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BZRK #3
БЗМЦ: Апокалипсис
Смърт или лудост? Всъщност някога имало ли е избор между двете? Ноа и Сейди са се сблъсквали със смъртта и тя не може да ги ужаси. Лудостта, от друга страна, може. Както и това да се загубят един друг. Но те няма да седят безучастни като беззащитни свидетели на един невидим апокалипсис. Светът е разрушаван отвътре навън. Още веднъж настава време за борба на улицата и в киберпространството.
416 pages, Paperback
First published April 11, 2013
61 people are currently reading
2678 people want to read
About the author
Michael Grant
75 books11.3k followersCo-author with Katherine Applegate of Ocean City, Making Out, Summer, Animorphs, Everworld, Remnants, Eve and Adam.
Pseudonymous coauthor with KA of Christy (the TV spin-off books), Sweet Valley Twins, Girl Talk and various Disney spin-offs.
Pseudonymous author of Barf-O-Rama.
Author of Gone, BZRK, The Magnificent 12, Messenger of Fear, Front Lines, Monster and A Sudden Death in Cyprus.
AKA Michael Robinson (restaurant reviews and newspaper features).
AKA Michael Reynolds (legal name) political media producer. (Team Blue).
Pseudonymous coauthor with KA of Christy (the TV spin-off books), Sweet Valley Twins, Girl Talk and various Disney spin-offs.
Pseudonymous author of Barf-O-Rama.
Author of Gone, BZRK, The Magnificent 12, Messenger of Fear, Front Lines, Monster and A Sudden Death in Cyprus.
AKA Michael Robinson (restaurant reviews and newspaper features).
AKA Michael Reynolds (legal name) political media producer. (Team Blue).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 165 reviews
June 6, 2016
**No spoilers**
Jeeeeeeeez that was a good book and an awesome conclusion. It was so gripping and action packed, it was literally difficult to put down. It gave me feels and so much happened that I was not expecting in the slightest! The stuff that happens is literally a really terrifying concept and I read most of the book with a look of horror on my face imagining if it actually happened.
This entire trilogy has just been a massive surprise for me and I loved every creepy, gory, heart pounding minute of it. If you're looking for a series where the good guys are crazy and the bad guys are downright batshit, this is for you!
Jeeeeeeeez that was a good book and an awesome conclusion. It was so gripping and action packed, it was literally difficult to put down. It gave me feels and so much happened that I was not expecting in the slightest! The stuff that happens is literally a really terrifying concept and I read most of the book with a look of horror on my face imagining if it actually happened.
This entire trilogy has just been a massive surprise for me and I loved every creepy, gory, heart pounding minute of it. If you're looking for a series where the good guys are crazy and the bad guys are downright batshit, this is for you!
August 31, 2016
"I'm not a serial killer, I'm just a writer."
The amount of research gone into this is mind blowing. And Mr.Grant has a very... vivid imagination.
No, but really, the way death happens in this book is practically an art form.
Keats or Plath was destined to die, it was the only realistic scenario. To be honest, I expected both to go mad, because the worst scenario is the most likely in this series. "Death or Madness" was stressed multiple times throughout. After the last book, when Plath started to investigate Lear, I predicted that Lear was going to be a villain as well, because the dude's moral principles are skewed, especially with Caligula enforcing his decisions.
I did not expect Lear to not be dude.
That surprised the fuck out of me. Even when she was introduced, up until the point when she was offering Bug that choice, I still thought she was some new character. Or a higher up in BZRK. Not the mastermind.
But then...
"And Lear smiled."
I also did not expect Vincent to be wired. Or for Jin to do the wiring. Because I figured Vincent would know if he's thinking wrong, and because Jin is the heart and not that adept at wiring people.
I feel like this book is a perfect metaphor for war. Both sides are wrong in different ways, both are considered lunatics. No one wins in the end, and the ones that suffer the most are the soldiers on the front lines. Both sides are hypocrites, even Keats and Plath. Didn't they kill a bunch of people in the Tulip, even as they were trying to prevent the destruction of the building?
I think this quote sums it up nicely:
"Funny, funny to think that in the end it would not be a race between destruction and salvation for humanity, but a race between two different lunatics, Benjamin and Lear, both bend on annihilation."
April 19, 2015
Nicely done, MG. Nicely done.
More appropriately titled "100 Methods to Kill".
A satisfying conclusion to a thrilling sci-fi trilogy from one of my favourite young adult authors wherein no one is safe and humanity is scant.
#stillmissinggone
Review to come in a few months' time - I mean, it's March now and this freaking comes out in October (in the US). I just couldn't fucking help myself! Well, May in the UK/AUS, so it's not THAT bad.
More appropriately titled "100 Methods to Kill".
A satisfying conclusion to a thrilling sci-fi trilogy from one of my favourite young adult authors wherein no one is safe and humanity is scant.
#stillmissinggone
Review to come in a few months' time - I mean, it's March now and this freaking comes out in October (in the US). I just couldn't fucking help myself! Well, May in the UK/AUS, so it's not THAT bad.
August 25, 2016
De BZRK trilogie verkent de grenzen tussen wetenschap en ethiek. Hoe ver mag je gaan met medische en/of wetenschappelijke ontdekkingen? Toch focust het overgrote deel van dit verhaal op pure actie. De personages storten zich in gevecht tot gevecht en niet allemaal weten ze levend of in mentale gezondheid de eindstreep te behalen. Hoewel ik bij het lezen van BZRK Apocalypse het een beetje gehad had met de verhaallijn en de personages, herken ik zeker de sterke punten van dit boek. Grant weet je met zijn verslavende schrijfstijl het verhaal in te lokken en schotelt je een grote diversiteit aan personages voor. Een spannende serie geschikt voor jongens én meisjes die niet vies zijn van een beetje actie en geen last hebben van een zwakke maag. Mijn tip: lees niet heel de serie aan één stuk, want dan kan het soms iets te veel van het goede worden..
Mijn complete recensie lees je op Oog op de Toekomst.
Mijn complete recensie lees je op Oog op de Toekomst.
October 15, 2014
See more reviews on my blog.
This book… It… Well… It was a good idea?
I’m not really sure what to make of this book. It was…intense, but at the same time, it’s like it crossed a line somewhere. I really loved the idea of this book, of the tone it set for the whole series, really. It took everything I expected from the first two books and turned it on its side. Taking all that set up for “war,” for good vs evil, and then turning into that much pure chaos? Yeah, that went well with a book all about madness. On the other hand, that only really happened at the start of the book. Once things got going, there weren’t many surprises after that. At least, not of the plot twist variety.
The problem, for me, came in all the gore in this book, and in the particular…theatrical display of madness this book went with.
In previous books, “biot madness,” what happens to a person who loses their biot, was pretty vague and mostly happened off the page. I didn’t like it, because it was too Hollywood Crazy, but I could more or less ignore it. In this book? Nope. It’s every other page of someone (literally) barking mad. The problem being that it’s just too…unreal. It’s too theatrical. It’s too over-the-top and trying too hard to scare me. In the end, I wasn’t really scared at all, and I was sort of pissed off at all this for-show “madness” that didn’t look anything like honest mental illness.
Especially since this author can do mental illness well, so long as he’s focused on something that’s actually real. He can do it in a way that’s downright hearbreaking. He’s done it in this series, and the way he writes depression and self-harm and a host of other things was truly (intentionally) horrifying, to the point that someone cackling and barking and running into walls looked just silly by comparison. It’s a shame he didn’t go for something a bit more honest; it would have been so much more effective for the emotional impact (I think) he was going for.
Add to that, it felt like the plot broke down a little in the rush to get in as much chaos and gore as possible. It was still fair, just not up to the standard of the previous two books.
Sadie, also, let me down a little. In the last book, she was made the ‘leader’ of the group, for reasons that made a fair bit of sense. I was prepared to roll with it. But she never really got to be the leader, in the sense that she never got to really display the skills she was picked for. Things just sort of rolled along out of control, and Forrest Gump could have led that group once things really got going. She didn’t have enough of a challenge/enough time to give me the badass leader I really wanted her to be.
There were moments of brilliance in this book, things that rocked me and shocked me. And it was a really, really good…plan. But it simply felt too rushed and fragmented and forced to live up to its own potential.
This book… It… Well… It was a good idea?
I’m not really sure what to make of this book. It was…intense, but at the same time, it’s like it crossed a line somewhere. I really loved the idea of this book, of the tone it set for the whole series, really. It took everything I expected from the first two books and turned it on its side. Taking all that set up for “war,” for good vs evil, and then turning into that much pure chaos? Yeah, that went well with a book all about madness. On the other hand, that only really happened at the start of the book. Once things got going, there weren’t many surprises after that. At least, not of the plot twist variety.
The problem, for me, came in all the gore in this book, and in the particular…theatrical display of madness this book went with.
In previous books, “biot madness,” what happens to a person who loses their biot, was pretty vague and mostly happened off the page. I didn’t like it, because it was too Hollywood Crazy, but I could more or less ignore it. In this book? Nope. It’s every other page of someone (literally) barking mad. The problem being that it’s just too…unreal. It’s too theatrical. It’s too over-the-top and trying too hard to scare me. In the end, I wasn’t really scared at all, and I was sort of pissed off at all this for-show “madness” that didn’t look anything like honest mental illness.
Especially since this author can do mental illness well, so long as he’s focused on something that’s actually real. He can do it in a way that’s downright hearbreaking. He’s done it in this series, and the way he writes depression and self-harm and a host of other things was truly (intentionally) horrifying, to the point that someone cackling and barking and running into walls looked just silly by comparison. It’s a shame he didn’t go for something a bit more honest; it would have been so much more effective for the emotional impact (I think) he was going for.
Add to that, it felt like the plot broke down a little in the rush to get in as much chaos and gore as possible. It was still fair, just not up to the standard of the previous two books.
Sadie, also, let me down a little. In the last book, she was made the ‘leader’ of the group, for reasons that made a fair bit of sense. I was prepared to roll with it. But she never really got to be the leader, in the sense that she never got to really display the skills she was picked for. Things just sort of rolled along out of control, and Forrest Gump could have led that group once things really got going. She didn’t have enough of a challenge/enough time to give me the badass leader I really wanted her to be.
There were moments of brilliance in this book, things that rocked me and shocked me. And it was a really, really good…plan. But it simply felt too rushed and fragmented and forced to live up to its own potential.
December 29, 2014
The biggest disappointment is that this was only a kind-of-okay trilogy.
See, 'BZRK' as a whole is just too much Michael Grant. 'Gone' flirted with bleak hopelessness, featured broken characters, and made the reader loathe to keep reading, because it often got *so* disturbing. At the same time, 'Gone' also had a heart that shined in every one of the main cast, and ultimately kept the reader engaged. We came for the kids trapped in a dome and the fighting with mutant powers, but we stayed for Sam Temple and his friends. The ending was a victory for the reader, who somehow went through the same hell as the characters and lived to tell the tale.
The ending of 'BZRK' is a big 'Eh, I guess.'
'BZRK' has no heart. It's gory, it offers an uncompromising vision for three possible doomsdays, and the characters themselves aren't sure they're morally right. 'BZRK' wants so badly to obscure the line between good and evil that its characters lose what makes them relatable. We end up rooting for Plath at the end because she's the designated protagonist in charge of saving the world, not because we feel any connection to her; we want the supporting characters to live just because everyone else is dead, and we like familiar faces as readers. (Something Grant clearly doesn't believe in when he keep introducing rando POV characters.)
This series ends up hard to recommend. Grant likes to gab on about the nano world while stalling out the plot, and twice he introduces absolutely pointless side protagonists who eat a third of the plot. Grant is not perfect, and the third 'Gone' book's filler plot is proof. Still, we cared enough about the 'Gone' characters to get through it. I frequently stopped reading the 'BZRK' series when the prose became too much of a chore, and I didn't care enough about any of the characters to make me excited about reading.
Does BZRK Apocalypse fare well as an end to the series? It makes some huge logic gaps in cleaning its loose ends, the final battle is some derpy fight in the tundra with mooks, and there's a ton of telling-not-showing of the world falling apart. Yet, it answers the questions the first BZRK brought up. That's all it really needed to do.
Is the 'BZRK' trilogy worth a read? Not especially. This is Grant without his A-game, or at times even his B-game, but he's still better than most other YA authors. That's what makes this so disappointing. It could have been more.
See, 'BZRK' as a whole is just too much Michael Grant. 'Gone' flirted with bleak hopelessness, featured broken characters, and made the reader loathe to keep reading, because it often got *so* disturbing. At the same time, 'Gone' also had a heart that shined in every one of the main cast, and ultimately kept the reader engaged. We came for the kids trapped in a dome and the fighting with mutant powers, but we stayed for Sam Temple and his friends. The ending was a victory for the reader, who somehow went through the same hell as the characters and lived to tell the tale.
The ending of 'BZRK' is a big 'Eh, I guess.'
'BZRK' has no heart. It's gory, it offers an uncompromising vision for three possible doomsdays, and the characters themselves aren't sure they're morally right. 'BZRK' wants so badly to obscure the line between good and evil that its characters lose what makes them relatable. We end up rooting for Plath at the end because she's the designated protagonist in charge of saving the world, not because we feel any connection to her; we want the supporting characters to live just because everyone else is dead, and we like familiar faces as readers. (Something Grant clearly doesn't believe in when he keep introducing rando POV characters.)
This series ends up hard to recommend. Grant likes to gab on about the nano world while stalling out the plot, and twice he introduces absolutely pointless side protagonists who eat a third of the plot. Grant is not perfect, and the third 'Gone' book's filler plot is proof. Still, we cared enough about the 'Gone' characters to get through it. I frequently stopped reading the 'BZRK' series when the prose became too much of a chore, and I didn't care enough about any of the characters to make me excited about reading.
Does BZRK Apocalypse fare well as an end to the series? It makes some huge logic gaps in cleaning its loose ends, the final battle is some derpy fight in the tundra with mooks, and there's a ton of telling-not-showing of the world falling apart. Yet, it answers the questions the first BZRK brought up. That's all it really needed to do.
Is the 'BZRK' trilogy worth a read? Not especially. This is Grant without his A-game, or at times even his B-game, but he's still better than most other YA authors. That's what makes this so disappointing. It could have been more.
September 20, 2015
wow, stejně jako u druhého dílů, nedokážu se rozhodnout, jestli je to geniální, nebo šílené... :D
November 22, 2020
Who would have thought LEAR was... and Vincent couldn't possibly... and Sadie and Noah.... oh wow.
Great ending to the series!
Great ending to the series!
January 20, 2020
2.5 stars?
This one was so bleak. And I know the series as a whole is all "death or madness," and I never expected a happy ending, but this is so hopeless. Lear as a brand-new character with no real motivation that I could discern. So many awful deaths. A seeming total deviation from the purpose of the first couple books. Basically just a world going mad.
The book is written so outstandingly well. There are some amazing twists, and so much I didn't see coming. I just think those things were introduced too late.
This one was so bleak. And I know the series as a whole is all "death or madness," and I never expected a happy ending, but this is so hopeless. Lear as a brand-new character with no real motivation that I could discern. So many awful deaths. A seeming total deviation from the purpose of the first couple books. Basically just a world going mad.
The book is written so outstandingly well. There are some amazing twists, and so much I didn't see coming. I just think those things were introduced too late.
February 11, 2025
OH MY GOODNESS GRACIOUS
June 12, 2019
And so I have finally finished this series I started ages ago, and what I have to say is: Well shit.
It has been brutal and intense from the start, and the finale does not disappoint. I was literally, physically, on the edge of my seat towards the end.
It has been brutal and intense from the start, and the finale does not disappoint. I was literally, physically, on the edge of my seat towards the end.
March 26, 2023
Michael Grant you sick monster you've done it again.
March 5, 2024
okay this book isn’t actually 1 star, but i really do need to bleach my eyes and go read a pick me up book cause holy cow 😵
June 1, 2025
Oh, this was so good to read, loved how things wrapped up, it was so good!
December 29, 2014
Wow, I recall, in one of Michael Grant's interviews he "admitted" that he had refrained from adding more vulgar language to the Gone series - because it was meant for the young adult fanbase. Well scrap that with this series, you guys know the scenes I'm taking about.
He has the same addicting style of writing, telling from multiple points of view, leaving treacherous cliff hangers. I found that there were a lot of sub plots going on at the same time. At several points you need tor re-evaluate the characters, what were there goals their motives.
Who were they rooting for.
Here is a quote from BZRK: Apocalypse:
p.56
He has the same addicting style of writing, telling from multiple points of view, leaving treacherous cliff hangers. I found that there were a lot of sub plots going on at the same time. At several points you need tor re-evaluate the characters, what were there goals their motives.
Who were they rooting for.
Here is a quote from BZRK: Apocalypse:
p.56
"..But unless we want a visit from Caligula, we'd better.." she faded out, realizing what she was saying.
It was Anya who put it into words. "In the Great Patriotic War- what you call World War Two- Russians had soldiers. And behind the soldiers they had NKVD. Secret police. If a soldier complained, the NKVD shot him. If a soldier failed, the NKVD shot him. If a soldier said, "to hell with this, I am going home," the NKVD shot him. And then they arrested the man's family and sent them to the gulag."
"well, they were fighting the Nazis," Billy piped up.
Anya snorted a derisive laugh. "Yes, murderous evil Nazis. And who were the NKVD? Murderous, evil Communists."
"I'm confused. Which are we supposed to be?" Wilkes asked.
April 24, 2014
As a huge fan of Michael Grant and his works, I was ecstatic to be able to get my hands on his latest work in his thrilling BZRK series, BZRK: Apocalypse. If you are anything like me then Apocalypse will positively blow your mind. The characters are well-developed, the sceneries are always so extremely vivid that readers feel like they are right there along with the characters, and his plotlines are tremendously creative.
A Michael Grant novel simply would not be a Michael Grant novel if it did not make readers feel truly uncomfortable at moments, and Apocalypse is no exemption. The man appears to take excessive pleasure from panicking his readers, by toying with what they dread the most.
Apocalypse deals with matters such as: individuality; control; and insanity. It is a book where readers interrogation the actions of everybody.
BZRK: Apocalypse is truly unlike from practically any YA book at the moment. Readers are left feeling tremendously content with the finale of this rollercoaster ride of a series. Just as the novel’s synopsis says, the novel is truly an “explosive conclusion” to Grant’s BZRK series.
An Advanced Readers Copy of the book was provided by the publisher in return for an honest review.
A Michael Grant novel simply would not be a Michael Grant novel if it did not make readers feel truly uncomfortable at moments, and Apocalypse is no exemption. The man appears to take excessive pleasure from panicking his readers, by toying with what they dread the most.
Apocalypse deals with matters such as: individuality; control; and insanity. It is a book where readers interrogation the actions of everybody.
BZRK: Apocalypse is truly unlike from practically any YA book at the moment. Readers are left feeling tremendously content with the finale of this rollercoaster ride of a series. Just as the novel’s synopsis says, the novel is truly an “explosive conclusion” to Grant’s BZRK series.
An Advanced Readers Copy of the book was provided by the publisher in return for an honest review.
January 28, 2018
It's always refreshing, especially when reading YA, when the main characters have to question whether the organisation they are working for is "good". However, at the same time, Grant chose to make the bad guys absolutely unquestionably bad - would have been nice to have a more nuanced presentation of "good" vs "bad".
Furthermore, I don't like how the bad guys were portrayed as bad. The writing concerning them was unnecessarily gruesome, and there was a reliance on mental illness (schizophrenia) and deformity (dwarf, bearded lady, Siamese twins: "hideous freaks") to really let you know that THE BAD GUYS ARE BAD. I dunno, there's enough stigma out there in the world as it is.
Overall - the book did what it was supposed to do. End of the series. I wasn't invested enough to feel that sad when Noah died, but I sure wasn't surprised. This is Grant, after all. Look at all the great characters that died in his Gone series.
Furthermore, I don't like how the bad guys were portrayed as bad. The writing concerning them was unnecessarily gruesome, and there was a reliance on mental illness (schizophrenia) and deformity (dwarf, bearded lady, Siamese twins: "hideous freaks") to really let you know that THE BAD GUYS ARE BAD. I dunno, there's enough stigma out there in the world as it is.
Overall - the book did what it was supposed to do. End of the series. I wasn't invested enough to feel that sad when Noah died, but I sure wasn't surprised. This is Grant, after all. Look at all the great characters that died in his Gone series.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
not-able-to-finish
May 15, 2014Dnf. This book is a flaming wreck.All vestiges of a well plotted cohesive novel have disintegrated into a mess. The combination of too many POVs,villians(whose portrayal is undeniably ableist),and plain ridiculousness has far out-weighted the few good things left.The plot twists I'd already predicted,the suspension of disbelief required, and growing melodrama was too much. Despite my continued faith that Michael Grant is an evil genius this series despite a promising start just doesn't work.
Thank you NetGalley and Egmont for proving me with an ARC.
Thank you NetGalley and Egmont for proving me with an ARC.
July 31, 2016
This book was a little hard to follow at first, and some parts in the middle too, but Michael Grant has written this book so well that I was biting my nails every time there was a peak in the story before the denouement! Even though I'm reading the second one after the third (oops! :P) I'm pretty sure that it'll be just as great!
October 26, 2014
Rating: 3.25/5
Review coming soon!
Review coming soon!
March 28, 2015
Review to come!
July 19, 2015
The Matrix meets Inner Space in this third book in the BZRK trilogy from New York Times best-selling author Michael Grant.
The staggering conclusion to the BZRK trilogy, from the author of GONE. The members of BZRK are preparing for their final stand. Noah and Sadie have seen death, and it holds no fear for them. Madness does, though. And losing each other.
But they will not sit back, the only witnesses to an invisible apocalypse. The world is being destroyed from the inside out. It's time for them to fight to the last, in the streets and in the nano. This is a story with both thrills and heart, packed with the author's trademark jaw-dropping set pieces and pace.
Join them.
"BZRK is an exciting, dangerous non-stop thriller that's not for the faint of heart. Perfect for fans of The Hunger Games and the Chaos Walking trilogies."--Hannah Johnson-Breimeier, Next Chapter Bookshop
"A shocking, violent, yet engrossing thrill ride of a story." Booklist, review for BZRK Reloaded
About the AuthorMichael Grant has spent much of his life on the move. Raised in a military family in the USA, he attended ten schools in five states, as well as three schools in France. Even as an adult he kept moving, and in fact he became a writer in part because it was one of the few jobs that wouldn't tie him down. His dream is to spend a whole year circumnavigating the globe and visiting every continent. He lives in Marin County, California, with his wife, Katherine Applegate, their two children, and far too many pets. You can visit him online at www.themichaelgrant.com. The author lives in Marin County, California.
Love The Hunger Games? Action-adventure thrillers with a dystopian twist? BZRK (Berserk) by Michael Grant, New York Times best-selling author of the GONE series, ramps up the action and suspense to a whole new level of excitement.
Set in the near future, BZRK is the story of a war for control of the human mind. Charles and Benjamin Armstrong, conjoined twins and owners of the Armstrong Fancy Gifts Corporation, have a goal: to turn the world into their vision of utopia. No wars, no conflict, no hunger. And no free will. Opposing them is a guerrilla group of teens, code name BZRK, who are fighting to protect the right to be messed up, to be human. This is no ordinary war, though. Weapons are deployed on the nano-level. The battleground is the human brain. And there are no stalemates here: It’s victory . . . or madness.
BZRK unfolds with hurricane force around core themes of conspiracy and mystery, insanity and changing realities, engagement and empowerment, and the larger impact of personal choice. Which side would you choose? How far would you go to win?
Praise for BZRK:
“YA fiction at it’s best. … It's a combination science fiction/adventure/thriller all written brilliantly to entice the reader into a terrifying world.” –Examiner.com
“Squeamish as I am, Grant has me hooked with the compelling characters that populate the Go BZRK storyworld.” –Michael Anderson, WIRED magazine
“Grant utilizes contemporary themes and memorable characters, along with the possibilities of emerging technology to craft aningenious world not too far removed from our own. … The intelligent presentation will likely appeal to a broad audience.” –PopCultureGuy
“If you are anything like me then BZRK will blow your mind. … BZRK is very different from pretty much any YA book out there at the moment, and the closest I can come to expressing how it is continuing to play on my mind almost two weeks later, is to liken it to William Gibson's Neuromancer which had a similar effect on me many years ago. BZRK is a gamechanger for YA literature.” –The Book Zone
“This novel is full of the intricacies of the human body and non-stop action on all fronts. … An intricately written science fiction thriller, BZRK offers an in-depthlook into a war raging deep within the human body.” –Deseret News
“Squeamish as I am, Grant has me hooked with the compelling characters that populate the Go BZRK storyworld.” –Michael Anderson, WIRED magazine
“Grant utilizes contemporary themes and memorable characters, along with the possibilities of emerging technology to craft aningenious world not too far removed from our own. … The intelligent presentation will likely appeal to a broad audience.” –PopCultureGuy
“If you are anything like me then BZRK will blow your mind. … BZRK is very different from pretty much any YA book out there at the moment, and the closest I can come to expressing how it is continuing to play on my mind almost two weeks later, is to liken it to William Gibson's Neuromancer* which had a similar effect on me many years ago. BZRK* is a gamechanger for YA literature.” –The Book Zone
“This novel is full of the intricacies of the human body and non-stop action on all fronts. … An intricately written science fiction thriller, BZRK offers an in-depthlook into a war raging deep within the human body.” –*Deseret News
Praise for Gone, by Michael Grant:
An ALA Popular Paperback for Young Adults
"This intense, marvelously plotted, paced, and characterized story will immediately garner comparisons to Lord of the Flies...A potent mix of action and thoughtfulness-centered around good and evil, courage and cowardice-renders this a tour-de-force that will leave readers dazed, disturbed, and utterly breathless." -* Booklist
"If Stephen King had written LORD OF THE FLIES, it might have been a little like this...Excited to see where [Grant] will take [the reader] with this new series." - Voya*
About the AuthorMichael Grant has spent much of his life on the move. Raised in a military family in the USA, he attended ten schools in five states, as well as three schools in France. Even as an adult he kept moving, and in fact he became a writer in part because it was one of the few jobs that wouldn’t tie him down. His dream is to spend a whole year circumnavigating the globe and visiting every continent. He lives in Marin County, California, with his wife, Katherine Applegate, their two children, and far too many pets. You can visit him online at www.themichaelgrant.com.
November 2, 2021
This book started off with a bang with the book setting the pace that we would be dealing with in this book, which was a fast pace with something always happening and always a twist coming up through out the book that really left me shell shocked with these twist mostly coming from the deaths that were issued in this book with so much death being left in the wake by the end of the book with me many of deaths leaving me very upset seeing that i really liked some of these characters
This book introduced us to lear with us finally seeing who she is and what her motivations is behind coming up with this game, with me not particularly liking her pov seeing that that i think she came across as very bland to be honest with her just wanting to make a new world no matter the consequences which is the same as many villains so i think she lacked development and lacked anything that made her unique to be honest with you seeing that she was just plain crazy with nothing else behind her personality. I think she had to be introduced but i must say i think the author failed her characters, with me perfering her when she was working in the shadow seeing that she had that edge of mystique behind her.
I must say to be honest even though this is a war book and i know that people were defeo going die on both sides, but my good it just felt like the good guys never got a break with their whole team being nearly wiped out which i was not happy with but my god did he shock me then that answer would be a hard yes. i wish some of the good guys made it to be honest with you, and now if i had to pick to bring one back now that would be an hard one to answer but it defeo be the kid to be honest with you which i liked in the second book and wished he had a bigger role in the book.
Now did not only the good guys lose a lot of people the bad guys did too with most of them being wiped off the board, by the end of the book with one particular characters death being poetic seeing that it is one of the things that they wanted and then it happened but their wish did not exactly come to pass as they wanted it with me loving that they just got about being separate people but then bam they hit the pavement so i do think it was poetic in that sense.
Now that ending my jesus has the world changed for the worse then the answer would be yes but i do love that even though their were so much misery towards the end of this book, i did like that by the end we were left with that sense of hope which i thought was a powerfully comment on resilience so even though the world had gone to shit the end shown that their is a light at the end of the tunnel. I must say poor sadia my heart breaks for her because my god she has gone through so much, lost so many people that she loved and had to make so many hard decision at such a young age so was i left shock with how broken she was but thank the lord she did not die because now then i would have just been like no this is just not happening. Even though sadia went through such despair it was happy to see her get some closure in her life and maybe find a bit of happiness because she was alright by the time we last saw her.
This book introduced us to lear with us finally seeing who she is and what her motivations is behind coming up with this game, with me not particularly liking her pov seeing that that i think she came across as very bland to be honest with her just wanting to make a new world no matter the consequences which is the same as many villains so i think she lacked development and lacked anything that made her unique to be honest with you seeing that she was just plain crazy with nothing else behind her personality. I think she had to be introduced but i must say i think the author failed her characters, with me perfering her when she was working in the shadow seeing that she had that edge of mystique behind her.
I must say to be honest even though this is a war book and i know that people were defeo going die on both sides, but my good it just felt like the good guys never got a break with their whole team being nearly wiped out which i was not happy with but my god did he shock me then that answer would be a hard yes. i wish some of the good guys made it to be honest with you, and now if i had to pick to bring one back now that would be an hard one to answer but it defeo be the kid to be honest with you which i liked in the second book and wished he had a bigger role in the book.
Now did not only the good guys lose a lot of people the bad guys did too with most of them being wiped off the board, by the end of the book with one particular characters death being poetic seeing that it is one of the things that they wanted and then it happened but their wish did not exactly come to pass as they wanted it with me loving that they just got about being separate people but then bam they hit the pavement so i do think it was poetic in that sense.
Now that ending my jesus has the world changed for the worse then the answer would be yes but i do love that even though their were so much misery towards the end of this book, i did like that by the end we were left with that sense of hope which i thought was a powerfully comment on resilience so even though the world had gone to shit the end shown that their is a light at the end of the tunnel. I must say poor sadia my heart breaks for her because my god she has gone through so much, lost so many people that she loved and had to make so many hard decision at such a young age so was i left shock with how broken she was but thank the lord she did not die because now then i would have just been like no this is just not happening. Even though sadia went through such despair it was happy to see her get some closure in her life and maybe find a bit of happiness because she was alright by the time we last saw her.
November 10, 2023
This book started off with a bang with the book setting the pace that we would be dealing with in this book, which was a fast pace with something always happening and always a twist coming up through out the book that really left me shell shocked with these twist mostly coming from the deaths that were issued in this book with so much death being left in the wake by the end of the book with me many of deaths leaving me very upset seeing that i really liked some of these characters
This book introduced us to lear with us finally seeing who she is and what her motivations is behind coming up with this game, with me not particularly liking her pov seeing that that i think she came across as very bland to be honest with her just wanting to make a new world no matter the consequences which is the same as many villains so i think she lacked development and lacked anything that made her unique to be honest with you seeing that she was just plain crazy with nothing else behind her personality. I think she had to be introduced but i must say i think the author failed her characters, with me perfering her when she was working in the shadow seeing that she had that edge of mystique behind her.
I must say to be honest even though this is a war book and i know that people were defeo going die on both sides, but my good it just felt like the good guys never got a break with their whole team being nearly wiped out which i was not happy with but my god did he shock me then that answer would be a hard yes. i wish some of the good guys made it to be honest with you, and now if i had to pick to bring one back now that would be an hard one to answer but it defeo be the kid to be honest with you which i liked in the second book and wished he had a bigger role in the book.
Now did not only the good guys lose a lot of people the bad guys did too with most of them being wiped off the board, by the end of the book with one particular characters death being poetic seeing that it is one of the things that they wanted and then it happened but their wish did not exactly come to pass as they wanted it with me loving that they just got about being separate people but then bam they hit the pavement so i do think it was poetic in that sense.
Now that ending my jesus has the world changed for the worse then the answer would be yes but i do love that even though their were so much misery towards the end of this book, i did like that by the end we were left with that sense of hope which i thought was a powerfully comment on resilience so even though the world had gone to shit the end shown that their is a light at the end of the tunnel. I must say poor sadia my heart breaks for her because my god she has gone through so much, lost so many people that she loved and had to make so many hard decision at such a young age so was i left shock with how broken she was but thank the lord she did not die because now then i would have just been like no this is just not happening. Even though sadia went through such despair it was happy to see her get some closure in her life and maybe find a bit of happiness because she was alright by the time we last saw her.
This book introduced us to lear with us finally seeing who she is and what her motivations is behind coming up with this game, with me not particularly liking her pov seeing that that i think she came across as very bland to be honest with her just wanting to make a new world no matter the consequences which is the same as many villains so i think she lacked development and lacked anything that made her unique to be honest with you seeing that she was just plain crazy with nothing else behind her personality. I think she had to be introduced but i must say i think the author failed her characters, with me perfering her when she was working in the shadow seeing that she had that edge of mystique behind her.
I must say to be honest even though this is a war book and i know that people were defeo going die on both sides, but my good it just felt like the good guys never got a break with their whole team being nearly wiped out which i was not happy with but my god did he shock me then that answer would be a hard yes. i wish some of the good guys made it to be honest with you, and now if i had to pick to bring one back now that would be an hard one to answer but it defeo be the kid to be honest with you which i liked in the second book and wished he had a bigger role in the book.
Now did not only the good guys lose a lot of people the bad guys did too with most of them being wiped off the board, by the end of the book with one particular characters death being poetic seeing that it is one of the things that they wanted and then it happened but their wish did not exactly come to pass as they wanted it with me loving that they just got about being separate people but then bam they hit the pavement so i do think it was poetic in that sense.
Now that ending my jesus has the world changed for the worse then the answer would be yes but i do love that even though their were so much misery towards the end of this book, i did like that by the end we were left with that sense of hope which i thought was a powerfully comment on resilience so even though the world had gone to shit the end shown that their is a light at the end of the tunnel. I must say poor sadia my heart breaks for her because my god she has gone through so much, lost so many people that she loved and had to make so many hard decision at such a young age so was i left shock with how broken she was but thank the lord she did not die because now then i would have just been like no this is just not happening. Even though sadia went through such despair it was happy to see her get some closure in her life and maybe find a bit of happiness because she was alright by the time we last saw her.
March 24, 2020
Everyone gets what was coming for them, we wrap up in a hurry, people die in gruesome ways. Weird happy ending. All the books in this series follow the same pattern, and I can’t give any of them more than 3 stars because of that.
Also, this author is extremely horny. A lot of he descriptions were overly sexual (even in situations that weren’t sexual in the slightest), and a lot of gratuitous sex scenes were peppered here and there, when they did nothing for the plot or general development.
In war, there are of course many horrors, and they can usually be categorised into main boxes (death, gore, madness, rape...), but Michael Grant took it too far. Burnovsky being aroused every time he thinks about shooting his daughter? Too far, too explicit, too descriptive, brought up too many times, as if it were something the author enjoyed writing about. We got shown how even the good guys did terrible things, questionable things, but some stuff only needs to be written about once, if done well. How many times will we read about a man jacking off to his daughter’s murder before we start the question the author’s motives? Burnovsky was wired to enjoy it, the readers were not. The author seemed to be, though. Grey morality is a fascinating thing to read about, humans making terrible decisions in war is something that needs to be discussed, but there needs to be a sense of condemnation coming from, if not the author himself, at least through the characters. In this case, it came across as a sexual thing, not psychological warfare, something to enjoy reading about.
The deaths of the main cast seemed pointless, thrown in for shock value, something for Sadie to be sad about and ruminate over after she’s settled down in the future and rebuilt her life. The romance seemed secondary, until it served the plot for it not to be. Everything was jumbled, minor things blown out of proportion to further development, important points pushed back when they became too much of a hindrance.
As usual, we got an info dump of science facts once new things were added to the plot, written as though explained to an illiterate child, and repeated over and over throughout the book. It made the world building exhausting, frustrating, and way too long winded.
I did enjoy Lear’s genius, her madness, the discussion over good and bad, how you can spiral from one side to the other, the descent into madness, putting on a facade to hide the crazy. She was a very good character to talk about morality, but she was only brought in in the last book, then dumped unceremoniously in favor of Sadie’s heartbreak. She was not built with the series, we weren’t given the chance to unmask her as the plot progressed in previous books, and the fact that she had 400 pages to be developed, descend into madness, then defeated made that plot feel like a rushed afterthought.
Overall, good writing, meh characters, and a study on sanity that felt superficial and immature.
Also, this author is extremely horny. A lot of he descriptions were overly sexual (even in situations that weren’t sexual in the slightest), and a lot of gratuitous sex scenes were peppered here and there, when they did nothing for the plot or general development.
In war, there are of course many horrors, and they can usually be categorised into main boxes (death, gore, madness, rape...), but Michael Grant took it too far. Burnovsky being aroused every time he thinks about shooting his daughter? Too far, too explicit, too descriptive, brought up too many times, as if it were something the author enjoyed writing about. We got shown how even the good guys did terrible things, questionable things, but some stuff only needs to be written about once, if done well. How many times will we read about a man jacking off to his daughter’s murder before we start the question the author’s motives? Burnovsky was wired to enjoy it, the readers were not. The author seemed to be, though. Grey morality is a fascinating thing to read about, humans making terrible decisions in war is something that needs to be discussed, but there needs to be a sense of condemnation coming from, if not the author himself, at least through the characters. In this case, it came across as a sexual thing, not psychological warfare, something to enjoy reading about.
The deaths of the main cast seemed pointless, thrown in for shock value, something for Sadie to be sad about and ruminate over after she’s settled down in the future and rebuilt her life. The romance seemed secondary, until it served the plot for it not to be. Everything was jumbled, minor things blown out of proportion to further development, important points pushed back when they became too much of a hindrance.
As usual, we got an info dump of science facts once new things were added to the plot, written as though explained to an illiterate child, and repeated over and over throughout the book. It made the world building exhausting, frustrating, and way too long winded.
I did enjoy Lear’s genius, her madness, the discussion over good and bad, how you can spiral from one side to the other, the descent into madness, putting on a facade to hide the crazy. She was a very good character to talk about morality, but she was only brought in in the last book, then dumped unceremoniously in favor of Sadie’s heartbreak. She was not built with the series, we weren’t given the chance to unmask her as the plot progressed in previous books, and the fact that she had 400 pages to be developed, descend into madness, then defeated made that plot feel like a rushed afterthought.
Overall, good writing, meh characters, and a study on sanity that felt superficial and immature.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 1, 2018
Can we just take a second to appreciate what a legend Michael Grant is.
*1 second later*
Honestly, I can't express how amazing this series is. Like... it's left me speechless. The number of plot twists, the character development, the world, the ideas, the... everything.
Kudos again to Grant for creating a truly interesting and riveting micro/macro/nano technologic story. His work never ceases to amaze me.
*1 second later*
Honestly, I can't express how amazing this series is. Like... it's left me speechless. The number of plot twists, the character development, the world, the ideas, the... everything.
Kudos again to Grant for creating a truly interesting and riveting micro/macro/nano technologic story. His work never ceases to amaze me.
December 12, 2018
In BZRK: Apocalypse, by Michael Grant, Sadie Mclure and Noah Cotton are on a mission to save the world together. Sadie is a rich teenage girl who has lost all of her close family already. She becomes the leader of a rag tag group of unique people. Noah is almost the exact opposite. He grew up poor in a rundown part of London. He always had to work for everything and he loved playing video games. The two together make a good team that would do anything for each other. The main problem they had was how to do the right thing and if it was the right thing for everyone.
One thing they always talk about in the book is how they love gaming. They say gaming is one place they can always go and have fun competing. I love to compete in sports and I like to play games. Throughout history, there have always been power hungry leaders who want to take over the world. Genghis Khan killed the most people by any leader and wanted to take over the world. The main antagonist in the book wants the same thing. She creates her own game to kill as many people as she can and watch them go mad.
I liked how much action there was in the book. I would always be thinking about what would happen and what could happen. Just like them playing the game. The author did really well writing the plot and explaining the background while also keeping mysteries. I would recommend this book to a friend to read because there was never a dull moment in the plot.
One thing they always talk about in the book is how they love gaming. They say gaming is one place they can always go and have fun competing. I love to compete in sports and I like to play games. Throughout history, there have always been power hungry leaders who want to take over the world. Genghis Khan killed the most people by any leader and wanted to take over the world. The main antagonist in the book wants the same thing. She creates her own game to kill as many people as she can and watch them go mad.
I liked how much action there was in the book. I would always be thinking about what would happen and what could happen. Just like them playing the game. The author did really well writing the plot and explaining the background while also keeping mysteries. I would recommend this book to a friend to read because there was never a dull moment in the plot.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 8, 2018
!Slight spoilers ahead, nothing specific though!
And, the end of the series. What a ride that was! I am really happy for the luck I had, when once, years ago, I saw the first book of the Gone series in a charity shop and bought it. This is how I reached this moment, to have read both the Gone and BZRK series. Unlike the second book, this time I was happy with the way the characters were developed. Lear finally appeared, our heroes looked doomed throughout the book, some very important main characters died, which is something Michael Grant enjoys doing (George R.R. Martin would be proud of him!), and the action had a thrilling finale. I am not that happy with the scale of destruction. It took quite some time for the plethora of different "evil" plots to be subdued, and it just didn't feel that heart-breaking to see that many victims (tens of millions), just because the scale of destruction vastly outweighed the previous books. I am still happy with the finale though, and am looking forward for another one of his mesmerizing books!
And, the end of the series. What a ride that was! I am really happy for the luck I had, when once, years ago, I saw the first book of the Gone series in a charity shop and bought it. This is how I reached this moment, to have read both the Gone and BZRK series. Unlike the second book, this time I was happy with the way the characters were developed. Lear finally appeared, our heroes looked doomed throughout the book, some very important main characters died, which is something Michael Grant enjoys doing (George R.R. Martin would be proud of him!), and the action had a thrilling finale. I am not that happy with the scale of destruction. It took quite some time for the plethora of different "evil" plots to be subdued, and it just didn't feel that heart-breaking to see that many victims (tens of millions), just because the scale of destruction vastly outweighed the previous books. I am still happy with the finale though, and am looking forward for another one of his mesmerizing books!
May 13, 2018
Now I have to admit, that was a weird ending.
It started off OK with the whole biot madness and “ah who’s doing this?” and it was good with Lear being a unsuspicious woman who was actually clinically insane and hear voices from her tattoos. As always, Michael Grant added a dark twist to the book, with the very gory details and so on.
The ending was a little bit anticlimactic like “yay we saved the world and now we are running a pizza restaurant yaaaaayy!!” And then Wilkes and Bug Man are together. Didn’t see that coming.
However, I don’t think the series could have had a better closure, as it seems to have rounded everything up nicely.
Anyway, a good book overall and would recommend the series to anyone.
One thing though: what happened to Jessica?
It started off OK with the whole biot madness and “ah who’s doing this?” and it was good with Lear being a unsuspicious woman who was actually clinically insane and hear voices from her tattoos. As always, Michael Grant added a dark twist to the book, with the very gory details and so on.
The ending was a little bit anticlimactic like “yay we saved the world and now we are running a pizza restaurant yaaaaayy!!” And then Wilkes and Bug Man are together. Didn’t see that coming.
However, I don’t think the series could have had a better closure, as it seems to have rounded everything up nicely.
Anyway, a good book overall and would recommend the series to anyone.
One thing though: what happened to Jessica?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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