I loved this! However, I’m also a big fan of Gone with the Wind and Scarlett.
According to published reviews, this sequel, prequel and companion novel to Gone with the Wind took 4 years of author Donald McCaig’s life and 12 years of work between the publisher and the Margaret Mitchell Estate. You gain insight into Rhett as a boy and meet the people who influenced him-his parents, sister Rosemary, Belle Watling, Tunis Bonneau, Jack Ravanel, and of course, the love of his life–Scarlett O’Hara.
South Carolina history and the Civil War South–adventure–romance–family
Ms. Malizia, Librarian
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Extras
Scott Westerfeld
Fic
Wes
Hi all-
Welcome to the first entry in our book blog! Hopefully there will be many more to come. I wanted to start out with what is currently our most popular title- Extrasby Scott Westerfeld. This is the fourth book in the Uglies series (Uglies, Pretties, Specials) but the first three stand alone as a trilogy, where this book takes place a few years later with different characters (although some of the old characters show up after a while).
The setting is both similar and different to the first 3 books- the action takes place on Earth after what seems like a massive nuclear war (although the details are never explained). In the first 3 books, a seemilgly “perfect” society is established, where everyone is given plastic surgery to look pretty and live a vapid life of leisure and parties, oblivious to revolutionary groups at work. Extras takes place after events of the first 3 books, in a city where all citizens are ranked by their popularity (there is a constant feed of gossip and video that everyone checks to see if they have risen or fallen).
Aya Fuse, the 15 year old main character, has a rank that is so low that she is a nobody. She is trying to make that change, however, by using her hover-cam to “kick” a great story: film some undercover story and then upload it to the feeds (think YouTube). She thinks she is on to a great story, but it sets off a chain of events that she cannot control.
Fans of the first few books will not be disappointed- the technology is similar (including Hoverboards that work magnetically off an underground grid). However, things are just different enough in this city to make it interesting. Like all good science fiction, it takes today’s technology (Internet, YouTube, Instant Messaging) and imagines what the next step will be, giving a warning about how the technology might change us in the process.
These books have been hugely popular over the last year. I like them because they appeal to a lot of readers- boys, girls, science fiction fans, adventure fans, etc. Mr. Cleney turned me on to this series. Scott Westerfeld has also written in other genres, which maybe we will blog about in a future post. If you are interested, check out his blog, which has a lot of details about the books - http://scottwesterfeld.com/blog/
Please leave a comment if you have read this book or other in the series, liked them, hated them, or read something else that was similar that you also like. Our goal is to share these books with other Shen readers so pepole might read something that they otherwise would have missed.
talk to you soon-
Mr. Davidson
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