra side helping of sadism. For early YA it seems the point of a post-collapse scenario is to create an unsettled and menacing but manageable environment and to get the reader thinking a bit about how the collapse happened.
I also like the story to be driven by the characters and the writing, rather than by some convoluted and intricate plot or by non-stop peril and action.
If that sounds like what interests you, then have I got a book for you.
Sam Cooper is a smart, decent and adaptable survivor. He and his pal Nathan are cruising a post-collapse America in Sam's almost magical GTO. Forget about how they find gas and so on; this is a road trip book so you need a radical car. (No one ever survived an apocalypse in a Volvo.) They're just grifting along until they run across warrior chick Alma, who keeps turning up to get them out of tight fixes. But then sophisticated bad guys show up and it almost seems like they're looking for Sam. Then there are hints that Sam might be "special". Then the plot takes off. NO SPOILERS.
At least two very good things are happening here. First, we have strong, relatable, engaging characters. I'm not sure how you can have a successful early YA book without that. Second, we have high quality, carefully crafted, but restrained writing. Stringer can create good characters, she does snappy smart dialogue, she can set a scene, and it turns out she can style a taut action/confrontation scene. She can also unfold a plot without lots of exposition and she can pace a suspenseful buildup.
In fact, there's a lot here that is less clunky and more engaging than what you would find in a mainstream "adult" suspense thriller.
It finally dawned on me that this Helen Stringer is also the author responsible for the "Spellbinder" series for middle grade readers. I think that that series is one of the best magical tween heroine series out there, so I shouldn't have been surprised by the success of this step up in targeted reading age.
Anyway, this book is fun, it's clever, it's suspenseful, and it's polished. That works for me.
Please note that I received a free ecopy of this book in exchange for a candid review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.
I like my post-collapse apocalyptic dystopias to be challenging with a touch of threat, but not so grim and depraved that they read like YA snuff films with an extra side helping of sadism. For early YA it seems the point of a post-collapse scenario is to create an unsettled and menacing but manageable environment and to get the reader thinking a bit about how the collapse happened.
I also like the story to be driven by the characters and the writing, rather than by some convoluted and intricate plot or by non-stop peril and action.
If that sounds like what interests you, then have I got a book for you.
Sam Cooper is a smart, decent and adaptable survivor. He and his pal Nathan are cruising a post-collapse America in Sam's almost magical GTO. Forget about how they find gas and so on; this is a road trip book so you need a radical car. (No one ever survived an apocalypse in a Volvo.) They're just grifting along until they run across warrior chick Alma, who keeps turning up to get them out of tight fixes. But then sophisticated bad guys show up and it almost seems like they're looking for Sam. Then there are hints that Sam might be "special". Then the plot takes off. NO SPOILERS.
At least two very good things are happening here. First, we have strong, relatable, engaging characters. I'm not sure how you can have a successful early YA book without that. Second, we have high quality, carefully crafted, but restrained writing. Stringer can create good characters, she does snappy smart dialogue, she can set a scene, and it turns out she can style a taut action/confrontation scene. She can also unfold a plot without lots of exposition and she can pace a suspenseful buildup.
In fact, there's a lot here that is less clunky and more engaging than what you would find in a mainstream "adult" suspense thriller.
It finally dawned on me that this Helen Stringer is also the author responsible for the "Spellbinder" series for middle grade readers. I think that that series is one of the best magical tween heroine series out there, so I shouldn't have been surprised by the success of this step up in targeted reading age.
Anyway, this book is fun, it's clever, it's suspenseful, and it's polished. That works for me.
Please note that I received a free ecopy of this book in exchange for a candid review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.
June 27, 2014
The Story-
Sam Cooper is seventeen and lives in the badlands of a post-collapsed America.He knows two things, that he loves his GTO car and that he should never go into the city. Feeling desperate, he breaks his own rule and heads into Century City. Immediately things go downhill. His head feels like it's going to explode and even his pain killers have a hard time keeping him alert. Then, he stumbles across a dying man and is given a small chest, something he recognizes from his youth, something his mother told him must be kept safe at all costs. Caught on a surveillance camera, Sam is brought to the attention of Carolyn Bast, the tyrant who runs the city, and MUTHA, the computer that controls the world.
Fleeing for his life only allows him to fall into the hands of the very scientists his parents originally escaped from, but also gives him the answers to some long sought after questions. He begins to learn the truth about who or what he really is and why MUTHA so desperately wants him. His only hope of survival is teaming up with sixteen year old Maori warrior, Alma. Together they fight back against Bast and try to stay out of MUTHA's clutches.
My Thoughts-
I had to read this book because of the cover. I kid with one blue eye and one green eye. I couldn't resist. That is Sam, our hero. He is a great character, full of emotion and intelligence. He has survived the badlands after the death of his parents, and is smart enough to piece together all of the clues that fall into his lap. At first you think Sam is normal, but then his headaches occur whenever he enters a city. Right then you know he's something special, and you have to read to find out why. I think he handles things real well when he finds out the truth and I was glad for a strong character that didn't whine or fall apart.
Then there is Alma- loved her! She is a deadly assassin who isn't afraid of anyone or thing, and she's only sixteen. She kicks the crap out of grown men. She is so brave and amazing, I couldn't help but want to be her in that topsy-turvy world.
Okay, on to plot. The story itself is well written and I enjoyed having to read on to figure out the mystery of Sam. Even then, there's more for him to do, and you don't know if he'll survive. The story stays focused, and even the side plots are interesting and twist well into Sam's world. What a fun story! 4.5 Stars!
Sam Cooper is seventeen and lives in the badlands of a post-collapsed America.He knows two things, that he loves his GTO car and that he should never go into the city. Feeling desperate, he breaks his own rule and heads into Century City. Immediately things go downhill. His head feels like it's going to explode and even his pain killers have a hard time keeping him alert. Then, he stumbles across a dying man and is given a small chest, something he recognizes from his youth, something his mother told him must be kept safe at all costs. Caught on a surveillance camera, Sam is brought to the attention of Carolyn Bast, the tyrant who runs the city, and MUTHA, the computer that controls the world.
Fleeing for his life only allows him to fall into the hands of the very scientists his parents originally escaped from, but also gives him the answers to some long sought after questions. He begins to learn the truth about who or what he really is and why MUTHA so desperately wants him. His only hope of survival is teaming up with sixteen year old Maori warrior, Alma. Together they fight back against Bast and try to stay out of MUTHA's clutches.
My Thoughts-
I had to read this book because of the cover. I kid with one blue eye and one green eye. I couldn't resist. That is Sam, our hero. He is a great character, full of emotion and intelligence. He has survived the badlands after the death of his parents, and is smart enough to piece together all of the clues that fall into his lap. At first you think Sam is normal, but then his headaches occur whenever he enters a city. Right then you know he's something special, and you have to read to find out why. I think he handles things real well when he finds out the truth and I was glad for a strong character that didn't whine or fall apart.
Then there is Alma- loved her! She is a deadly assassin who isn't afraid of anyone or thing, and she's only sixteen. She kicks the crap out of grown men. She is so brave and amazing, I couldn't help but want to be her in that topsy-turvy world.
Okay, on to plot. The story itself is well written and I enjoyed having to read on to figure out the mystery of Sam. Even then, there's more for him to do, and you don't know if he'll survive. The story stays focused, and even the side plots are interesting and twist well into Sam's world. What a fun story! 4.5 Stars!
September 8, 2013
~This review is of the uncorrected proof provided by the publisher and Netgalley~
2.5 stars
Paradigm by Helen Stringer in many ways reminds me of a madcap pursuit movie, something like It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, but with the comedy toned way, way, way, way down. (That isn't to say it doesn't have humor, much of which may even be intentional). Perhaps I was meant to view it as more of a David-and-Goliath story, or even as one starring a reluctant superhero, arch villains, and an Evil Nemesis. It certainly has all of those elements, but I haven't been able to shake that cartoonish Mad World sensation.
Set in the dystopian future of the American West, Paradigm is about an adolescent boy, Sam, who endlessly trolls the broken highways in his ancient GTO, looking for ways to scrape by while avoiding the ominously intelligent information network known as MUTHA.
Well-meaning but impetuous, Sam eventually finds himself ensnared in a series of hazardous events propelling him toward a grim fate. He is trailed by a variety of pursuers who each have a different purpose in mind, none of which appear to be to his advantage. Sam realizes that in order to evade a sticky end, he must go back to his beginnings, and to do that, he must solve the mystery of who he really is. Unfortunately, his every move is not only anticipated, but orchestrated by those who know more about him than he does.
Stringer has worked a little bit of everything into the mix--a little mystery, a little comedy, a little tragedy, a little suspense, a little road trip, a little nostalgia, a little social commentary, a little Hero's Journey, a little science (very little), a little martial arts action, a little 007 action, a little romance, a little bromance....
It sounds a little messy...
...and it easily would be except it rollicks along at a pace that lets implausibilities flash by like signposts on a fast trip: seen, but without much time to question their accuracy while approaching the next turn.
The reader can just buckle in and, like a passenger in a taxi, arrive after a brisk and tortuous ride, entertained by the driver, but probably not forming any lasting attachments.
2.5 stars
Paradigm by Helen Stringer in many ways reminds me of a madcap pursuit movie, something like It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, but with the comedy toned way, way, way, way down. (That isn't to say it doesn't have humor, much of which may even be intentional). Perhaps I was meant to view it as more of a David-and-Goliath story, or even as one starring a reluctant superhero, arch villains, and an Evil Nemesis. It certainly has all of those elements, but I haven't been able to shake that cartoonish Mad World sensation.
Set in the dystopian future of the American West, Paradigm is about an adolescent boy, Sam, who endlessly trolls the broken highways in his ancient GTO, looking for ways to scrape by while avoiding the ominously intelligent information network known as MUTHA.
Well-meaning but impetuous, Sam eventually finds himself ensnared in a series of hazardous events propelling him toward a grim fate. He is trailed by a variety of pursuers who each have a different purpose in mind, none of which appear to be to his advantage. Sam realizes that in order to evade a sticky end, he must go back to his beginnings, and to do that, he must solve the mystery of who he really is. Unfortunately, his every move is not only anticipated, but orchestrated by those who know more about him than he does.
Stringer has worked a little bit of everything into the mix--a little mystery, a little comedy, a little tragedy, a little suspense, a little road trip, a little nostalgia, a little social commentary, a little Hero's Journey, a little science (very little), a little martial arts action, a little 007 action, a little romance, a little bromance....
It sounds a little messy...
...and it easily would be except it rollicks along at a pace that lets implausibilities flash by like signposts on a fast trip: seen, but without much time to question their accuracy while approaching the next turn.
The reader can just buckle in and, like a passenger in a taxi, arrive after a brisk and tortuous ride, entertained by the driver, but probably not forming any lasting attachments.
July 15, 2013
I am going to say right off the bat that I loved this book. I have recently been reading a lot of books in the dystopian genre and this is probably going to be my favorite for the year and certainly is so far this year. The synopsis / description provides a good overview and I will not try to improve on that. The world building was wonderful with just the right amount of familiar names of actual places to make the "what if" factor real for me. The characters were likable and the entire cast very colorful and fun to get to know. The writing is beautifully done, clean, and crisp and the story flows nicely. It should be noted that there are times when wording, while correct, is not in American English, but rather spoken or spelling from British English. Is this a mistake when the story takes place in America with American characters? I don't know and it did not bother me, but it was noticeable at times and I urge the purists to look past this and enjoy the ride. There is something for everyone to enjoy in this read - the bad guys are brutal and it is a joy when they get taken down and the good guys make you want to cheer every time they succeed. There are moments of heartbreak and joy and I will admit I became emotionally invested in Sam's journey and just wish I could take a ride in the GTO. The ending is very satisfying and while there is room for the journey to continue, I do not know if there will be additional books about Sam's future; however, I would certainly be first in line to get book two should the journey continue. I would heartily recommend this book and it is suitable for most readers from the young adult on up to those who are young at heart who enjoy a really good story. I borrowed this book from Amazon Prime and later was given a copy by the author with a request for my honest review without any compensation whatsoever, other than the joy of reading a new book, and while I have interacted with the author through facebook, I do not know her personally and this in no way affected my review of this book.
August 1, 2013
This is one of the best books I've read in a long time. It was a very smooth and easy read, and I could not put it down until I was finished. Right now I'm just quietly waiting for more. I love the main characters and their interactions.
The part I enjoyed most were the new ideas that were in it. Honestly, it's difficult to come up with something new and interesting in this genre. There seem to be far more authors out there than ideas. It' nice to see some of them being used in a good story, rather than getting used up in some monster flash in the pan Hollywood venture.
Some of it does feel a little contrived in places, however you also have to take into account that there is a severely decreased population. Under those conditions 'chance meetings' are going to happen more often. In other words, it was easy for me to suspend disbelief here and enjoy the story. As far as the 'romance' goes, lol. It was cute. Most science fiction writers are horrible at romance. I kind of like it that way. Still, she managed to create some tension there, without having it take over the entire plot. I liked that. There is way to much silly teen romance right now disguised as sci fi and fantasy. It's destroying the genre, IMO.
The story line was very interesting. There is so much to learn about the world Helen has created here. I love having problems to solve. I love trying to figure out what's going on. I like being a little bit in the dark, and having things slowly revealed to me. I love the feeling I get when I figured something out before the author explained it. When I'm right, or when I'm wrong. I enjoy that process, and the author here managed that process perfectly. I think my curiosity kept me going as much as my enjoyment of the overall story. I really wanted to know who Sam is, who Carolyn Bast is, and how everything fits together. Right now I'm eagerly awaiting my next fix. More of Sam and his GTO!
The part I enjoyed most were the new ideas that were in it. Honestly, it's difficult to come up with something new and interesting in this genre. There seem to be far more authors out there than ideas. It' nice to see some of them being used in a good story, rather than getting used up in some monster flash in the pan Hollywood venture.
Some of it does feel a little contrived in places, however you also have to take into account that there is a severely decreased population. Under those conditions 'chance meetings' are going to happen more often. In other words, it was easy for me to suspend disbelief here and enjoy the story. As far as the 'romance' goes, lol. It was cute. Most science fiction writers are horrible at romance. I kind of like it that way. Still, she managed to create some tension there, without having it take over the entire plot. I liked that. There is way to much silly teen romance right now disguised as sci fi and fantasy. It's destroying the genre, IMO.
The story line was very interesting. There is so much to learn about the world Helen has created here. I love having problems to solve. I love trying to figure out what's going on. I like being a little bit in the dark, and having things slowly revealed to me. I love the feeling I get when I figured something out before the author explained it. When I'm right, or when I'm wrong. I enjoy that process, and the author here managed that process perfectly. I think my curiosity kept me going as much as my enjoyment of the overall story. I really wanted to know who Sam is, who Carolyn Bast is, and how everything fits together. Right now I'm eagerly awaiting my next fix. More of Sam and his GTO!
August 13, 2013
Parts of this book intrigued me and others left me scratching my head in frustration. It generally kept my interest, but seemed very disjointed along the way.
I liked Sam - he loved his books and his car and seemed pretty loyal. His internal monologue gave me some laughs and he recognized his biggest fault - impetuousness but, to his credit, it was mostly for good reasons. The secrets surrounding Sam seemed to drag on too long and, as a reader, I was very frustrated. I understand not giving things away too early, but this was overkill. It wasn't until deep in the book that questions were answered. There were also contradictions with Sam's character traits - in one paragraph he said his parents raised him to be happy with what he had, but then further down the page, he's ranting about how he'll always want more and sometimes his choices of action seemed to be pretty random.
Alma was a strong character, but the romantic aspects with her and Sam seemed forced and the fact that she kept turning up at crucial moments was a little too convenient. Alma's character was essential to the plot, but I didn't see how their relationship really added anything.
I enjoyed the world-building and the basic plot, but felt like there were a lot of detours along the way before arriving at the real heart of the story. Many of the secondary characters were there for a purpose, but some could have been cut for a tighter, more concise storyline.
I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.
I liked Sam - he loved his books and his car and seemed pretty loyal. His internal monologue gave me some laughs and he recognized his biggest fault - impetuousness but, to his credit, it was mostly for good reasons. The secrets surrounding Sam seemed to drag on too long and, as a reader, I was very frustrated. I understand not giving things away too early, but this was overkill. It wasn't until deep in the book that questions were answered. There were also contradictions with Sam's character traits - in one paragraph he said his parents raised him to be happy with what he had, but then further down the page, he's ranting about how he'll always want more and sometimes his choices of action seemed to be pretty random.
Alma was a strong character, but the romantic aspects with her and Sam seemed forced and the fact that she kept turning up at crucial moments was a little too convenient. Alma's character was essential to the plot, but I didn't see how their relationship really added anything.
I enjoyed the world-building and the basic plot, but felt like there were a lot of detours along the way before arriving at the real heart of the story. Many of the secondary characters were there for a purpose, but some could have been cut for a tighter, more concise storyline.
I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.
January 8, 2015
Sam’s life is simple, driving around the wilds with his friend Nathan, selling junk from the back of the car, his beloved red GTO that they have managed to collect, which are mainly old electronic gadgets that many people now in the future do not use anymore.
On what they think will be a quick and simple trip into the city, Century City turns out to be an eye opener of the start of an adventure, when they stumble across a dying monk who mysteriously asks Sam to return a box. The box looks strangely familiar to Sam. The box is called The Paradigm Device.
Sam soon finds his life is about to change that others want the box. Sam finds himself on the run from Carolyn Bast a woman who not only runs her own company, but seemingly runs the city too. Sam is unaware he is carrying a key that not only Carolyn Bast is after, but something far more dangerous called MUTHA a powerful artificial entity that has been watching and waiting for Sam to return.
Just what is the importance of the key? And why is Sam so closely connected to it?
Set in the United States in the future when the world as we know it as all but disappeared, and humans try and survive on the resources left, a world that they have only ever known. Paradigm is one of those great unpredictable stories, I like not knowing what is coming next, and the story intrigued me right to the very end. I will look forward to reading more books by the author Helen Stringer.
On what they think will be a quick and simple trip into the city, Century City turns out to be an eye opener of the start of an adventure, when they stumble across a dying monk who mysteriously asks Sam to return a box. The box looks strangely familiar to Sam. The box is called The Paradigm Device.
Sam soon finds his life is about to change that others want the box. Sam finds himself on the run from Carolyn Bast a woman who not only runs her own company, but seemingly runs the city too. Sam is unaware he is carrying a key that not only Carolyn Bast is after, but something far more dangerous called MUTHA a powerful artificial entity that has been watching and waiting for Sam to return.
Just what is the importance of the key? And why is Sam so closely connected to it?
Set in the United States in the future when the world as we know it as all but disappeared, and humans try and survive on the resources left, a world that they have only ever known. Paradigm is one of those great unpredictable stories, I like not knowing what is coming next, and the story intrigued me right to the very end. I will look forward to reading more books by the author Helen Stringer.
August 19, 2013
Paradigm by Helen Stringer. A YA novel featuring sixteen-year-old Sam, who is traveling across The Wilds in an America that is struggling after the third collapse. Unaware that there is anything special about him, Sam is simply trying to survive with enough to purchase food and gas for his ancient GTO. When his friend Nathan and circumstances force him to visit Century City, Sam discovers that he was part of a scientific experiment gone wrong, that there has been an ongoing search for others like him, and that if he is caught life as he knows it will be destroyed.
Although this YA novel has fewer simplistic descriptions (green eyes--mossy, emerald, etc.) that are common in many recent YA novels I've read, Sam does have one green and one blue eye, a trope I've seen in 3 recent YA novels. It was fine the first time, but the description gets old quickly. In its favor, the rest of the physical descriptions in the novel are sketchy enough to allow the reader to visualize without the glowing, sparkling, breathlessness that typify many YA books.
I disliked the extreme violence and the evil Carolyn Bast's over-the-top wickedness. I did like Alma, (and without her convenient arrival when needed, Sam would have died early on), but Alma is not really developed as a character.
NetGalley/Mediadrome Press
YA/Science Fiction. 2013. Print Version: 396 pages.
Although this YA novel has fewer simplistic descriptions (green eyes--mossy, emerald, etc.) that are common in many recent YA novels I've read, Sam does have one green and one blue eye, a trope I've seen in 3 recent YA novels. It was fine the first time, but the description gets old quickly. In its favor, the rest of the physical descriptions in the novel are sketchy enough to allow the reader to visualize without the glowing, sparkling, breathlessness that typify many YA books.
I disliked the extreme violence and the evil Carolyn Bast's over-the-top wickedness. I did like Alma, (and without her convenient arrival when needed, Sam would have died early on), but Alma is not really developed as a character.
NetGalley/Mediadrome Press
YA/Science Fiction. 2013. Print Version: 396 pages.
September 13, 2013
While it would be easy to pigeonhole Paradigm as another dystopian future novel or place it on a shelf next to currently popular teen sci-if such as the Hunger Games series, Helen Stringer's novel is so much more than that. The fact that the protagonist is a 17 year-old who drives a classic muscle car should not dissuade the reader who wants to immerse themselves in a hard-core science fiction story that extrapolates a very believable post-apocalyptic future from current economic & sociological trends. The characters and environments depicted in Paradigm are vividly created and the reader should find themselves well oriented by the author's prose. While familiar science fiction theme elements will be recognized, they are recombined and respun in a wholly unique way. This is not a mere cautionary tale of technology run amuck but rather one that examines how we as a society misplace our attention from infrastructure and social responsibility and divert it towards technology without considering the potential ramifications of its deployment. If these trends are not reversed, we may indeed find ourselves living in a crumbled society with remaining pockets of affluence amongst a vast desolation with the majority of survivors struggling to stay alive.
September 17, 2013
Sam Cooper's life is different than most. His parents are dead, he's traveling around the country and he owns 1968 GTO that's 100 years old. Sam keeps moving because he doesn't want to go back to San Francisco where his parents started. He knew he wasn't "normal", his father had told him the headaches he gets often are just from the stress. Sam meets Nathan and thanks to Nathan's selling ability, they are selling small appliances to earn money for food and gasoline. While in the city, they come across the Paradigm Device and everything changes.
Sci-fi fans will enjoy this book. It's really futuristic and mind blowing. The characters are well defined and easily enjoyed. The writing is descriptive so you'll feel as if you are there. Check out this book.
I did find issues. I felt the book moved slowly and it went nowhere quickly. When we finally got to the "heart" of the book I found myself wondering WHEN will this end. It was like I stepped off a train and knew in a second I was lost.
I gave this one 3 cheers out of 5. It just didn't seem to get off the ground. ~Copy of book provided by author in exchange for a fair review~
Sci-fi fans will enjoy this book. It's really futuristic and mind blowing. The characters are well defined and easily enjoyed. The writing is descriptive so you'll feel as if you are there. Check out this book.
I did find issues. I felt the book moved slowly and it went nowhere quickly. When we finally got to the "heart" of the book I found myself wondering WHEN will this end. It was like I stepped off a train and knew in a second I was lost.
I gave this one 3 cheers out of 5. It just didn't seem to get off the ground. ~Copy of book provided by author in exchange for a fair review~
October 30, 2013
I received this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
This book takes place in a distopian future. Most of society had broken down and what was left was run by corrupt corporations and an artificial life form known and MUTHA. The main character's name was Sam. He was traveling around the country trying to stay alive and away from any large city. MUTHA spent the book looking for Sam and Sam spent the book trying to avoid MUTHA.
There were some plot problems with in the book. One of them I had a problem with was how the characters acquired food and water. If they were as scarce as the author said there should have been less scenes centered around food.
The characters were interesting. Some of them were Alma who could do anything physical and still be likable. Bast who was creatively unlikable. Vincent who was neither and Bethany the child were was so stupid she couldn't help but be sweet.
There was enough actions and fast paced movement which made the book interesting. This was a fun fast read.
This book takes place in a distopian future. Most of society had broken down and what was left was run by corrupt corporations and an artificial life form known and MUTHA. The main character's name was Sam. He was traveling around the country trying to stay alive and away from any large city. MUTHA spent the book looking for Sam and Sam spent the book trying to avoid MUTHA.
There were some plot problems with in the book. One of them I had a problem with was how the characters acquired food and water. If they were as scarce as the author said there should have been less scenes centered around food.
The characters were interesting. Some of them were Alma who could do anything physical and still be likable. Bast who was creatively unlikable. Vincent who was neither and Bethany the child were was so stupid she couldn't help but be sweet.
There was enough actions and fast paced movement which made the book interesting. This was a fun fast read.
October 12, 2013
This was not an easy novel to "get into". To myself - dystopian novels are to reflect current societal trends and take them to a logical conclusion. A conclusion we may not want to see - but could still occur.
There are many assumed bits of historical background that made it difficult to start - but the characterizations of the protaganists and their motivations gave the needed understanding of the various sub-cultures of this world and how they evolved.
The interplay of where this world was heading, and how it got to that point - still has the same old tired backdrop of political / monetary / power plays made by people today. What elevates this novel above that backdrop is the humanity of what the reader may originally perceive as in-humanity of the sub-cultures.
A very good read.
There are many assumed bits of historical background that made it difficult to start - but the characterizations of the protaganists and their motivations gave the needed understanding of the various sub-cultures of this world and how they evolved.
The interplay of where this world was heading, and how it got to that point - still has the same old tired backdrop of political / monetary / power plays made by people today. What elevates this novel above that backdrop is the humanity of what the reader may originally perceive as in-humanity of the sub-cultures.
A very good read.
September 15, 2013
With the world devastated by wars and economic collapse, Sam Cooper in his faithful GTO tours the Wild Lands with his friend Nathan eking a living from selling household appliances. This all changes when they are attacked and meet New Zealander Alma.
Imagine Mad Max in a world where the cities are largely run by a single computer, almost big brother, this is how the world has changed and where Sam has to work out how to save himself from a fate worse than death. Very good book gives it all a plausible feel which is essential for a good Sci Fi.
Imagine Mad Max in a world where the cities are largely run by a single computer, almost big brother, this is how the world has changed and where Sam has to work out how to save himself from a fate worse than death. Very good book gives it all a plausible feel which is essential for a good Sci Fi.
October 7, 2013
Exciting, thought provoking ya adventure novel. The novel begins with a monk protecting a sacred object and quickly switches to Sam traveling through a dystopian world of yellow skies in his red sports car. Sam's friend Nathan swipes antique, preapocalypse items like George Foreman grills for gas and food as they travel the broken roads. When the monk and Sam meet, his life and the world will change forever. Nonstop action and a unique world.
July 21, 2013
I found this book very difficult to put down, the plot, characters and everything else to do with this book is amazing. I loved reading it and couldn't stop until the story was concluded. It feels like a very real possibility for the future which is what makes it such am interesting read and I'm really hoping there is a follow up.
August 3, 2013
This book was well written and interesting. Sam was pretty cool but Alma is totally my favorite character. I really liked the setting of post-collapse and the different types of people created from the aftermath. I would definitely suggest this as a pretty great read!
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