Title: This Shattered World (Starbound #2)
Author: Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner
Publication Date: December 23, 2014
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Pages: 390
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Reviews for book 1 & book 3
The second installment in the epic Starbound trilogy introduces a new pair of star-crossed lovers on two sides of a bloody war.
Jubilee Chase and Flynn Cormac should never have met.
Lee is captain of the forces sent to Avon to crush the terraformed planet’s rebellious colonists, but she has her own reasons for hating the insurgents.
Rebellion is in Flynn’s blood. Terraforming corporations make their fortune by recruiting colonists to make the inhospitable planets livable, with the promise of a better life for their children. But they never fulfilled their promise on Avon, and decades later, Flynn is leading the rebellion.
Desperate for any advantage in a bloody and unrelentingly war, Flynn does the only thing that makes sense when he and Lee cross paths: he returns to base with her as prisoner. But as his fellow rebels prepare to execute this tough-talking girl with nerves of steel, Flynn makes another choice that will change him forever. He and Lee escape the rebel base together, caught between two sides of a senseless war.
It took me a really long time to finally get around to reading This Shattered World. I absolutely fell head-over-heels in love with These Broken Stars, so I was a little devastated when I found out that book two centered around two new characters. So… I protested it for awhile, but I couldn’t hold out forever. Especially not when everyone was telling me how fantastic it was! I took the plunge.
This is probably the first time I haven’t been able to say that book two picks up where book one left off and it’s kind of a weird feeling. I still haven’t gotten over it! Anyway… This Shattered World tells the story of Jubilee and Flynn, two people on the planet Avon, but on very different sides. It’s made clear from the get go that Jubilee is a big ball of badass. Everyone respects here and many fear her. Flynn, on the other hand, is an unknown on her side of the tracks, which is why it’s so easy for him to capture the big bad Jubilee Chase. Almost from the beginning these two are going at it in a not great way.
Both the main characters of This Shattered World really intrigued me. It’s almost immediately clear that there’s something not quite right about Jubilee and I was really interested to find out what the heck it was. Flynn, on the other hand, just didn’t seem as ruthless as he tried to act in the beginning. My point is that I wanted to know more about them from the very beginning and I was not disappointed. If there’s one thing Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner know how to do, it’s create great characters! I loved watching them bicker and grow closer, although I have to admit the romance seemed a little strange in the beginning, though it worked itself out.
Of course, my favorite part of the book was how Tarver and Lilac were incorporated! Everyone told me it would happen and that it would be great. They didn’t disappoint! My only complaint is that they didn’t hang around longer.
The world of Avon, while totally different than what was created for These Broken Stars, was almost as fascinating (almost). I loved the uncharted feeling of the world in book one, but this one still had its own mystery that I thoroughly enjoyed! The descriptions certainly made me feel like I could clearly see the different locations of the base and the swamps. I especially loved the caves that the rebels hid out in! Ahhh, the rebels…
Plot is something else these authors do amazingly well. The tension between the rebels and the military force was tangible and kept me on the edge of my seat. The atmosphere felt real (as cheesy as that sounds) and I never got bored for a second. Something I enjoyed here was that there was more than one “big bad” and that made it even better! When all the pieces began to fall into place I wasn’t totally surprised, but it still made for a fantastic story and left it wide open for book three! The one thing that was really weird for me (and maybe it’s because I listened to this on audiobook) was the “voice” in between chapters that told the story of the little girl. I really didn’t get it and the voice actor was a little annoying and weird.
While I initially boycotted this book, I’m really glad I gave it a chance because it ended up being almost as awesome as its predecessor (almost). I can’t wait for book three since it seems like it’s supposed to focus on all four characters from the first two books! I’m so excited to see where they go from here!
Like I’ve already said, the thing I didn’t like about this book was the person they chose to do the flashbacks in between chapters. It was weird and annoying. Other than that, I loved both the actors that played Jubilee and Flynn! I’d definitely listen to them again!
