Title: This Shattered World
Authors: Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner
Series: Book #2 in the Starbound trilogy
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Publication Date: December 23, 2014
Genres: Young Adult – Science Fiction, Romance
Pages: 390
Format: Purchased Hardcover
As always, I’m going to try my best to be spoiler free in this review. If you want some more in depth looks into what I thought about other parts of the book, please see my video review for more detail!
“This Shattered World” by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner is a story that follows two new characters, Jubilee Chase and Flynn Cormac, who couldn’t be more different from each other. Jubilee is a soldier stationed on Avon – a Captain, to be more precise – and is very strict about being a soldier and following protocol. She rarely shows her emotions and has earned the nickname “Stone-faced Chase” because of it. Flynn Cormac, on the other hand, is a rebel who was born and raised on Avon, a planet whose terraforming has slowed down to the point of stopping, gets very little to no sun exposure, and is not really thriving as a planet. Flynn is a diplomat for peace among his community, and when one man wants to go into a full out war and tries to find any excuse he can to do it, Flynn is always there to try and ease the flames.
And when Jubilee and Flynn’s worlds collide, things become pretty heated and intense pretty quick.
This book is the second installment in the Starbound trilogy, but as a companion novel it follows a new set of characters. I do suggest reading “These Broken Stars” before reading this book because a cameo appears in this book that is actually pretty important to the plotline.
Throughout the book the characters’ points of view change every chapter between Jubilee and Flynn. Both characters have their own distinct voices so you never confuse one for the other, which is nice when there is so much going on in their world as it is.
Now we get a lot of description of Avon: swampy, watery, muddy, cloud covered atmosphere. It’s nice to be able to read about this world and to get a true sense of it. It makes sense that a world with little to no sunlight would have barely any landmasses suitable for living on, that a lot of it would be water. It obviously has had enough sun or terraforming substances to help it become habitable for humans to occupy and everything, but it’s not a thriving world.
This actually plays a great deal into the rest of the story that surrounds Jubilee and Flynn. As they go throughout the novel and venture forth together (though they don’t want to through the beginning of the novel), they have to trek through terrain that is less than friendly and oftentimes very dirty.
Now let me get into a few points that I think are important (and not really spoilery) that take place in the story:
- The romance between Jubilee and Flynn is gradual and believable. They don’t start out as an insta-romance, but there is mutual attraction. For Jubilee it’s more along the lines of, “You look suspicious, so I’m going to check you out.” For Flynn it’s more like, “You’re a Captain and can be used as leverage to help my people.” Yes, they’re relationship grows throughout the novel, but it’s believable and slow. Emotions can become heated and drive a person to do something that may otherwise not happen, but their emotions don’t fully dictate what happens to them.
- They use logic over emotions. Yes, a lot of it can be emotion driven, but there are other factors that play into both of their actions throughout the novel, including vengeance, rebellion, anger, compassion. But a lot of what they do they base off of what they know and/or were trained to do.
- The background information provided about both Jubilee and Flynn was both useful and refreshing. It’s not always common to have such in depth background into a character’s past in novels, but there was just enough detail to really get a sense of who each character was in the story.
- My biggest complaint is that we didn’t really get enough of who I thought to be the main villain in the story. There were short glimpses of him in some of Flynn’s chapters, but otherwise I felt that those plot points were rushed and didn’t really provide a true insight as to who the enemy was at the time on Avon (but then there are other factors and people who can also be viewed as villains, so… I’ll leave it at that).
- The Fury was an interesting concept that was also believable in this world’s setting (the Starbound trilogy as a whole, not just Avon).
- Cameos are awesome.
So those are just some of the points I wanted to further touch upon in this novel. The book was overall enjoyable and I think I enjoyed it more than the first novel, though you can read my review to see what I thought.
I rated this book 5/5 stars. It was fast-paced, fun, serious, romantic, and it furthered my desire to learn more about this world and those who inhabit it. I highly recommend it.
Reader Rayna 