A Million Suns

By Beth Revis.
 
Unfortunately, I started this review back in February, and then kept forgetting to write it. So the details of A Million Suns aren't exactly clear in my mind. But the awesomeness has stuck!

Wow. A Million Suns comes as the sequel to Across the Universe and it blows Across the Universe out of the water. Elder is struggling with the repercussions of taking the ship's population off of the drug Phydus, Amy is coping with the thought of a life spent on the ship and dealing with exactly what feelings she has for Elder, and the general population of the ship is crumbling in discipline. Beth Revis throws lots of surprises into the book, and the ending is so thrilling, so absolutely amazing that I am SO EXCITED for the next book. I'm not going to give the ending away, but it is a big surprise and will have you jumping up an down.
Okay, on to some of the specifics. I adore the questions that the book raises about leadership, how we choose our leaders, and what exactly their role should be compared to that of everyone else. After all, Elder has been groomed for a life of leading Godspeed. But now that the ship's population isn't drugged anymore, they want a say in how the ship is run. The chaos in the ship is a miniature of the chaos that occurs in countries when their leadership collapses. Revis really develops Elder as a complex character, which I loved.
Amy, on the other hand, could use some more development. Most of her character is consumed with anxiety over the attack by Luther and friends in Across the Universe. And while it is completely understandable that she would be traumatized by this, I wanted her to do a little more.
As with Across the Universe, there are a few holes. The main characters discover a lot of secrets about the ship, which are all very exciting, but the big question is why wouldn't they have explored some of these areas earlier? After all, we already see Elder beginning to push boundaries in Across the Universe. So why wouldn't he do something as simple as, say, peek through a few more doors or look out the window? Sometimes the characters are a little too dense about what's going on around them.

Overall, though, A Million Suns was even better than Across the Universe. Thinking back, I would probably lower the rating for Across the Universe to a 3.7, and give A Million Suns a 4.1. For food, A Million Suns is these wonderful peanut butter cookies with peanut butter and milk chocolate chips.  Delicious! Now all that's left to do is count down the days until the January 15th release date for Shades of Earth, the conclusion to the trilogy. Yippee!

Here's Beth Revis's website: http://www.bethrevis.com/
And the Across the Universe website: http://acrosstheuniversebook.com/