Alexandra DuncanBesprekingen

Fantastic world building! Yay! A welcome change from my recent reading. (Lots of other stuff about this book is good, too:)

This book was really really good, and this cover is really really really wrong. As is the blurb.

This is a story about Ava, a girl raised in a spaceship in a very strict and patriarchal society. She breaks some rules and is forced to escape and flee to Earth in a mailship to avoid an honor killing. On Earth--specifically the floating city built over the plastic Gyre in the pacific--Perpétue, the captain of the mailship essentially adopts her while she is adjusting to the differences of earth gravity, and Ava learns to read and to fly a spaceship herself. Ava has an aunt in Mumbai, so when yet more disaster strikes, she and Perpétue's daughter head there to find her.

This is not the book that the cover is for--that is light and fluffy, and this book is serious and painful over and over again, but I had only meant to read a chapter before bed, and that was 2 hours ago. It was very very good.

Continues in the excellent universe that Salvage is set in, only this time, on a research vessel to the deep sound of space. Some of the plot mechanics make me itch, but the story was great, fast paced, and the cast is enjoyable diverse. I think it's the lack of consequences that I have a hard time with, given how the characters seem to struggle with those consequences that do occur, but that might just be a really good representation of how teen brains see the world differently.

Putting the "Dys" in dystopian, Duncan has written a scary, brave, profoundly disturbing and empowering sci-fi stand-alone book with a kick-ass main character.

There were things I did not love, but that made sense for a plot involving a cult that evolves on a starship. Well written, and hard to put down.

Let me start my adoring gush by saying that I had this book preordered. PREORDERED! Me! The person who considers reading The Orphan Master's Son this year a reasonable time frame for getting around to a book I really want to read! And the best part about preordering? It was like a surprise gift to myself: I'd forgotten when exactly it was coming, and then one day there was a package waiting on my doorstep.

Duncan's strengths are on stunning display once again: her strong, feminist characters and unique but believeable cultures. The latter was a bit slow off the ground--the story takes place in deep, empty space rather than overcrowded earth--but when it comes...wow!

There's a little less urgency in the opening chapters, though that should come as no surprise to those who read the previous book. We catch up with Miyole about ten years after we left her in Salvage, having grown up in privilege she could never have imagined on the Gyre. Yes, she stands out--maybe a bit more than expected, given the amount of cultural mixing going on in other parts of the universe, but kudos to Duncan for showing us how race and gender can still be treated as serious issues that still need addressing (unlike certain sci-fi reboots that strip down representation of both because we're all *equal* now, so why bother with the *effort* of adding diversity?). Even more kudos for tying those issues into a real culture instead of inventing an alien race of white people who are a *metaphor* for racism.

While Miyole's situation is less tense up front--simply because embarking on her adventure is actually a conscious choice, unlike Ava's whirlwind rush to escape certain death. What Sound's opening lacks in action, though, it more than makes up for in the end. I was about four chapters from the end when I reached my stop on the subway today and I was seriously tempted to grab a private call room and just finish it so I wouldn't be in agony all day.

That, friends, is a good book. Because let's face it, this is a young adult book. It's highly unlikely that a character we've been following since the beginning is going to die--but I was still almost literally on my toes (on the R train, no less!) as the plot came to a head.

One word of note that very few other people will care about: there's a bit more romance in Sound than in Salvage, simply because the love interest is actually present. That does mean that we see more human interactions: this is no super-unhealthy Twilight story, perfect soulmate tale, or fable of absence and pining. Miyole's relationship with Cassia progresses slowly because they both have other things on their mind--and they talk about this fact rather than ignoring it, which means they avoid some of the most cliched misunderstandings. This and both characters' complexity (as well as the refreshing relief of a non-heterosexual relationship) made the romance bearable for this curmudgeonly (demisexual) crocodile. In the past I've felt like I had to seek out those authors who write only about homosexual relationships to get any front-and-center diversity, though this was often at the expense of a story about something other than sex and sexuality...so while it's not surprising to see that Duncan writes both hetero and homo superbly, it's an extra nice treat to see an author with characters who aren't straight at front-and-center without making the whole story about the fact that they aren't straight.

Funny, isn't it, how easily Duncan shows us how race and sexual orientation can still be important parts of a character without stripping that character of any other defining characteristics or story arcs. It's almost like...like characters can reflect real life! Gasp! Is that legal in fiction? (Heavy sarcasm for that whole paragraph.)

On a completely unrelated topic:

1) I desperately want to see a bioengineered deep space vessel. I have this image of a drifting blue-black seashell, but that doesn't really do it justice. I always thought about what it would be like to live in a shell, when I was a little girl--Duncan makes it sound even more delightful than I would have expected.

2) How in heck has no one snatched up the movie rights? These books are so cinematic! On the other hand, thank goodness no one's bought the movie rights--you know they'd whitewash as many of the roles as possible. Rubio definitely would succumb. Probably the Enceladans as well.

Last note: Once again, what is with the cover? I mean, props for actually showing a young black woman, but her jeans and zippered down jacket are way too obviously contemporary to feel very space-y. At least she's better than the limp, helpless figure on the front of Salvage. Still, I feel like the planet and the ice would have been enough.

On to the Quote Roundup!

p. 188 - "Apex. Isn't that one of those company-states?"
This gave me the willies, mostly because I can definitely see that happening. As companies get bigger and conglomerates start running out of rivals to merge with, what will they turn to next? Why not a city? A state? A country? It's all too easy for me to imagine that happening in the future.

p. 228 - "It took balls, is all."
Rubio wins the "most un-feminist comment in the otherwise feminist book" award. "Guts," Rubio--think gender neutral/universal! And yet on the same page...
"[As you get older] you start seeing so much wrong everywhere you go, and you know you can't fix all of it, so you start to think you can't fix any of it."
Rubio perfectly voices a major part of my crippling apathy and depression. To be honest, I'd be lying if I said I felt anything when I read that. It was more like, I read it and I recognized it. I don't often do that, for all I read and like so many books.

p. 375 - "Feelings are the worst." "Yeah," I agree. "They're the worst." ... "If there's something i'm supposed to be doing, you have to tell me. I usually get my friends drunk when they break up, but, I don't know . . . is that a guy thing?"
A) More recognition--though while I hate feelings, I hate even more how shallow they seem lately. I get emotional but I don't really feel any of it. Sorry. I mope in my reviews because I know no one actually reads them. Anyway, B) Rubio shows us that it is, in fact, possible to recognize general societal assumptions about the differences between the sexes in a society closer to legal and occupational equality than our own. Feminism is not the desire to erase sexual difference, but to be conscious of it in a way that will ultimately benefit society overall. Okay, off my soapbox...

p. 380 - Ava and Soraya love me, but they don't depend on me. The only things that have ever truly depended on me were the butterflies, and someone else could care for them as easily as I did. There's nothing unique about me, nothing irreplaceable. So doesn't my life have more worth if I'm using it to save other people?
Further recognition. Minus the duty to my interesting history, tragic backstory, and resolve to buck the authority in order to do something that feels right. But that's why we read, right?

All in all, this was another amazing book, not slavishly following the formula of Salvage but also not completely discarding that book's characters and strengths. I did miss Ava's language quirks, though from the GoodReads reviews I read, I might be the only one! But there's more to love in here in the way that the lucky can love their siblings: they're related, but they're different, but you love them both uniquely and truly.

Like sci-fi? Feminism? Strong female characters? Diversity? World building? Good storytelling and vivid writing?

Read it!

This is the book that I want all other books to be like. I just wanted to start with that before I launch into my explanations and adorations.

I read the first few chapters of this book in 2012 at the Denver Publishing Institute. We were given the first few chapters of four young adult novels and told to decide which we would publish, given the choice, and of the two to which I said, "absolutely," this was the one that said, "this MUST be published." (The joke was on us: all the books had already been accepted!). I've been waiting for this book ever since.

And let me tell you, it did the opposite of disappoint.

I based by "decision" on the first few chapters, which take place in a very different world: a restrictive, regressive society on board long-range merchant space ships in which Ava Parastrata, the main character, is so girl, the oldest daughter of the next generation of whom everyone expects the best behavior. She's told that she's to be married and she cautiously hopes for a future for the only boy she's ever really interacted with who's thought of her as a human being, and it looks like everything is going her way...

This culture is so skillfully built that it comes alive, and in a few pages we have full-fledged characters. (Writer's envy alert!) Of course, I knew the change was coming, the conflict that makes literature tick--and boy did it ever!

Let me put it this way, usually when I like a book I read it too fast and feel disappointed that there's so little. With Salvage, I was reading fast but things kept happening, the world kept changing, curves kept coming, and I still wasn't at the end and I still wasn't antsy to move on to the next book!

Ava is the very definition of a strong female character: her struggles and emotions feel real and relatable even as her circumstances certainly aren't. She overcomes physical weakness, an uneven education, and feelings of worthlessness only at great price and with great pain. Nothing is easy, nothing is straightforward. Every advance is earned.

The biggest shock to those who know me is a testament to how well done Ava is: I did not think the sort-of love triangle was stupid. I know, right? Have I ever thought that? Ava is as deeply practical as she is hopeful--she builds her life even as she hangs onto a few wisps of her past. Her complex love for everyone in her life is so powerful that the two men she loves don't dominate the scene. It's practically perfect.

For complex world building and the creation of at least four full cultures: five stars. For realistic characters who are almost never oversimplified: five stars. For characters of color, of all ages, of all sizes and shapes: five stars.

And don't let me leave out the language! I'm sure there will be some people complaining that it sounds stiff and strange, but that was part of what drew me to it. I can't imagine what it must have taken to write the whole book in this style, incorporating both familiar, archaic, and futuristic elements. I appreciated the changed emphasis of sentences with words put together that we don't usually see side by side and I loved that the foreign words were spelled as Ava heard them, like Perpetue's pet name, "fi". (Also, shout out to my Southern family: Ava says "might can"!)

I have only two small complaints, both of which are sort of spoiler-y even though so much happens in this book that giving them away doesn't "ruin" the book at all.

First (and this happens in the third to last chapter, so DO NOT click if you don't want to know), I was disappointed that no one ever straight-up told Ava, "You are worth so much more than your 'virginity', and down here on earth, we're not going to condemn you just for having sex before you're married." It's implied a lot, from Ava overhearing people getting in the mood to Soraya's offer to take her to the doctor for contraception, but no one says it outright. This isn't something that Ava is going to find out for herself! It's the same kind of avoidance-for-propriety that kept me so, well, judgmental for so long. I would hope that a world this far in the future would be more open to talking about sex.

Honestly, I wanted Rushil to say it. I wanted him to tell Ava--slowly, carefully--that people earthside don't place a woman's value solely on whether or not she's had sex before, that they will see her for herself rather than her reproductive organs. I know this isn't at all what's intended in that scene, but the way it reads is that Rushil is this amazingly forgiving person willing to overlook what she still sees as a major failing. I could see her feeling like she can't leave him because she doesn't know if anyone else would be as accepting as Rushil is.

So, in my headcanon, Ava has this conversation with Rushil and Soraya at some point. So there.

That was a much longer rant than I expected. It turns out, once I'm in the spoiler cut, I let loose with the details that I'm afraid to mention in the review proper for fear or giving away how great the story is.

Anyhoo, the second thing is that this is another book where I really feel as though the last chapter could have been left off and the story would have been just as good...maybe, I cautiously say, better. The closing scene of the penultimate chapter was just so perfect there was no real way to top it.

I'd also kind of started to hope that Ava would never meet Luck again, would never know what became of him. While I thought it would be that way, I was satisfied--it felt real, and honest. And, frankly, I felt like this journey had been so great already that Ava didn't need to say the things she says to Luck out loud for them to be there--except maybe the part about not wanting children, which I think is very important. There's so much emphasis on motherhood being part of femininity and it's so important for young people to know that that's not the only way for a woman to live.

All that said, since we did get the last chapter, I wanted Ava to say that she know she was she good enough to be a captain's wife because she was a captain herself! But I guess that is a bit much like bragging, which is not something Ava would do. My preferred response wouldn't really be in her character.

I'm so glad I knew about this book because I don't know how I would have found it otherwise. The jacket description leaves much to be desired and the cover was clearly a victim of the cheap stock image catalogue. Also, it's sad to say, but many boys will not pick up this book because there's a girl on the cover--especially a girl who looks so powerless and uninteresting (they were never going to find a stock image with Parastrata fashion, but couldn't they have found some unusual clothes). I feel bad for all the boys who will never read this remarkable story.

So if you're reading this review, read Salvage! It's a fantastic, feminist book, a great vision of the future that's not totally dystopian, and it will take you to places so vivid you'll feel like you've been there. I can't recommend it enough!


Quote Roundup

p 52. "You are the sails, Ava. My girl. You are the sails."
It's early on but it sets the tone for the whole novel. It's nonsense coming from the mouth of Ava's ill and dying mother, but its interpretations can change depending on which part of the book you apply it to. How is Ava the sails? As a future mother bearing the children who will keep the ship sailing. As the catalyst of change. As the one who brings others, literally and metaphorically, to places they have never been but need or want to be.

p 113. I'm just bringing this up because this is when we find out what a biolume is and it's freakin' awesome!

p 180. I'm shamed, thinking on it. What kind of woman am I that wouldn't want a child?
This was such an important moment, one that (as I've said) I wish got a bit more attention. There's so much emphasis on motherhood as a sign of being a woman, but not all women want to be mothers--and they need to know that that's okay. This piece of Ava's spaceside world is all to easy to find in our own.

p 227. "At best, you'll spend your life trying not to get hurt, but trying not to do the hurting, either. You won't always come through, but it's the best anyone can do. It's the trying I'd call good."
I love Perpetue so much, and I love her description of what it is to be good. It's so easy to feel that we're not good enough, but for those who sincerely try, well, maybe that is enough in itself.

p 285. I hurry away before she can salt me with more questions and offers of help.
This is a fantastic image, such a clever turn to a familiar phrase. Just enough to feel different without being different enough to feel strange.

p 320. I'm back with my crewe, bowing my head and scraping and terrified.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is what makes Ava's character so good--everyone's had these moments when they feel like they're four years old and being scolded for doing something you didn't know was wrong. Life is difficult and messy and it doesn't always move forward.

p 448. Some months earlier, I might have left steaming with anger that the boys clung so hard to their crewe ways, that they wouldn't deign to talk to me. But now, looking at them, I only feel sad. How will they ever make their way in this world if they can't bring themselves to talk to anyone but men?
This moment of insight Ava has was so well done. She understands why they are the way they are--she doesn't fall into the trap of thinking that if she can change, it should be easy for other people to change as well--but she doesn't accept it for herself and she sees it in the wider context. This isn't just about them, it's about everything they know. Fixing that is almost impossible. Now what does that remind you of?

p 462. For some reason, it feels better to be alone with my ghosts, like if I told someone about them, they might vanish, and then I might forget.
A feeling I've had all too often myself. Sometimes it feels like the telling acts as an eraser, and sometimes you don't want to get rid of even the bad memories because they were the ones that made us who we are, made us grow. It's a melancholy place to be, treasuring something painful because its importance to you may not be understood by even someone you love.

p 519. The ending of the lopsided love triangle I didn't hate. Perhaps I can accept it because Ava doesn't settle for just one love. She's full of it, brimming with it for so many people in her life, and her choice of future does not change her past. She contains multitudes now, and she chooses to stay that way.

To this book's credit, I only read three chapters, so it could be an excellent book. It just suffered because I picked it up today to read, and today I am sick of futuristic books where women's roles have reverted to horribly restricted, male dominated positions in society. I'm NOT IN THE MOOD for a future where humans have managed to become MORE SEXIST than current day.

If I have to see things like this and this about the ways sexism is the worst TODAY then I would like my escapism to be ESCAPIST. I don't want to read about how "You can't nurse a baby and run a navigation program at the same time" (p. 19). I imagine this book has the main character overcoming such attitudes in some fashion (... at least I hope it does), but I am just out of the patience required to invest in such a world.

So I will not be reading this right now. Or possibly ever.

Also: the patriarchy is the worst. UGH.

There was a part of this book near the beginning where I almost quit reading it. Then another part midway where I was so pissed at it that at that moment I would have rated it one out of five stars. But shortly thereafter it picked up, and things, while still bad, mostly got better for the main character. It wasn’t the end of the painful things happening, but it was the end of the scarlet-letter-style dystopia portion of the book.

In general, I don’t like reading dystopia. At least not where the main character feels the brunt of the painful twists to which society has been subjected. So three stars instead of 4.

This was a page turner. And I did enjoy the message / morals. It was just... very difficult reading in a bunch of parts. Probably worth it tho.

Literary merit: excellent
Characterization: excellent
Recommended: highly
Reading level: young adult

This is a very good book. The main plot is okay, but the characters and handling of the situations make it a very good story. As reading, the main character, Tempest, wrestles with what you she knows through growing up and her realization that everything is not as it seems. It made me want to read another one of her books.

I was not sure about this at first as it started off as a space opera, but it turned out to be a very engaging story with some pretty deep themes.

I should have liked this. ?�I don't mind YA, I like to spend quiet time building new worlds, and of course the idea, of a young woman developing her strength & intelligence despite being raised where the women are so beaten down they consider it a favor to mistreat and thus inure their daughters, is terrifically intriguing. ?áBut at 20% I just could not bring myself to continue. ?á

I think maybe my biggest problem is plausibility. ?áThe situation didn't make sense, and wasn't believable, and therefore I couldn't immerse myself. ?áFor example, how did Ava's ship-culture get so very male-dominated? ?áIt would have taken something so major in their history that the other crewes would have had a similar culture... but apparently they don't. ?áOk, it's possible this question would have been answered later, but I don't think so.

And the first page. ?áGosh, she untangles herself from the little girls sleeping together like puppies. ?áPuppies? ?áHow does Ava think of puppies? ?áShe's had one slice of one orange, has never walked on grass, somehow I think that even if she does know what puppies are, they wouldn't come to mind. ?áAnd then we never learn more about the little girls (at least for the first 20%).

I do believe there are some good things in the book; I just don't have the patience to dig them out.

I couldn't get past the weird stilted dialogue.

Lazy and formulaic. Literature like this is just annoying.

Feminist FRIDAY en Afterellen.com me puso al tanto sobre esta autora y su Slutshelf Giveaway y , aunque el YA no es mi estilo en lo mas minimo , creo que solo por ese post y esa defensa , le voy a comprar el libro .

BRAVO.POR.ELLA.

Tomense unos minutos para leer lo que tiene que decir (y si pueden , entren al concurso que hay libros imperdibles)

Thanks to Edelweiss and Greenwillow Books for allowing me access to this title.

This was an interesting look at society and how the norm can change based on what the society accepts/is told by their leaders. I liked how the MC grew and changed her perceptions as she learned different things. I thought she made a great choice in the end to move on with her life to what she wanted to be, not how she was raised to think she should be.

4.5 stars. This was a great read and so much happened that I don't have the time to put it all down here. I will say that I do wish there were more science fiction stories like this in general and in YA & NA in particular. This very much reminded me in tone of A Long Long Sleep by Anna Sheehan. These are the sorts of standalone books that make me wish they had a sequel because the world is so well rendered and the characters well done.

I enjoyed Ava's evolution from her hiding her ability to perform fixes to her banishment and basically being reborn on earth. She had to learn to walk, read, fly a ship and take care of another in her charge after tragedy. And that wasn't even the totality of her journey. She had to find her Aunt Soraya in Mumbai and learn the truth of how she ultimately came to be a part of the community on the Parastrata and what that means for the life she can choose now. I found it all satisfying a read and understood where she was coming from most of the time. I understood her attraction to both Luck and Rushil and understood her decisions regarding them at the end. It didn't feel like there was a love triangle to me and as I loathe those, I'm calling this exceptionally well done. I wanted so much more from Ava but had to remind myself that considering where she'd come from, she was on schedule and probably ahead on exercising her own agency and embracing it. I wished to know more about Soraya and also the camp where the cast away boys from the merchant ships were living. It made me wonder about the government and what sorts of regulations there are with the merchant ships who seem to have human rights infractions across both sexes. This book says so much about different societies, ethics in anthropological research, natural disasters, pollution, population over-crowding, financial stratification in society, personal rights versus group advancement and so much more. It was worth every single page & I could've gone 200 pages more here alone.

If the writer decides to write another book in this verse, I'll be thrilled to read it. Well done.

4.5 stars. This was a great read and so much happened that I don't have the time to put it all down here. I will say that I do wish there were more science fiction stories like this in general and in YA & NA in particular. This very much reminded me in tone of A Long Long Sleep by Anna Sheehan. These are the sorts of standalone books that make me wish they had a sequel because the world is so well rendered and the characters well done.

I enjoyed Ava's evolution from her hiding her ability to perform fixes to her banishment and basically being reborn on earth. She had to learn to walk, read, fly a ship and take care of another in her charge after tragedy. And that wasn't even the totality of her journey. She had to find her Aunt Soraya in Mumbai and learn the truth of how she ultimately came to be a part of the community on the Parastrata and what that means for the life she can choose now. I found it all satisfying a read and understood where she was coming from most of the time. I understood her attraction to both Luck and Rushil and understood her decisions regarding them at the end. It didn't feel like there was a love triangle to me and as I loathe those, I'm calling this exceptionally well done. I wanted so much more from Ava but had to remind myself that considering where she'd come from, she was on schedule and probably ahead on exercising her own agency and embracing it. I wished to know more about Soraya and also the camp where the cast away boys from the merchant ships were living. It made me wonder about the government and what sorts of regulations there are with the merchant ships who seem to have human rights infractions across both sexes. This book says so much about different societies, ethics in anthropological research, natural disasters, pollution, population over-crowding, financial stratification in society, personal rights versus group advancement and so much more. It was worth every single page & I could've gone 200 pages more here alone.

If the writer decides to write another book in this verse, I'll be thrilled to read it. Well done.

I have been wanting to read Salvage for awhile now, the beautiful cover and the hype around it had me interested. My mother-in-law bought me this book while on vacation and I really didn't get a chance to dive into it until we were home and unpacked. Once I picked it up, I didn't want to put it down. It had an Across the Universe feel to it, which is definitely a good thing in my book.

Ava has such an unique life living on the Parastrata, she met a handsome young man, Luck, who she would be married to. It started off so sweet and innoncent and then it just takes off, Ava's life gets flipped upside down. Her journey was just amazing to read and I felt so connected with Ava and all of her ups and downs.

I could kind of guess how the ending would play out, but I'm still thinking about how i feel about it. I could see why she chose who she did, I guess I just hoped it would be different. Ava was a whole new woman and everything about her changed.

I'm looking forward to reading more from Alexandra Duncan, she really intrigued me with Salvage!”½

Salvage is one of those books that I feel was written just for me. I loved it. It was such an emotional roller coaster that I became a bit teary-eyed at different parts. I was left feeling content after the fantastic emotional ending. However, I do admit that it did get off to a rocky start. I stopped reading for a while at 200 pages (out of 528). I wasn't sure how I felt about the odd language and the slow start, so I came back to it a day later. When I picked it back up things had changed. The dialogue progressed and the atmosphere was considerably different. It had me intrigued.

Ava is my ultimate heroine. We meet her on the Parastrata with her crew and "friends". Ava struggles in dealing with the snobby, talk-behind-your-back crewmates on her ship; they snicker and frown at her. She is the captain's daughter, yet she is treated different from all the others. She has a slightly darker complexion than everyone else because her mother's father was from Earth. Scandalous. On the ship, the Parastrata, it is customary for the men to do the flying, the reading, the guard duty, and the fixing. It is also customary for the women to do the menial work, such as cleaning, milking the goats, cooking, and keeping their heads down in the presence of men. I thought Duncan did a great job of touching on the subject of inequality and kept Ava likable with her progressive thoughts. Because Ava is considered important in her position as a captain’s daughter, her marriage is of utmost importance to the crew. This is where the romance begins.

We are given a small insight to Ava’s past, only to show us her intended love interest. She believes she is in love with her best friend Soli’s brother, Luck. After they got along so well when they were little kids she believes they are perfect for each other. She hopes that she will marry him at the next trade, and be a wife to a future captain. But when a trade deal goes wrong, Ava is sent spiraling into a place she never thought she would end up. She is thrown out and left alone towards a journey of meeting new friends and seeing a whole new environment she never knew existed. We see her gain strength and learn things she thought were impossible for her to learn. Throughout Salvage, Ava grows as a young woman. She begins to see where things could be different on the ship, and she starts to see how she could make a difference, at least, in her own life. This is where the second love interest is introduced.

Real life teenage romance often involves multiple crushes and believing that you love someone, even if it is nonsensical. It’s a part of growing up; searching for true love... among other things. That said, Ava does find someone else, and continues to think about Luck whenever she feels guilty. I was a bit wary after seeing that there would be two love interests, but Ava impressed me. Duncan impressed me. The boy she meets is a complete mystery to Ava. She wonders about his motives for accepting her as she is. He is something that she used to learn how to gain the strength she always knew was hiding inside her.

As a standalone debut novel, Duncan has done a brilliant job integrating parts of teenage life into an unpredictable dystopian-like future with bits of teenage romance. I would recommend Salvage to anyone who has struggled with finding who they are. The ability to rely on your own inner strength and believe in the impossible were a few of the valuable lessons I took from this book.

There is so much to love about SALVAGE. It feels like classic sci-fi with a teenage protagonist and modern struggles. I have little, if nothing, to complain about. I appreciate it being a standalone novel, and at a little over 500 pages it is definitely able to tell a complete and well-rounded story.

The characters are strong, with deep personal narratives and very real emotions and motivations. Their nuanced development is at times unexpected and familiar. I particularly liked Perpetue, the tough woman who takes Ava in and acclimates her to being planetside - on Earth. Ava's relationships with her adoptive family and the friends she makes along her journey are compelling and interesting. Perpetue's daughter, Miyole, is quite endearing and a strong character that stands on her own while still motivating a lot of plot points.

The plot and pacing are pretty much perfect. SALVAGE is sometimes a page-turner, other times a slow and thoughtful rumination on human nature. The contrasts between spaceside tribes and planetside cultures is startling. The inequality, the oppression of women, the abandonment of children - each happens in a different way on both sides of the atmosphere. Ava experiences both sides, and learns to feel at home in a completely foreign place.

The writing had a classic and somewhat timeless feel, reminiscent of Tamora Pierce and Ursula K. LeGuin. As a fan of classic sci-fi I really enjoyed this. The jargon that doesn't feel out of place or forced in context, the complex and well-developed lore and mythology, and the otherwordly feel of the writing style all work towards creating a modern masterpiece of YA science fiction.

If you are a fan of science fiction, as a teen or adult, then this book is for you. Fans of Ursula K. LeGuin, Margaret Atwood, Tamora Pierce, ENDER'S GAME, Beth Revis, and the MATCHED trilogy are a perfect audience for Alexandra Duncan's debut, SALVAGE.

I wanted to read Salvage I'll admit, the cover caught my eye. Its pretty and the moon being so close to the water and the girl on the beach. I just want to know what it going on. Then I read the synopsis and saw a chance for the main character to totally stand up for women in general on the male dominated planet, and I also wanted to find out how she would fare with her escape.
Like me and most sci-fi all of the new words, concepts and world was a little overwhelming, but by Chapter 4 I was learning what everything meant and their slightly different word usage and style. I did like the world building even if it took me a while to really understand. They are on a spaceship and it sounds like something happened on the earth but they still long for it. The structure of their ships heirarchy was maddening, but I totally understand that our society used to be similar as well. Women do not have jobs as mechanics or pilots, instead their value comes from kitchens, livestock care, laundry and most importantly having babies.
I didn't connect right away with Ava but by chapter 3, I saw that she did have a spark to fight how things were, learning about the fixes and just the desire to learn more, since women don't learn to read or much math, she learned figuring on her own. We got to see pretty quickly what she was made of when she was set to be a bride for a ship that they hope to negotiate trade with, and she is caught in a compromising situation that broke my heart. Her brother all of the sudden won't talk to her, the Aethers, the other ship kicks her off, and she is going to be exiled.
As for the secondary characters I liked Soli and Luck, but wondered at the beginning why so much time was built building these relationships, but then I figured that is the catalyst for her needing to escape and being on Gyre. Then after she escapes, we meet Perpetue and Miyole. They are so accepting and Miyole is a precious, intelligent little girl. It gives Ava purpose, but also Miyole a role model and someone to help her along.
The part where they end up in Kalina and the Salts was pretty epic. The things that Ava never thought she would have to do and a strength even more than everything she'd already overcome and faced rises up in her and I really admired her and her willingness to do what needed to be done for her and Miyole. Also, how Ava discovers a kindness in strangers, really shows her that humanity can go both ways, they can do horrible things, but then also beautiful.
I am pleased with how the romance was threaded into the book and the resolution. I can't talk much about it, just like I can't talk much about where she ends up after Gyre because I def don't want to give out spoilers, but I saw tremendous character growth in her, as well as surprising twists to the story.
Despite the slow for me start, I ended up tearing through Salvage, connecting with Ava, loving the world set-up, as well as hoping for another book about Ava to release soon. But as I understand it is a standalone, so I think there is lots of potential with the great world building and character development that will be lost.

Bottom Line: For me, took until Ch. 3-4 to get fully into the story then it carried me away.½

I’ll admit, at first I thought Salvage was going to be the book to break my awesome reading streak. I was not impressed by what was going on in the beginning. In fact, I think Salvage is a lot like Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein in that the opening is a bit deceptive, as the opening is only the first part in what becomes a three-part drama. So let’s compare (in as spoiler-free of a manner as possible) how the first 70 pages of Salvage compare to the rest.

READ THE FULL REIEW AT: http://www.shaelit.com/2014/03/review-salvage-by-alexandra-duncan/

Salvage, by Alexandra Duncan is set in a world hundreds of years in the future where earth isn’t the only inhabited planet. Due to catastrophic flooding on Earth, many humans fled to other planets, beginning the space age. Many colonists also fled into deep space to mine the mineral rich asteroids and planets. On the ships out in deep space males rule and women are treated as objects. Ava, the main character, is a young women living on one of the spaceships. She longs to have kids and can’t wait to marry her crush but right when she thinks everything’s perfect, it all goes wrong. Facing death, she flees from her ship to earth where she sees how humans actually live.
Duncan really swept me away with Salvage! Normally YA books don’t approach the topic of gender equality but Duncan showed how real the situations are for mistreated women and how what we see isn’t always the truth. The best part of the book was how the author showed everything through Ava’s eyes so realistically; I could imagine myself right there with her. Salvage gave me everything I expected in a sci-fi thriller and more, showing that everyone is equal no matter how different they seem.
For fans of Ender’s Game, and other sci-fi thrillers, Salvage is where it’s at!

Ryan W., SC Teen book Crew

Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales

Quick & Dirty: Salvage is a good book, but judging on all the praise in the Amazon description, I had higher hopes and was not very impressed.

Opening Sentence: The morning before our ship, Parastrata, docks at the skyport, I rise early.

The Review:

Salvage is the story of a girl ostracized from her ship in space. Forced away from her love interest and onto the harsh earth, she must learn to survive the gravity of the planet, take care of an orphaned girl, and learn to love again.

Ava’s crewe has a sort of language that they share, like English with different grammar and wording. At first, the ship’s dialect was confusing. It was hard to get into any of the first chapters because I understood nothing — although I began to see what was happening by page thirty something, before that I was not really getting it. For example, Ava is “so girl”. Since typically “so” isn’t used as a job/saying of respect, you can see what I mean.

Let’s talk about her first love interest, Luck. In my opinion they fell for each other way to fast. They hung out together as young children (smallones) for about a month, maybe less, before Luck disappeared on the Æther with his own crewe. Now they are meeting again, and somehow both of them are still starstuck? It doesn’t happen that way, and no one is in love so much that fast, even if they do believe they are to be married. Their parents, both captains, have supposedly bethrothed them, but still. Ava’s feelings of grief were well done; I just didn’t feel anything along with her. By the end of the book, the only feeling I had for Luck was irritation, and I can’t spoil why for you…

Rushil, on the other hand, I did enjoy. At least their relationship takes more than a few pages to develop! He also has flaws, secrets in his past, and in my eyes it works in his favor: Luck was to perfect, not a very believable character. I’m definitely rooting for team Rushil. I have to say, this isn’t really a love triangle, because the whole book ended with a sense of finality and Ava choosing one of them. This doesn’t need a sequel, though it could have one made, but the plotline was wrapped up nicely with a bow on top.

The whole dystopian setting wasn’t that incredible. Yes, there is space travel. Yes, earth is different from present earth. No, I wasn’t intrigued by its history (which is what a really fabulous future world should do)! My feelings for this book were in no way bad — just eh, the whole way through. The ending was slightly more entertaining but moved rather fast.

Altogether Salvage was an okay novel, but nothing I would reread later on. The cover may be gorgeous but the content didn’t live up to it. I had such high hopes starting this one and I felt a little let down by the end. Perhaps if you don’t have high hopes, you will be impressed? I don’t know, but you might as well try it out. Worse comes to worse, you have a beautiful book cover to display from your shelf!

Notable Scene:

This is different, a slower burn what builds and builds, as if our lips our amplifying the charge between us the longer we stay linked. I never thought anyone would touch me this way again, never thought my heart could carry the charge. I give deeper to the kiss, lost in the unexpected heat of it.

FTC Advisory: Greenwillow Books/Harper Collins provided me with a copy of Salvage. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.

Ava is a seventeen-year-old girl born aboard a spaceship, the Parastrata; when she makes an understandable, yet regrettable, mistake, she is cast out by her patriarchal family to the unfamiliar and unforgiving Earth below. With just her aptitude for “Fixes” and her spirit for survival, Ava must navigate through the Gyre, a floating wasteland of trash in the Pacific, to ultimately end up in Mumbai, where she searches for her modrie, her blood-aunt. Duncan delivers a finely-paced dystopian science fiction novel that relentlessly charges through the finer plot points, which may leave readers confused as to how exactly Earth resulted in a technologically-advanced wasteland. Another small hiccup is the strange dialogue given to Parastrata’s inhabitants, and Ava, without explanation, which may be off-putting to slow and reluctant readers. However, the strength of Ava’s character bears the story well through its 528 pages. Fans of Beth Revis’s Across the Universe and Matched by Ally Condie will appreciate Duncan’s first dive into the genre. http://goodbookshere.blogspot.com/