MOVIE REVIEW - ARRIVAL

"There are days that define the story beyond your life. Like the day they arrived."

(from guest blogger Amber Armstrong)  Arrival is an American sci-fi movie of Canadian director Denis Villeneuve, which came out in the year 2016. American writer Ted Chiang published in 1998 bases the scenario on Story of Your Life. The play opened September 1, 2016. It was released on November 10, 2016. The movie paid off, have been receiving great reviews.

The movie is about huge objects, which appear on Earth all of a sudden. They are called coquilles and allegedly have extraterrestrial origin. Trying to figure out reasons and aims of their appearance, American security services contacted socialists involving a linguist Louise Banks and an astrophysicist. Louise is followed by memories about her daughter who died from a rare disease at a young age.

She does not speak their language but she is trying to and gradually she manages to understand what they are trying to say. She gets acquainted with them through communication however she can and she is amazed with new and unknown for her and others but how communication goes and how it gets easy.

BLOG TOUR - THE VERONA TRILOGY BY LORY S. KAUFMAN: INTERVIEW & GIVEAWAY

The Verona Trilogy is an adventurous series that takes readers along on the life-changing journey of three 24th century teens. Travel in time to 14th century Verona Italy with them and get lost in this exciting sci-fi, historical fiction tale. It's a pleasure to feature this incredible series here at FLY HIGH! and I'm really happy to share with you my interview with author Lory S. Kaufman. There's a giveaway contest for you! Take your chances in the rafflecopter form below this post. It is open internationally, you can win the 3 book in the trilogy either in ebook form or in print (winner will choose). The deadline is May 15. Enjoy the interview and good luck in the contest.

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Maria Grazia:  Welcome to FLY HIGH! Lory. My first question for you is: Time travelling and artificial intelligence are among the main features in your YA series, The Verona Trilogy.  What age would you like to travel back to if you could? And what special wish would you make come true if advanced artificial intelligence was at your service?

Lory: Where would I go to?  When would I go to? I love history, so I want to go everywhere, to see how people lived, thought, and to understand their motivations. But with my love of art and arcitecture, I think my choice of 14th century Verona was at the top of my list, and that’s one of the reasons I set my first series there. Now that I have travelled back in time to there, the place I am visiting in my own personal time machine is ancient Akkad, in Messopotamia. It’s the research for my next stories. So glad I have my own, personal time machine.

BOOK BLAST & GIVEAWAY: THE EPHERIUM CHRONICLES - EMBRACE BY T.D. WILSON

The Epherium Chronicles: Embrace

Book one of The Epherium Chronicles Hope. Captain James Hood of the Earth Defense Forces remembers what it felt like. Twenty-five years ago, it surged through him as a young boy watching the colony ships launched by mega-corporation Epherium rocket away. He, like so many others, dreamed of following in the colonists' footsteps. He wanted to help settle a new world—to be something greater. Then came the war... Hope. During years of vicious conflict with an insectoid alien race, it was nearly lost. Though Earth has slowly rebuilt in the six years since the war, overcrowding and an unstable sun have made life increasingly inhospitable. When mysterious signals from the nearly forgotten colony ships are received, Hood is ordered to embark on a dangerous reconnaissance mission. Could humanity's future sit among the stars? Hope. Hood needs it now more than ever. As secrets about the original colonists are revealed and the Epherium Corporation's dark agenda is exposed, new adversaries threaten the mission, proving more dangerous to Earth than their already formidable foes…

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THAT IS THE SORT OF BRAVERY I MUST HAVE NOW: INSURGENT AND ALLEGIANT BY VERONICA ROTH

I've been reading quite a lot this latest week. I have finished 3 books and that's something I'm really proud of after I had been reading very little in the previous months. Two of the 3 books are YA fiction novels.

After reading Divergent and watching the movie,  I was too curious to know what happened next, so I provided my iPad with the ebooks of the two sequels which completed the Divergent trilogy and was more than willing to take up the journey toward the epilogue of Tris and Four's story. Once started, I really couldn't stop.

Insurgent (book 2)

One choice can transform you—or it can destroy you. But every choice has consequences, and as unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves—and herself—while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love.

Tris's initiation day should have been marked by celebration and victory with her chosen faction; instead, the day ended with unspeakable horrors. War now looms as conflict between the factions and their ideologies grows. And in times of war, sides must be chosen, secrets will emerge, and choices will become even more irrevocable—and even more powerful. Transformed by her own decisions but also by haunting grief and guilt, radical new discoveries, and shifting relationships, Tris must fully embrace her Divergence, even if she does not know what she may lose by doing so (from amazon.com)

I was so disappointed while reading this second book. I found it a bit boring and frankly totally useless. I actually think it is completely irrelevant to the whole story, and this impression was confirmed while I was reading the final novel, Allegiant, which I liked, instead. What I experienced while going through  Insurgent and its more than 500 pages was just boredome. Was it only me or did anybody else reading Veronica Roth's trilogy experience the same?  I just couldn't bear suicidal Tris and found her interaction with Four quite unbelievable and rather repetitive. I think Divergent was a creative and interesting YA debut novel,  but I'm also sure Insurgent is not a worthy follow-up. 

DIVERGENT: READING THE BOOK, WATCHING THE MOVIE

Divergent - the story

Having been hailed as “the next Hunger Games“ Divergent is the first book in a trilogy by Veronica Roth (Divergent, Insurgent, Allegiance) taking place in post-apocalyptic Chicago, where society is divided into five factions. Each of them represents  a different virtue: Erudite (the intelligent),  Amity (the peaceful), Candor (the honest), Dauntless (the brave), and Abnegation (the selfless). At  16 teenagers  have to decide if they want to stay in their faction or switch to another - for the rest of their lives. Tris Prior makes a choice that surprises everyone. Then Tris and her fellow faction-members have to live through a highly competitive initiation process to live out the choice they have made. They must undergo extreme physical and intense psychological tests, that transform them all. But Tris has a secret,  she is divergent, she doesn't fit into any one of the factions. If anyone knew, it would mean certain death.

My Divergent Journal 

MEET SIMON LEWIS, WRITER.

I’m very pleased to introduce my guest today: British novelist and screenwriter, Simon Lewis. I’m reading his novel GO these days and it is such a gripping thriller! My review of the book is coming soon, meanwhile, meet its brilliant author, please.

Simon Lewis was born in Wales in 1971 and GO is his first novel (1999), a travel thriller about backpackers, which he wrote  in a village in the Himalayas. It has been translated into German, Italian, Turkish and Swedish so far.

His second novel, BAD TRAFFIC (2008), is a crime thriller about people smugglers, featuring jaded Chinese cop, Inspector Jian. The book has been published in the UK and the US and translated into German, French, Swedish, Italian, Japanese and Turkish. In 2009 it was nominated for the LA Times Book of the Year Award and for the French SNCF prize for crime fiction.

His third travel thriller, BORDER RUN, was published in April 2012 in the US and the UK.

 As a screenwriter, Simon has worked for Potboiler Films, Cloud 8 and Channel 4 and has 3 movies with incredible International casts  in post-  or in production in 2014!  Read the interview, welcome Simon Lewis  at FLY HIGH and discover more about him and his work.