Velocity

by Chris Wooding

The Fast and the Furious meets The Hunger Games in acclaimed author Chris Wooding's blistering vision of the future. Buckle up for a fast-paced, high-octane thrill ride!Cassica and Shiara are best friends. They couldn't be more different, but their differences work to their advantage -- especially when they're drag racing. Cassica is fearless and determined, making her the perfect driver for daring, photo-finish victories. Shiara is intelligent and creative, able to build cars out of scrap and formulate daring strategies from the passenger's seat.Now they've set their sights on the Widowmaker -- the biggest, most anticipated, and most dangerous race of the year. The winners get a pass to a life of luxury and fame. The losers, more often than not, die in fiery explosions. And even if Cassica and Shiara survive the deadly three-day challenge... their friendship might be roadkill.This breathless reimagining of extreme sports is perfect for fans of Mad Fury Road and NASCAR.

Genres: Science Fiction, Young Adult, Fantasy, Dystopia, Fiction, Adventure, Audiobook

329 pages, Hardcover

First published July 2, 2015

About the author

Chris Wooding grew up in a small town in Leicestershire, where not much of anything happened. So he started to write novels. He was sixteen when he completed his first. He had an agent by eighteen. By nineteen he had signed his first book deal. When he left university he began to write full-time, and he has been doing it professionally all his adult life.

Now thirty-nine, Chris has written over twenty books, which have been translated into twenty languages, won various awards and been published around the world. He writes for film and television, and has several projects in development.

Chris has travelled extensively round the world, having backpacked all over Europe and North America, Scandinavia, South East Asia, Japan and South Africa. He also lived in Madrid for a time. When he wasn’t travelling on his own, he spent his twenties touring with bands and seeing the UK and Europe from the back of a van.

He also learned not so long ago that his family tree can be traced back to John Milton, author of Paradise Lost, which has no bearing on him whatsoever but it’s kind of interesting anyway.

Chris lives in London.

Reviews

[jv poore · Rating 4 out of 5]

With an almost-manic-joy bubbling beneath the determined calm needed for navigation, Velocity takes off; tearing through teeth-rattling turns and bone-jarring twists. The tale of the unprecedented quick-track that takes Cassica and Shiara from racing the “unofficial boondocks circuit” to a qualifier for the Widowmaker, “the most hotly contested rally in the world”, flies faster than Maisie. Try not to take it too quickly though, lest you miss the interspersed clever, cutting humor and gradual growth of the girls, both as individuals and as a team.

Admittedly, I was seriously psyched to be reading about a female rally-car team. Being familiar with rally racing because it was something that another author I admire, Maggie Stiefvater, participated in; I believe her words describe it best, “…when the co-driver and driver are working perfectly together, you can hurtle along blindly, much faster than a) someone without notes or b) someone with common sense.” Certainly, Cassica and Shiara are tighter than twin sisters.

Shiara’s family had taken in Cassica when the girls were very young and while Cassica didn’t share Shiara’s fondness for tinkering and building cars, such as their beloved mongrel of so many different parts, Maisie, she happily hopped behind the wheel. While they shared so much, each had her own dream. One would be more than content to continue racing the tracks here in Coppermouth while the other yearns for…so much more.

Sometimes, helping your best friend achieve her dream means more than anything, even if the effort is not wholly altruistic. So, in spite of her skepticism, Shiara agrees to accept an unsolicited offer for sponsorship and management for a chance to qualify for the pinnacle of Maximum Racing season. Cassica is quickly dazzled and swept up in the glamour while Shiara is surlier than usual and even more suspicious than her teammate can stomach. It’s soon apparent that the terrifying tracks are only a small part of the danger that the duo will face. Suddenly, the girls are in so deep that no one can help them. They truly only have each other—or maybe not even that, anymore.

This review was written for Buried Under Books by jv poore.

[Jessica Haugo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Passes the Bechdel test with flying colors!!!!

[Katy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one started off slow for me, but picked it a bit into the story. Fun book.

I received my copy free through Goodreads Giveaways.

[Joel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chris Wooding never disappoints. I’ve enjoyed every book I’ve read by him so far, and this one is no exception. For the races alone this book is awesome. But I’ve also always liked Mr. Woodings prose, his descriptions. This story is as action-packed, fast-paced, and brutal as the races depicted. The two main characters are interesting to read about: one very sympathetic and one hard to like for most of the book. The world is also a very interesting post-apocalyptic setting.

Review of Content

Intimate relationships between teens are discussed though with no graphic detail and some foul language is present throughout.

[Katya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Screw you, Wooding. Screw you real hard. For you have just given me a book with the two most believable characters I have had the fortune of meeting. The plot was predictable, and in a true Wooding style there was a nice twist at the end that, although not impossible, was a little hard to predict; the character arcs were brilliantly done; the prose was easy and entertaining. This ticks all the boxes of one of those books you can lose yourself from page one until the very end: believable characters, non-stop edge of the seat and breathtaking action.

This is by far not only Wooding's best YA novel he has written to date, but also best YA novel I have read in a very long time, if ever. Shame I can't give this book 10 starts out of five ;)

[Kate Reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

This would have been an amazing opportunity to for an awesome queer story and certainly seemed like it might be in the beginning but they didn't go for it. I spent half the book thinking one of the girls had a crush on the other before they pulled a random racer over to become her crush. Ugh.

This is basically the Speed Racer movie plot wise but still enjoyable and exciting.

[Caitlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not gonna lie, based on the cover of my edition I assumed it was going to be a much more queer story. Instead it was a perfectly acceptable dystopia with no mentions of race or sexuality. Not a bad story at all, engaging action, just come to expect better from stories I read.

[Bryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was incredibly fun and immensely satisfying. From the sheer action to the wonderful character arcs to the way everything came round in a circle in the end, basically everything about this book was great.

The world was really really fun. It's somehow like, completely my aesthetic. The only things missing are aliens and terrifying Eldritch-like creatures from the deep ocean, but I think adding those might have been over the top. Anyhow, everything is super interesting and fleshed out just enough without being too complex.

The writing is also really good. There was a lot of dialogue mirroring and I loved it. There were some scenes that were really great; a couple that stood out to me were Harlan's introduction early on and the entire last scene. Or last like five scenes. Or all the scenes.

The plot was straightforward, but I really liked it. Mostly stuff moved in a somewhat predictable manner, but there was a twist at about the halfway mark I didn't see coming. Everything is kept interesting and engaging, and the pacing is really good.

I also really enjoyed the characters. Cassica and Shiara are both wonderful main characters. Their arcs through the book were both really good. Their relationship with each other was awesome and pretty much exactly what I'm looking for with character relationships. The side characters were good as well, and while a lot of them were a little archetypal, it's the kind of archetypal I like, with just enough originality to set it apart while fitting into the tropes to slot into the story.

Overall, this was an absolutely fantastic book to start out the year with. It was pretty much everything I wanted and wasn't aware I needed.

[Addie · Rating 2 out of 5]

VCIWGCBUICPH. Do you know what would have made this book infinitely better? IF CASSICA AND SHIRA ADMITTED THEY WERE IN LOVE. Like you seriously want me to believe that two VERY badass girls who drive in competitive racing, aren't even a little bit fruity. Not to mention they don't even have good chemistry with the male love interests! It annoys me so much when authors go out of their way to make charters straight. Now despite screaming at Cassica and Shira to get together the whole book, there were some other deciding factors in my review. The main thing being the writing. It was so bland and it felt like Chris Wooding took the easy way out by not describing whole ass days of the race. All the jumping between times was a bit confusing and left me wanting more. The lack of detailed descriptions irked me too, and again I was let down. Overall while the premise of this book is well thought out, I definitely would not recommend it.

[Christina Getrost · Rating 5 out of 5]

An action-packed dystopian adventure, for fans of car racing, science fiction, strong independent girl heroines, or all of the above! It's like Mad Max crossed with Deathrace 3000 crossed with any number of teen dystopias. Cassica and Shiara are best friends who live in Coppermouth, a frontier town of the Wastelands, in what is a harsh barren post-apocalyptic landscape. Hardscrabble folks just trying to eke out a living, everyone in the Wastelands dreams of someday becoming a "Celestial," one of the chosen elites who live luxurious hedonistic lives way above the planet on "Olympus," a space station connected to the Earth by a big elevator. Cassica drives the girls' racecar "Maisie," built and maintained by "Tech" Shiara, in local races on the Maximum Racing circuit, hoping to win enough races and money to qualify for the big race: a three-day endurance test called The Widowmaker. These races require not only speed and stamina but also hairtrigger reflexes and nerves of steel, because also in the races are Wreckers, drivers whose sole job is to try to knock others out of the race, often killing them! The Wreckers drive armored tanks with huge drills, or have other deadly weapons on their cars. So it's almost like a demolition derby over cross country terrain--and the terrain itself is also the enemy, for example a swamp containing mutated creatures who attack the drivers, things like that. Crazy! Cassica and Shiara have a lot of odds stacked against them as they navigate through this high-stakes challenge. The book is a lot of fun, full of fast-paced racing action (very hazardous when I was listening to the audiobook while driving my own car: I had to resist the impulse to speed up and play racecar driver!!), cool sci-fi elements I won't spoil here, and a great story of friendship between the girls. I also loved all the out-of-this-world character names and homespun dialect of some of the characters. Mr. Wooding knows how to create a world and make it realistic.

[Edshara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This wasn't as good as I thought it would be, but it was okay. First, it was a bit confusing, because the author just drops you in the world with only vague explanations of the differences. Their are mutated species of animals like Jackwolves and Doghawks. And it's all just summed up as their was a war between humans and aliens.

I was hoping the friendship would be stronger but it was the stereotypical kind, one might be used to. One friend is overly confident, selfish, hungry for fame, and beautiful(Cassica). The other is a little bit chunky which makes her insecure, fearful, wary of others, yet she's loyal to a fault (Shiara). Cassica takes advantage of Shiara and at times Shiara is a bit too needy. Thankfully their was some character growth as the book progressed.

As far as the racing goes it reminded me of the movie Death Race. Their was a lot of action and death. Those parts were neat, if you like action type movies or books. I read parts of this book along with the audiobook. The audiobook narrator was pretty good and she brought all the characters to life with different tones and accents. This wasn't a bad book, however I know I won't read it again.

[Tyler M. · Rating 2 out of 5]

The cover of the book is pretty eye-catching. The car looks super cool and the girls look like they don't have a care in the world. However, this book was an extremely slow mover and there wasn't much of a message or anything to grab from it. Throughout the story, the reader is waiting for the climax or a plot twist. Honestly, it doesn't happen and that's why reading this story was boring. The girls didn't face much adversity other than taking third place in a race to go on to a course that could possibly be fatal. There are a ton of pages that just make the story more confusing instead of adding a plot or adding detail to make it more interesting. Finishing the book was extremely difficult because you hope that there will be a climax and something that will make it worth reading but it never happens and there is really no point in reading a racing story where it's predictable and uninteresting. The ending was pretty awful and you couldn't hear or feel any excitement in the author's words or the character's voices. I did not enjoy this book and do not recommend reading this if you're looking for a racing book.

[Marisa · Rating 1 out of 5]

I super stalled out in this book. It was a struggle to read 50 pages in one week. The characters felt 2D and underdeveloped. The plot could be described as trying to be Mad Max meets Hunger Games. Plot was boring, typical, and presented nothing new. Too much throw away casual death. Dialogue was painful, monologues against this or that. Terrible conflict resolution between main characters.
Bad, just bad.

[Sawyer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dropped the book very early, in chapter 2. The writing was decent, but I was expecting a f/f romance. When it starts talking about how much Cassica wants some dude, I got suspicious and looked up reviews, only to find out the book doesn't touch on issues of sexuality at all. Don't know where I got the impression that it did.
Not terrible from the little bit I read, but not what I was looking for.

[Clare Ruesga · Rating 2 out of 5]

Slow to start and very predictable, but overall, a good fast read (once it got going).

[Patrick · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terribly Typical. Predictable.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars.
Loved Wooding's writing and characters as usual. A solid read.

[Marsha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Turbocharged and frenetic, this story hits the road racing and rarely lets up on the speed. But there’s more to this than zooming around the track. At the heart of this novel is the gripping relationship between two very different women: the magnetic, beautiful racer Cassica Hayle and her stolid, hard-working and brooding tech Shiara DuCal.

The novel pulses, throbs and seethes with the often contentious tension between these two. As a crucial race approaches, Shiara and Cassica find themselves drifting further apart in their desires and the reader is thoroughly caught up in their shifting dynamics. Most of the other characters are ably written in too, even supposedly shallow characters as Cassica’s surly ex-boyfriend Card or the quieter Sammis.

The author adroitly lays out the various milieus the girls find themselves in: the struggling but clannish small town of Coppermouth, the blasted post-apocalyptic wastelands and the hollowed-out cities where strung-out Howlers live, et al. But the real energy lies in the car races. These are fantastic passages that place the reader squarely in the midst of the action; it’s like someone describing a rollercoaster ride so accurately you can feel your stomach drop when the cars race down from the height of the loop.

This is a novel that aptly combines high-octane action with a powerful central friendship, in-depth characterization, plausible dialogue and enough car action to make NASCAR aficionados drool. Even if you’re no fan of car races, this novel grips you from the first sentence and doesn’t let go until the final page. It’s that terrific.

[Gemma · Rating 3 out of 5]

So this was the book I chose to get me back into reading after not even picking up a book for three months and this did exactly what I wanted it to do. I wanted something easy to read with a fast paced plot that wasn't too hard to follow or full of detail and that was just what this was.

I enjoyed the fast paced nature of this book. I read it really quickly and it kept me wanting to turn the page. I was hooked from beginning to end and there wasn't any point in which I found the story beginning to drag or where I found myself loosing focus. As I said before this was an easy story to follow and it wasn't bogged down with detail which is what I wanted from this book however, I do feel it would of benefited from some more world building. We were thrust into this dystopian, seemingly post-apocalyptic, world in the aftermath of a robot war and that's as much information as we got. I would of liked to know a bit more, what started the war, how it ended and some more detail in how the society was divided. That being said it didn't detract from my enjoyment of the story.

On the other hand I really enjoyed the characters and how they broke the gender stereotypical norms. The stories main focus is on this suicidal car race (think the film Death Race) and the competitors of this race and, this sort of thing is often seen as a very male heavy topic. However, our two main characters were female which I think was great, especially as someone who has an interest in cars and racing. They did experience some gender stereotypes within the story but nothing that they couldn't overcome and I particularly enjoyed their growth as characters throughout the book.

Overall this book did exactly what I wanted it to do and that was to provide me with a fast paced story to get me back on my reading game. It offered me the escape I needed to realise why I love reading and hopefully this has now brought me out of the slump I've been in. Don't go into this book looking for literacy brilliance but if your looking for a fast paced, fun escape then I would recommend this one.

[Deborah · Rating 5 out of 5]

A post-apocalyptic NASCAR race? Normally, my love of post-apoc would be overridden by my need to roll my eyes at NASCAR. A challenge, I know. But it's Chris Wooding, so I gave it a shot and I'm glad I did. A sports-type fight to the death may not be original, but if that's the bare bones, then the sinew, muscle, tendons, and blood are what matters.

Cassica and Shiara are interesting, dynamic, flawed characters. At certain points I found myself really not liking Cassica, but I didn't dislike her as a character--I disliked her as a person. She felt real.

The setting is well developed. While we learn bits and pieces throughout the story, it never feels like a history lesson. Readers don't get all the answers, but aren't left feeling like they're missing something, either. There are monsters, bandits, and everything one would want in a post-apocalyptic Western.

Plot is where this story really shines. There's always a clear goal: win the race. This requires that various obstacles be overcome along the way, leaving a consistent sense of urgency and frequent sense of intimacy, and an ultimate uncertainty as it becomes clear that when characters are racing for paradise, they better agree on what paradise ought to look like.

[Lindsay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh boy. Oh boy, oh boy. It's been a long time since a book has left me totally dumbstruck, but here we are. This isn't a long read- I finished it over the course of an eight-hour road trip. However, Chris Wooding does an excellent job of weaving together important life lessons, stunning imagery, fleshed-out characters and heart-pounding action in a way that makes 'Velocity' impossible to put down.

I have to say, what struck me most was the humanity of the characters. A lot of the conversations and emotions described throughout were eerily familiar and applicable to day-to-day life, despite the post-apocalyptic setting.

Also, the whole apocalypse was handled with grace and humour that dystopian YA is not really known for. The 'old times' are hardly even mentioned, the characters were focused on the present and the future. It was refreshing to see a perspective that didn't just moan on about the good old days.

I loved this book the entire time I was reading it.

[Clint · Rating 5 out of 5]

Velocity is about two sisters from a small town who enjoy rally racing in a car they've built together. A talent scout scoops them up and sends them off to the big city to race in the big racing league. Exhilarating races mix with the girl's struggle to maintain their identity and friendship with each other.

I was worried this book wouldn't be as good as advertised in the goodreads reviews I skimmed and am pleasantly surprised! The race sequences were exciting and the characterization on the two main characters was excellent. I thought it did a pretty good job showing each girl's point of view and the resolution of problems without spelling it out too much for the reader through dialogue. The setting, while post apocalyptic, seemed realistically structured. The car mechanics were a bit iffy at times but that didn't really hurt my opinion too much. Lastly, the ending was measured and reasonable, which I appreciated. The story has its YA faults but generally I was very pleased.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fast-paced with minimal romance, this story features two small town girls on the racing circuit who get swept up into the reality-show-style major race in the big city. The prize is two tickets to a space station where they would be waited on hand and foot -- until they are voted off. Will Cassica and Shiara win those tickets? It's a long shot from the start, but grit and determination, great mechanical skills, and a willingness to push the limits should take them a long way.

Features bleak references to the armageddon of nuclear war that is now in their country's past, as well as some graphic descriptions of violence and death. The friendship between Cassica and Shiara is realistically depicted as it fractures and mends and they try to figure out what their goals really are.

[RB Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this novel so much more than I originally expected. Velocity is the story of two girls who band together to compete in the ultimate race - the Widowmaker. Against all odds, they fight off those who want to kill them, the many obstacles in their way, and prejudices against them for being nobodies in this famous race. Cassica and Shiara are very different people, but the best of friends. Their friendship and loyalties to each other are tested, as well as the truths they hold about themselves when push comes to shove. A fun read to lovers of thrillers, dystopian Hunger Game-like stories, and even Mad Max lovers!

[Engel Dreizehn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought it was going to be cheesey when I handled it and was aware Mad Max (yes very much paralleling Road Warrior but with mutants + monsters) was on the scene too...but I was surprised to actually find it fun with complex political social world building and very fast pacing. I was kind of expecting "the paradise" would not be paradise but surprised it was just as cutthroat + wacky as Earth. At least with Earth, you get to stay and can try to fix things which the girls do with the money from the ticket sale and possibly the fallout from their rebel win.

[Baran · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book reminded me more of the Speed Racer movie than Mad Max in style and in plot. Except instead of safety devices activating and drivers bouncing away harmlessly in crashes, they died horribly and the camera lingered on the burned and mutilated bodies of teenagers. It was jarringly dark and felt unearned.

Despite that the races were interesting. Once they got going, the book was smart enough to keep the downtime between the races short, so the last two thirds kept me engaged.

[Heidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. It was a teenage racing book of Fast and Furious meets The Hunger Games meets The Running Man. It was predictable in some places but overall entertaining. The biggest theme was one of friendship and respect for the partnership that friendship and home brings to relationships.

[Amanda Wilkerson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although the plot to this book doesn't break any new ground -- it's like a grittier, post apocalyptic Speed Racer -- I enjoyed that the two main characters are pretty real. Their emotional reactions to events, annoying tendency to make the very mistake you can see coming a mile away, and willingness to keep working at their relationship were very relatable and realistic.

[Kaye Arnold · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book for young adults. For fans of the hunger games type stories. This book is about car racers that take on a deadly race to see who will win and gain two tickets to Earth's off-world space station paradise. Earth has been poisoned by an omniwar that left the grounds destroyed and the atmosphere tainted. A little predictable, but still n ok read.

[Kim B. · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's almost tragic how perfectly describing this book in racing terms works. It started out strong and was killer for a while, but then it tragically went off the rails, and ultimately I didn't make it to the finish. Which sucks, because I liked Shiara; everything around her was just half-baked.