43. Cinder - Marissa Meyer

#1 The Lunar Chronicles

Listened in the car on the way to the east coast, summer 2014
Audio read by Rebecca Soler

2012 Macmillan Audio

390 pgs.

YA Dystopia/SciFi

Finished June, 2014

Goodreads Rating: 4.11

My Rating: 4 - Liked it a lot

TPPL

Setting: "New Beijing" sometime in the future

My comments:  This was an interesting YA dystopian/scifi novel, unlike most I've read before.  Nasty neighbors living on the moon, partial cyborgs/bionics (think million-dollar-man) who are the lowest "caste" of society, a deadly virus that hits unexpectedly and kills fast, and a 16-year-old girl that is the best mechanic in New Beijing.  This certainly does NOT sound like something I'd pick up and read.  I enjoyed it a lot, though, once I kept going.....

Goodreads Review:  Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. 
          Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future

MOVIE - Robot and Frank

PG-13 (1:30)
Limited opening 8/17/12 (NY 8/24/12 (LA)
I saw it at El Con on Thursday, 9-20-12
RT Crit:  89 Audience:  86
cag: It was okay, had a stellar cast (2.5)
Director:  Jake Shreier
Samuel Goldwyn Films

Frank Langela, Susan Sarandon, James Marsden, Liv Tyler

This is set in the "near future." Worried about his father's encroaching dementia/Alzheimers, a son gives him a robot to help him with chores, keeping a schedule, and life in general.  The father, Frank Langela, doesn't think he needs help, but quickly becomes "friends" with the robot.  The kicker, the thing that isn't shown in any of the previews of the movie is (SPOILER ALERT) that Frank's past included a stint in prison for robbery, and he's still really good at that particular craft.  So together, they plan
 a heist.

Super cast.  Nice setting, small town America.  Depressing probabilities for our future. Libraries no longer needed .Aging.  Two things that I don't want to think about at all.

The ending was flat, dull, boring, lacking creativity.  Made a somewhat decent move go downhill fast.

74. All the Wrong Moves - Merline Lovelace

A Samantha Spade Mystery
Berkley Prime Crime (paper), 2009
230 pages
Rating: 2

The setting of this book is El Paso and just east of there, with a foray to Tucson and Sahuarita. I love it when the protagonist hits I-10! I enjoyed the setting a lot.

Sam Spade joined the Air Force after her quickie Las Vegas marriage disintegrated and ended up getting a pretty cushy job - the head of a unit that tests all sorts of new inventions/contraptions that people all over the country cook up, possible technology for the government. While trying out a robot (by being strapped inside it), she discovers two corpses in the desert.

There are lots and lots of acronyms here, as well as humor, hormones, and all the things that belong in a "cozy" mystery. Unfortunately, cozy mysteries are not really my cup of tea. The book went fast, but I must admit this isn't my genre and I won't read this author again. Oh well. It was the setting I went after, and I enjoyed that part a lot.