Fragments audiobook

Win a Fragments ARC on the blog!This review is spoiler-free, and safe even if you haven't read the first book in this series.In my review of last year's Partials, I posted a handy check list to help readers decide whether the book was for them. If you're a fan of well-written science fiction thrillers or post-apocalyptic novels with strong heroines, this series is one you should definitely check out!What do you need to know going into the sequel?-- There are fantastic action sequences, full of taut suspense and emotion.-- Survivalist enthusiasts will love it. During the first half of the book, Kira spends most of her time searching through rubble for clues to ParaGen's involvement in the devastating events that decimated human society.-- A mysterious character named Afa, who has been wandering alone through Manhattan for 12 years since the break, could hold the key to everything Kira needs to know. If you liked the gentle, defenseless character Maury from The Reapers Are the Angels, Afa's relationship with Kira reminds me a lot of that his relationship with Temple. A few of the scenes involving Afa are among the book's most touching.-- Improvements from the first book: the secondary characters are more defined. Less politics. Marcus is much more interesting. But romance still takes the back seat here, even more so than in the first book.-- More of Kira's history, and the creation of the Partials, is revealed. And they are both intriguing. -- There were some readers who complained about the pacing in Partials, and I'm afraid that it's even slower--and occasionally more sluggish--in Fragments. This is a hefty book at 564 pages, and while it's all good material, I would have preferred seeing probably 150 pages of it edited down. This would have balanced things out a bit more, and tightened up the story line in a way that sustained the tension better.Overall, I thought this was a terrific sequel to a series I very much enjoy. My only issue was really with the length of the book, but hey--after plowing through so many disappointing sophomore efforts, I'm just grateful to have a book two that lives up to the original! And I can't wait to see how Kira's story ends when the final book is released next year.This review also appears in The Midnight Garden. An advance copy was provided by the publisher.

FragmentsBook 2 of the Partials SequenceBy Dan WellsA Review by Eric AllenA few years ago, Suzanne Collins wrote The Hunger Games, and while not terrible, it was not exactly the best, nor most original book ever to come along. It sold ridiculously well, and this, in turn, set off what I like to call the Dystopian Revolution. Think hard, you'll see the joke in it eventually, if not outright. Publishers saw that there was huge interest in Dystopian fiction, and many an aspiring writer saw their chance to break into the industry. And since then, we've had a whole slew of Dystopian books, released by a whole slew of different publishers, trying hard to cash in on the fad before it dies. While some of them are pretty good, the majority of these books, I've noticed, read like they're trying to BE Suzanne Collins. They copy her style, which is distracting in and of itself because I really dislike her style. They copy her ideas, which, again, weren't all that original to begin with. They copy her characters, their motivations, their love triangles, and in the end, all we're left with is a whole stack of poorly written, unoriginal books trying to emulate a poorly written, unoriginal book.Last year, with Partials, Dan Wells took his own crack at the Dystopian genre, and where so many writers fail to deliver, he succeeded spectacularly. He created an interesting post-apocalyptic future, an interesting enemy that is not exactly what it seems, and a pretty stunning plot twist. But at the heart of the story, he created Kira Walker, a very likeable protagonist with a very real problem that she set out to correct, and that led her into a much larger world of mystery than she ever suspected existed. Basically, he did everything right where so many Dystopian authors rarely do. He told an exciting and suspenseful story about a character that is both likeable, and someone that the reader can really get behind and cheer for. It just happened to take place in a Dystopian setting. And THAT is how stories SHOULD be told. Not identifying the genre first and working inward, but starting with the characters, moving out to their conflict, and then to their world, which will eventually lead to the genre in which the story is classified. Far too many authors in the Dystopian genre do it the other way around. They choose their genre, then make their world, toss in some cool sounding conflict, and then, if there's time left over, they'll think about trying to fit an interesting character in. They don't seem to understand that it's the characters and the story that come first. Everything else is secondary. Dan Wells really outdid himself with Partials. I think I only had one or two little nitpicks about the book. So, how did he fare with the inevitable sequel? Lets take a look.Convinced that Kira Walker is the key to solving the Partials experation date, Doctor Morgan, leader of one of the Partials factions leads an assault on the last human community on Earth, capturing their entire island and taking every human that can be found prisoner. She demands that Kira, who has disappeared, give herself up, executing one hostage a day to draw her out.Meanwhile, Marcus, Kira's one-time future husband, organizes a peace envoy to another Partials faction to gain aid in fighting Morgan's troops on the island. Whilst he sues for peace and alliance, walking right into the figurative lion's den, hidden forces of the human Defence Grid make guerilla attacks upon the Partials occupation forces, and try to salvage a nuclear warhead from the wreckage of the last human fleet that the Partials destroyed.Kira, Samm, and one of his friends that defected with him named Heron, set out west to find the Trust, those who lead the Partials, and may just have been the scientists that created them in the first place. Their goal is to obtain both the cure for the RM virus that kills any and all human children born, and to remove the Partials expiration date. Without the Partials, the human population will die out in a single generation. Without the Humans, the Partials may never find a cure for their own expiration dates. Each group cannot survive without the help of the other, and yet they are locked together in war. It is Kira's hope that investigating the headquarters of Paragen in Denver she can find the solution to the problem, save BOTH sides, and stop the war once and for all.(view spoiler)[Upon reaching Denver, they find another community of humans that have survived the end of the world, living in the shadow of the old Paragen headquarters. It seems a paradise where one of the Trust has created a vaccine against RM, and children are born without fear of it. Kira is overwhelmed, knowing that she has found what she is looking for. But under the surface there may be something far more sinister at work, and the purpose for her own existence may be called into question. (hide spoiler)]The Good? This is exactly what I look for in a sequel to a good book. It remains faithful to the characters, the story, the setting, and keeps to the rules set down in the first book. And then it builds upon that foundation, reaching outward to new heights, branching out bigger and better than the first book. It is a thing that very, very few authors manage to achieve, and Dan Wells has outdone himself here again. I am constantly amazed at the quality of material he manages to produce, and the speed with which he does it. He is a truly impressive writer and I hope he never backtracks. He gets better with every book that he writes, and Fragments is no exception.Where the first book centered solely around Kira and was told completely from her viewpoint, the story exapands to several different locations in this book, and thus, incorporates several more viewpoint characters. I know that a lot of fans were apprehensive of this happening in book two before it was released, but have no fears. Wells has done an excellent job of keeping the story interesting, and dividing it amongst likeable and sympathetic supporting characters to keep things moving and keep the story focused where it needs to be focused at all times. Kira's quest does take up a smaller percentage of this book than in the first book, this is true, but the parts of it dealing with her are much better written than in the first book. Really, my only complaint about the first book was that Kira felt more like a girl written by a man than a real girl. This was a nitpick that was expressed by quite a few people whose reviews I have read. In this book, Wells seems to have taken that feedback to heart and done some work on her to make her feel so much more like a realistic young woman than a fictional one. Besides that, the other viewpoint characters add in different perspectives on what is happening in the world for a much clearer, and oftentimes more frightening, picture. Kira's dilemma, her inner turmoil over revelations given near the end of the previous book, and her determination to set the world to rights make her a much more sympathetic and three dimensional character than she was before. Many of the other characters find themselves in very hard spots throughout the book, and the story is charged with genuine emotion, tension and drama as events play out, and Kira's quest to find the answer to everything unfolds.The Bad? Honestly, the only bad thing about this book is that I have to wait a whole year for the next one. It was THAT good. In fact, it's amongst the best books I've read in a very, very long time. I always love to see talented new authors coming onto the scene, and Dan Wells is quite talented.In conclusion, fans of the first book will not be disappointed in this one. It is a worthy sequel to one of the best books of 2012. It remains true to the first book of the series, expounding upon the mysteries and questions that it left, answering some, building up others, and bringing up some new ones. It's bigger and better in every way without forgetting where it began, as so many other followups tend to do. Kira's character feels a lot more realistic than she did previously, and the use of other viewpoint characters gives the world a little more depth and color than it previously had. It is excellently written, exciting, and charged with emotion, tension, drama and action. If I could give this book six stars, I would. It really was that good. Dan Wells has told a great story about great characters that just happens to take place in a Dystopian setting. I only hope that other Dystopian authors follow his lead from now on. He's raised the bar for the genre to a respectable level at last. Check out my other reviews.

So I decided to give the series another shot and I'm glad I did. The first was too ham-fisted or at least a bit to obvious in the social commentary for me, but this one ran with a more adventure theme that left behind most of the us/them dynamic and instead focused on ethics where we weren't doing a lot of traveling and hunting for clues across the country.The twist, and yes, there's more twists, were very decent and I can't complain when it comes to my high-satisfaction quotient. :)I've respected the author for quite some time now, and that goes a long way to my having given the series another shot. It's a different kind of book even when it contains a lot of the same characters, and thankfully, it hit the spot this time. (It helps that the l-triangle is practically gone. Yay!)I will continue! :)

Sometimes I freak out a little that I know Dan. I've bought Girl Scout cookies from his daughter. Been to a concert with him and his lovely wife. And then you realize: Holy frak, he's probably one of the smartest writers working today. AND I KNOW HIM. Dan is a genius for using plenty of good, hard science in his books, without either confusing or condescending to the reader. You feel smarter after reading one of his books. You also feel entertained.Oh, and stressed.Yes, you definitely feel stressed.And sometimes terribly frightened. Yep, that too.Dan will make you paranoid. He'll make you question the workings of your own brain. He'll make you love his characters, then he'll kill them or put them into situations so dangerous that you can feel the sweat springing up on your palms and the soles of your feet when you think about the book days later.Dan is evil.Read his books.The end.PS- I don't know how many books are going to be in this series, but if there isn't at least one after this, I WILL KEEEL HIM.

Siento que este libro mejoró muchísimo con respecto al anterior. El autor arregló la mayoría de las falencias que me molestaron la primera vez.Hubo un par de momentos en que la trama se estancaba, pero había tantas cosas sucediendo y tantos puntos de vista, que eso casi no se nota. Los protagonistas también me cayeron mejor que en el primer libro, han madurado a la fuerza y se ven obligados a tomar decisiones imposibles, que vuelven el relato más interesante.Estoy ansiosa por leer la culminación de la trilogía, le tengo mucha fe al autor, espero que no me decepcione.

POR.DIOSLos últimos capítulos son tremendos, si bien por partes se me hizo aburrido los giros que tiene este libro te dan piel de gallina. Increíble.Menos mal que tengo Ruinas al lado o me volvería completamente loca de la ansiedad.

This is a solid 2nd book, and if you enjoyed Partials, you'll like Fragments.The story picks up pretty much where the last one left off. Kira leaves Marcus behind so that she can find some answers to the can of worms that she opened up in the last book.Of course, she ends up opening up a bigger can of worms in the process.I still loved both Kira and Sam in this book, but I felt like some of my love for Marcus petered out. He seems awfully eager to throw her under the bus...even if it was to save all of humanity. You know, I had fun reading this, but I swear I just can't think of anything else to say about it.It's a good dystopian/sci-fi kind of trilogy. So if you happen to be in the market for one, go get it.

I will start by saying I loved it. The twist and turns, the mysteries, the brutal journey to find answers, and the dividing moralities, makes for a fantastic read. Kira’s struggle is not a clear cut good vs. evil, in certain situations it is evil vs. lesser evil, and for her personality that’s always seeking the good in every situation, it is eating her up on the inside.I want to see how Kira and Dr. Morgan will fare in the last book in the series. Loved it! Five stars.

This book made me question my morals constantly. Insane moral quandaries are scattered throughout this book and it makes for an amazing, if frustrating read. The benefit to this style of writing however, is that there are no black and white characters. Every choice made in this novel has epic consequences and no matter who you help someone else will suffer for it. I almost don't want to read the next book because I feel like everything is so dire that to have any hope at all would require a farfetched miracle. On the other hand Dan Wells writing is so addictive I don't think I really have a choice. Overall great book, even better than the first which is always a treat. I can't wait to find out what happens next. 5/5

Dan Wells is a cruel jerk. Worst cliffhanger ever. However, this book was amazing. Even better than book one. And that's saying something. Review to come.

La primer mitad se me hizo lenta y algo aburrida, pero después ¡OMG!. Dan, lo hiciste de nuevo.

So second book. The end of the first book was exciting. They saved the baby, my fav Jayden, is dead and Kira has left east meadow. Now once again I found the beginning to be a little slow. There’s unrest in east meadow because the humans can’t synthesize the cure, Nandita is still missing, Kira is gone, and we have to follow around Marcus who is just not the most exciting narrator.Even when Kira picks up the story, her section gets off to a slow start. She’s looking through old offices, climbing a lot of stairs, and while I realize it sets the scene the beginning of the book took every day very slowly, with lots of details, which was too much of a stark contrast to the second half of the book where Kira, Samm and Heron were traveling and we would jump days, weeks at a time. The book needed to find some kind of happy medium between how quickly time would move.So Kira finds Afa, the crazy guy, and I did like that he was able to fill in some of the blanks for us about how the partials came to be because obviously at this point I had lots of theories but nothing concrete. I was still running with the “half human half partial” theory but it seemed at this point I was very wrong. I loved when Marcus and Haru suddenly hear Kira’s voice over the radio, that was cute, plus she saved them. I was a little shocked that Kira didn’t t go turn herself in right away since she’s always put the survival of East Meadow ahead of her own self interest (cough cough running into partial territory to get the cure book 1) finally get to see Sam again (because lets face it that’s what we were all waiting for) and it was a cute reunion.But now her Sam and Heron are going to go off on this quest and leave and I did not enjoy the traveling scenes. They were dull for me. The riding, the big time jumps that seemed to take place. It was better once we got to chicago, although there again it was a little boring with how much time was taken to describe all the flooding, sink holes, finding the boat, etc when we had just travelled a few weeks and seen almost none of it.Finally got some quality action when Kira fought off those 2 partials. I liked how she was slowly learning to use the link, and how we see her and Sam slowly building towards a relationship and that even though the attraction and fascination was there with each other right away in book 1, the romance wasn’t (its not a true OTP unless they tried to kill each other at least once).But then after Chicago the traveling scenes got even worse. Crossing the rivers, horses dying, acid rain, Afa dying was all just sort of thrown at us. We see them get to Colorado quickly but there was just a real lack of excitement in the lead up to it. The most exciting thing to happen to them was crossing the rivers and those scenes were not nearly as exciting or dramatic as I think they intended them to be.But things finally got a little better when they found the settlement in Colorado. Of course it was funny to watch Kira die a little at seeing children. And I loved the way Calix was flirting with Sam. You couldn’t not laugh when they went to get the horses and she kissed him and it was just so awkward. And then I love watching Sam stumble over how to express his feeling for Kira without the link and Calix advice because he was clearly missing obvious signals from Kira.Now everything happening back in East Meadow was important but not any more exciting that what was going on with Kira and Samm. Marcus was funny as usual but the whole trip into partial territory to meet with their general had the same sort of feel where there were definitely parts that could’ve been edited out to make the story drag less.Then of course we had the dramatic discovery that all these people were being kept alive by comatose partials and the leader was a part of the Trust (wasn’t that shocking) and the moral dilemma of what to do, let the partials go free or the humans die. And then of course the big ending of Kira agreeing to go with Dr. Morgan (finally) and then Sam’s big shocker of agreeing to stay and be the pheromone supply for this community. We had a nice big kiss at the end which was nice but now they’ve ended the book separated AGAIN.Overall I’d give this book 3.5 stars just because so much of the traveling was too glossed over and just not interesting to read. I still really enjoy the series and am excited to see how it’s all wrapped up.

You can also find this review here on my blog.I usually go into trilogies thinking that the second book cannot supersede the first if it was a great story. Well, this is not one of those trilogies. I was absolutely blown away by everything this book had to offer. The stakes were higher, the world expanded to soaring heights, and lots of dirty secrets are uncovered. This book was incredible.The writing style, again, is so engaging. It’s one of those books that makes you feel like you’re alongside the characters experiencing the dangers and glory together. In this book, we don’t just follow Kira, but we get a perspective from Marcus as well. I really enjoyed this because it gave a chance for Marcus to be fleshed out better, and i actually liked him a bit more. But, it also gave us the opportunity to see what was happening in two very different places, and to give us a line back to some of the characters we came to know in the first book.I also think this dual perspective was kind of ingenious in a way because we get a lot of travelling, and information from Kira’s perspective, that gets balanced out by the action, and survival aspect in Marcus’s perspective. It never felt like the story was lagging, and we get so much more information on this crazy world, that you just wanted to read more to find out how it all connects together.The character development in this book was fantastic. Everyone really comes into themselves and the roles they play, while battling feelings and emotions they have to come to terms with. Kira only just found out she is some kind of “other partial” and you really see her struggling to come to terms with what it means, and how to adapt to this new knowledge. We also get to experience Samm trying to understand feelings and becoming more empathetic. The character growth is just superb and you can really see it happening before your eyes.I also want to touch on the romance elements of this book. There is a slight romance blossoming between Kira and Samm but it in no way takes precedence over the story. And i really love that the characters realise that they have more pressing issues to deal with than love. Do you know how hard it is to read a dystopian where the romance takes over, it’s like hello, the end of the world, and the human race as you know it is ending!! So i loved that Wells realized this and put it on the back burner.This book is about the story and all the twists and turns that give you enough information to guess where you’re heading and then twist the big reveals into more questions that only just start to get answered in the end. The stakes are incredibly high, and there’s no doubt about the main goal of the characters. Find a way to save everyone, even if you have to die trying. loved it.

**3.5 stars****No spoilers**The first third of this book I found to be really quite boring and it made me slump quite bad. Then however it did seriously pick up and I flew through the rest of it. A couple of Kira's choices were questionable and there were some confusing bits. The third book has the potential to be a great finale though with all the cliffhangers from this book.