Across the Universe (Across The Universe #1)

I'm not usually drawn to books set in space, but this book won me over instantly. The world building is fabulous. The ship is practically a character in its own right. And the ship has SECRETS.

Oh, the secrets.

When Amy and her parents are cyogenically frozen, she expects to wake up in a new world on a new planet. Intead, she is (accidentally? deliberately?) awakened 50 years too early. Bonding with her new ally Elder (the future ruler of the ship), Amy struggles to come to terms with her new surroundings, the fact that her parents remain frozen, and the strange happenings on the ship.

Especially when those strange happenings include murder.

This was absorbing, fascinating, and left me craving more. Highly recommend.

Across the Universe is awesome, much better than the other book that I read recently that is very similar to this, Glow. When I picked this book of the bookshelf I thought it was the next book to Glow, as it seemed so alike, but I was wrong, and this book out shined that book by miles.

I must say I liked the mystery aboard this massive ship. How Amy woke up and was launched into a problem that the people of the ship lived with everyday. It was so sad to know that Amy couldn't go back to sleep and wake up with her parents, her awakening destroyed that possibility. I like the whole 'murder' mystery, and the way that Amy drew over her wall with the black paint, I thought that was super creative.

I was disgusted by the 'Feeders'. I thought at the beginning that they were just born like that, simple minded, uneducated peasants. But after a while, the book started describing the people as having no emotion, and that was made me think harder. And finally the season, now that was disgusting. Normal people wouldn't be like that, in the streets like that. It was disgusting!!

The cover of the book implies romance between Amy and Elder. And there was, but not the obsessive type that a lot of books are about now days. I though that this was great, the fire between them wasn't there, and there were a few kisses shared, but it wasn't a to major part.

Across the Universe is an amazing book, a tale that is built on lies that have been so intertwined it is impossible to tell if it is really the truth. I reckon if you had to pick a science fiction book about this sort of futuristic traveling, This is the one to pick. It is brilliant.

I knew I wasn’t going to love this book ever since I first heard about it and I avoided getting it for the longest time, but I eventually gave in because I had to see for myself what it was all about. I believe it’s safe to say that although I liked the book enough, it definitely didn’t do anything for me.

Across the Universe was basically a detailed explanation of the setting for the rest of the series. A quarter of the book was Beth describing the ship in vast detail and of Amy’s inner monologue while she was frozen. Even after Amy wakes up, there’s very little action, just her exploring her new world and Elder falling head over heels in love with her at first sight. And love wasn’t even a big issue in this book at all. What little interaction Elder and Amy had did nothing to spur their romance and I honestly couldn’t connect to either, or any, character.

The only thing I’ll give Beth credit for is creating such a intriguing and quite plausible future world, but very little happens at all, when I was expecting action and adventure aboard a space ship with a crazy, tyrannical villan/leader. You got a tiny bit of action in the end, but that flew by within a couple pages, and you’re left on a big ship with nothing to do now. I’m very interested in seeing where exactly Beth is going with this and pray there will be more action and romance in the next book since, I’m hoping, she’s done with all the scenery and ship-talk.

Don’t get me wrong, I did like the book and finished it pretty quick, despite it’s slow pace, but if I hadn’t already bought it, I’d say wait until the whole series is out and then either borrow it from the library or buy the paperback/ebook versions since they’ll probably be cheaper.

Across the Universe opens with a very detailed and vivid scene where one of the book’s two point-of-view characters, Amy, watches her parents go into cryo-sleep and then undergoes the painful procedure herself. I’ve always been equally disgusted and fascinated by medical stuff, so I don’t think there could have been a more attention-grabbing hook than this one, personally.

From there, the story continues on in fast-paced chapters that alternate between Amy and Elder’s point of view. I was pretty hooked, I must say. Because there were two POV characters, Revis was able to end on a cliffhanger with one chapter and then go to a completely different part of the story in the next, so it was like a double cliffhanger (or something). I always wanted to keep reading and see what happened next. With this book, there’s really no good stopping place.

Bottom line for Across the Universe’s plot? It’s at once compelling and predictable. I knew from chapter 4 who the “mystery antagonist” was—Revis wasn’t subtle with her foreshadowing or hints. Might as well have been a big sign. But I wanted to keep reading; the twists in the plot kept things really interesting. I don’t mind predictibility if it’s well-handled, it seems.
I also really liked the dystopian spaceship that Revis created in this novel. It was all very cohesively done, sickening at times, true, but well done. It was obvious that a lot of thought went into this book, and I appreciated the believable wordlbuilding and engaging setting.

Amy and Elder were both very interesting characters. I liked them a lot, and I wanted to see how they turned out. However, characterization is not Revis’s strongpoint, and while she created two interesting, likeable characters, they seemed to lack depth. I understood what they were doing and why they were reacting and what their motivations were, but the bottom layer—the part that would have made them human—was missing.

Considering that this book takes place in the space of less than a week, I was a bit skeptical of the promised “love” between Elder and Amy. And in the end, I was satisfied for the most part—there were no declarations of undying love or mushy kissing scenes. Amy was realistically aloof, and Elder was realistically experiencing an extreme case of insta-lust. I was fine with that on both sides.

Verdict: While the characterization was a little flat and the plot was hopelessly predictable, I liked Across the Universe. It was fast-paced and engaging, Revis writes well, and the aftertaste of the story itself is good. I will most certainly be reading the sequel.

a review by Nikki (sng2098)

Okay, so I read this in two days; but I did it for a read-a-thon I was part of. If it hadn't been for that then I probably wouldn't have even finished this book. I'm not gonna say it was boring, because it wasn't. There was just something about it that I didn't like.

After the first chapter pretty much the only parts I enjoyed were the chapters with Amy. It took 100 pages, and LONG 100 pages, for her to be unfrozen and part of the "world" they were living in.

As for the characters; I thought Harley and Elder were both annoying. Amy also got on my nerves, however not as bad as the other two did. I didn't think Elder would go along with Eldest as long as he did, and I didn't think Harley would be that whiny at the end.

I just thought the book was gonna go a different way and I probably would have rather seen it gone a different way; but none the less it was an okay read.

I found this book to be disappointing, in part for how far it fell from its potential. I'm afraid the dictates of a YA "romance" got in the way of what might have been a well-constructed tale, but above that, this novel suffered from characters who thought and acted outside of what should have been their frame of reference and I couldn't get past the author's misrepresentation of Newton's 1st Law of Motion.

When an object in space loses thrust, it does not slowly drift to a halt, as Revis claims her generation ship is doing vis a vis an engine that is incrementally losing power. This isn't a car in a parking lot. It's a spaceship in space. Frictionless objects will continue at their top speed until a force acts against them. If I sound nit-picky here, I'm not. This scenario is central to this book's plot, and Revis doesn't acknowledge the flaw. I was holding out hope that this "fact" in her story would prove another lie among many "secrets" important to the story. It was never resolved. I've since learned from a defensive reader that this flaw is addressed in further novels in the series. I'm glad to hear it, but each novel must stand on its own merits, in the end. I do wonder if an editor split up a larger ms, but still, the author should have hinted to us that she knows her physics while she had the chance. It's not appropriate to assume that I'll keep reading. Regardless, for all I know, the author could have only been made aware of this error in physics after publication, and set out to cover her tracks with clever scenario building in the 2nd book.

More importantly, I was troubled by how readily Elder adopted opinions and concerns and doubts about the ship and its leader (read: his universe as he knew it) that were unfaithful to what Elder's frame of reference would have been. Elder was too easily convinced that the social fabric of his ship was unjust and wrong and evil. His struggle with morality in the context of the ship's given ontology could have been a compelling story element. But this struggle did not exist. As an analogy, Revis' Elder was too akin to a Democratic Vice President suddenly up and switching parties because he met a cute Republican girl.

I was very intrigued by the premise of this novel. There are many fabulous ideas nestled deeply into the book. But ultimately the characters and the plot and the twists were too transparent and the story fell unfortunately flat for me.

Wow. I’m speechless. Let me describe this book through adjectives, and I DO mean what I am about to say.
Mind-blowing. Excellent. Beautiful. Amazing. Well done. Perfect.

MIND-BLOWING: Again, wow! WOW! From start to finish, and I mean LITERALLY from start to finish (from the cover, to the first chapter till it ended) it was mind blowing. I was hooked on from the very first chapter, and I knew after I read the first chapter that this brilliantly written book, Across the Universe, will be one of my favorites and deserves a 5/5 slamdunk stars. There were a lot of twists and unexpected things being thrown at your face throughout the book which I loved! It wasn’t predictable and you’ll keep guessing what will happen next. There are clues being dropped at you though, but it doesn’t take away the suspense.

EXCELLENT: The characters ROCKS! All. of. them. And yes, even the bad guys rocks! Each and every single one of their little cells fits the whole story and have a significance. The book is being told from Amy and Elder’s point of view. It alternates, and I love how each chapter wasn’t super long.

BEAUTIFUL: Besides the cover, the plot was just well thought of. *Claps*. This book made me feel all sorts of emotion whether it be sad, nervous, happy, excited, surprised, etc. I remember when I was reading towards the end of the book, my palms were sweating (lol).

AMAZING: The writing style and pacing was plain a-ah-mazing. If Beth Revis wanted you to feel sad on that part of the chapter, you’ll feel it. If she wanted her readers to feel surprised, well you will! The author delivers everything very well. The book wasn’t too slow or too fast. Flawless.

In three words, I could describe Across the Universe as WELL DONE & PERFECT. Not once was I confused, not once did I get bored, not once did I not leave the house without carrying this book. There’s so much adventure that I don’t want to mention anything in this review as anything would count as a spoiler. Everything just played out like a movie in my head while I was reading it. I highly recommend this book to all of you.

PREFACE:
Beth Revis' sci-fi trilogy is one you cannot escape in the YA world. I tried to read it and stopped not that far in because I just wasn't feeling it at the time. I gave it another chance recently and am very glad that I did because the hype is not for nothing.

WRITING:
Revis writes with a fluidity that is easy to read without being too simplistic. Despite this being a sci-fi novel, she does not load it down with jargon yet she still gives enough to show how language has progressed in the future. I thought the changes and evolution of terms made sense and added to the believability of the story.

SETTING:
Even though this story takes place on a space ship hundreds of years in the future somewhere in space, I could visualize everything. Granted, I would still need a map to get around, but what the characters saw I could imagine with ease because Revis does a great job of world-builiding, making it feel foreign but not too much so by using familiar images and words to get the point across. I think what astonished me most about the ship, Godspeed, was that there were no windows to see outside the ship. Revis used this as a plot point and I thought it clever.

CHARACTERS:
I really liked the two main characters Amy and Elder. Amy, put in the position she's in, freaks out appropriately and I was always entertained and rooting for her during her freak outs. She really impressed me with how she stood up for herself and dealt with the problems she faced. She could have let it make her crazy, and sometimes it seemed to, but she tried to keep the bigger picture in front of her, which showed her compassion and selflessness.

Elder too was a great character, and I most enjoyed his internal struggle over being good versus being a good leader. I also thought how cool it was that he was so taken with Amy despite being taught that differences were bad. I can't wait to see where he takes things in the next books because he has the opportunity to grow and even change in ways that could be good or bad.

The other characters were interesting because they were different from what I expected. The ship was more like a hive with a few unusual worker bees than what I've seen in things like Star Trek or Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century, which led me to expect a community or a crew, not drones (yes, I realize my sci-fi knowledge is extremely limited). The characters that made up the supporting cast (I consider the drones the background cast) ranged in so many directions that it was definitely hard to know who to trust.

DOWNSIDE:
There were only a couple downsides to this story and the first was at the beginning. Until the action began, it just seemed like the scenes were setting up the world and the characters, which they were. I understand why it was all there I was just ready to get to the meat of the story, which it did before too long.

The other one regards a scene in the book that is just extremely difficult get through. I was cringing and gritting my teeth during that whole part and was very glad once it was over.

COOL STUFF:
The main character is a redhead named Amy. I am a Whovian who adores Amy Pond. Insta-love for me right there.

This book made me so ridiculously tense, which is bad for my heart but great for my mind because I love action and mystery, so that made it more enjoyable (once I could breathe). I also loved finding out all the crazy stuff about what was really going on the ship and was horrified, which is good (for me, not the characters). I had not anticipated life on Godspeed to be as it was and it was just awful so I was just like Amy in wanting things to change.

VERDICT:
Across the Universe is a great read and different from what I'm used to in the YA sphere. It had great characters and came complete with action, mystery, and with being set in space, it had a kind of claustrophobic atmosphere that makes you feel the suspense and danger right along with the characters. This is definitely a book to check out and I cannot wait to dig into the next installment, A Million Suns.

*9.5/10*

I ended up reading Across the Universe in two phases. I initially got the book from the library, as I was one of the first holds. Unfortunately, that meant my time with it was limited and I did not have time to finish it, since my library pile had gotten rather out of control. So I got about halfway through and had to return it and wait until I could re-procure the book to finish it. The point of all of this is that my opinion of the book had changed a bit when I came back to it.

The first half of the book did not really succeed in engaging me. I had heard so much hype and was so looking forward to it, and it did not live up to that. (Isn't that always the way with me?) Upon return, as I skimmed through the book to make sure I remembered everything and tried to locate my stopping point (because genius that I am I forgot to make note of that location), I found myself thinking how cool it was. Reading through the rest of the story was then a breeze.

The story still was not quite perfect (like many other teen dystopias, there's a section pretty much straight from The Giver), but I am super hopeful about the second book in the series. I really liked how shades of gray it was (not in the Jasper Fforde sense). Elder is the perfect example. He's a good a guy and I related more to him than to Amy (how much can I really relate to someone who runs for fun?), but he definitely has a dark side (and not in the oh no, I'm a vampire who might hurt you sense).

Dystopia fans should definitely not miss this one, as it is one of the awesome ones that is really a dystopia on several different levels (although more than the dictator would be spoilers). As a final enticement, here's a quote that encapsulates the book: "This ship is built on secrets; it runs on secrets."

Beth has created a truly frightening world aboard a spaceship, where nothing is what it seems. The book starts with a feeling of unease, with a family being frozen to take a 300-year trip across the universe, and then shifts to the future where Amy is awakened 50 years early. With Amy, we begin to see the society that has evolved -- or been manufactured -- aboard the Godspeed, and how every assumption should be questioned.

There is also a murderer on the ship.

But what I loved best was Beth's prose. In spite of being 400 pages, ACROSS THE UNIVERSE reads quickly, effortlessly. It's in first person present tense, but I'm totally behind this choice. The narrative is never distracting. The descriptions are complete and seamlessly integrated into the action.

I'm definitely recommending this for readers who want to like science fiction but aren't sure where to start, or don't want much science in their science fiction. It's a character-driven story. (The other thing I will mention is that it says it's for readers 12 and up, but do be aware there's quite a bit of sexytime in this book, most of it not very nice.)