Across the Universe (Across the Universe, #1)

by Beth Revis

Book 1 in the New York Times bestselling trilogy, perfect for fans of Battlestar Gallactica and Prometheus!

WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO SURVIVE ABOARD A SPACESHIP FUELED BY LIES?

Amy is a cryogenically frozen passenger aboard the spaceship Godspeed. She has left her boyfriend, friends--and planet--behind to join her parents as a member of Project Ark Ship. Amy and her parents believe they will wake on a new planet, Centauri-Earth, three hundred years in the future. But fifty years before Godspeed's scheduled landing, cryo chamber 42 is mysteriously unplugged, and Amy is violently woken from her frozen slumber.

Someone tried to murder her.

Now, Amy is caught inside an enclosed world where nothing makes sense. Godspeed's 2,312 passengers have forfeited all control to Eldest, a tyrannical and frightening leader. And Elder, Eldest's rebellious teenage heir, is both fascinated with Amy and eager to discover whether he has what it takes to lead. Amy desperately wants to trust Elder. But should she put her faith in a boy who has never seen life outside the ship's cold metal walls? All Amy knows is that she and Elder must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets before whoever woke her tries to kill again.

• ISBN10: 1595144676
• ISBN13: 9781595144676
• Publish Date: 29 November 2011 (first published 1 January 2011)
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Razorbill
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 448
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9781595144676

Reviews

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

Last review of 2018!

Initially, I had planned to put this one off until next year, but honestly y’all? I was so wrapped up in the story that I didn’t want to put it down. Beth Revis has donna AMAZING job building this science fiction world. The science and the possibilities are fantastic. From the very beginning of the novel, I’ve been hooked.

There are a lot of perfect details here. Across the Stars starts with Amy saying goodbye to her parents, and then being cryogenically frozen. The detail in the opening scene… it’ll make you cringe. It’s not gory or anything like that, but just imaging what that would be like… it’s terrifying and fascinating. After that opening scene, there are two perspectives – Amy, and Elder. When Amy is woken via attempted murder, it’s aa few hundred years later and we are introduced to Godspeed.

There’s a lot of questions aboard Godspeed, and that is what kept me glued to the book. The ship is run on lies, and I spent a lot of time unsure who is telling the truth… and whether the lies were by intention or ignorance. Who is killing the Frozens? How long has Godspeed really been in space? How did it become mono-ethnic? And OMG did they really just say that Hitler was a strong leader? The politics and culture aboard this ship are interesting, and terrifying, and absolutely well-crafted.

I’m not as sure about the characters. I feel like there still needs to be a lot of development. I understand why Elder isn’t very interesting… he’s been fed propaganda and was raised under an oppressive thumb, so he would need to develop. I expected more of Amy, however, who’s had literal centuries to develop. And of Harley, who seemed complex and interesting at first ended up feeling really flat. We are told he has all these complex feelings, but I don’t feel like we ever really experience them.

Elder’s last couple chapters, though? I need to know what’s going to happen next. Also, that character has such a potential for tyranny. I want to know if he’s good, or he succumbs to it.

Hopefully the sequel in 2019! In the meanwhile, this reminds me in many ways of the movie Passengers, which I really, really enjoyed.

[cornerfolds]

Read more of my reviews at Cornerfolds.com!

Initial reaction:



Recently the topic of books read on a whim came up in a top ten post and this one really should have made the list. I've seen this book around a lot, but it really came onto the scene long before I started reading young adult fiction regularly. I decided to give it a try when I saw the audiobook at my library after quickly skimming the Goodreads reviews and finding that most people seem to love it! Unfortunately... I'm not among those who thought it was incredible so this review will be pretty short and to the point.

The premise of Across the Universe is really interesting! There's tons of potential here! Amy was frozen and taken as cargo on a spaceship in order to start a new civilization on a new planet in a few hundred years. But then she wakes up and nothing is as it should be. In fact, everything is so, so wrong that Amy has no idea how to handle it, but quickly learns that she has no other choice. Amy is an okay heroine. I didn't feel strongly about her either way, but I didn't hate her, so I guess that's good?

Elder is the love interest in this book, because obviously there had to be one. (At least there's no love triangle though, right?) I did not care for him at all. Elder was a selfish, rude, naive character with no redeeming qualities. The romance between Elder and Amy was totally unconvincing, especially after the "big reveal" at the end.

The world was really interesting, sure, even if it didn't make much sense. There were rolling hills and cities with farms and fake rain on the spaceship, for whatever reason. I love the idea of an entire society existing on a spaceship! I loved picturing the world, as weird as it was. And I even love the thought of this crazy, dysfunctional, dystopian society. Somehow it just didn't all fit together well for me.

My big issues with this book (somewhat spoilery?):

* If someone was cryogenically frozen, they would not be conscious. They would not be conscious for 300 years. Wtf.

* How does someone disappear... to a prominent position... in a closed environment... never to be found? This makes no sense.

* Why the heck would there need to be hormones added to the water to keep people from inbreeding? Have things changed so much in 300 years that people are into their siblings like that?

*If a ship engine malfunctions in space, the ship does not slow down. I'm not even into science and I know this.

* If someone is cloned, shouldn't they be able to figure out that they look like another person? How could it possibly be a huge revelation that you look just like someone else?? How could a character live their entire life without realizing they look just like other people???

When you put all these things together, my main issue is actually this: everything in Across the Universe is done for shock value. Everything. And I hate that. Sure, I love a good twist as good as the next person. But I like it to be relevant. I like big, shocking moments to have a point. Rape, for example. If there's no point to it, it does not need to exist.

As you can see, I didn't like this book much at all, although I didn't hate it. It was a really interesting concept, it was just badly executed. I kind of wish someone could redo this book, actually, with less shock value and better characters. I honestly cannot recommend this book unless maybe you're a fan of science fiction with the ability to overlook bad science and needless shock value.

Actual rating: 1.5 stars

[Joséphine]

Initial thoughts: This book wasn't a priority for me based on the synopsis because somehow I didn't think it would interest me that much. The reason I read it anyway was so that I could clear the "A book set in the future" prompt for the 2015 Popsugar Reading Challenge. Lol. Yes, I'm competitive like that. Anyway, there were some concepts that interested me in how they were dealt with, like cryonics and eugenics, plus the idea of mono ethnicity. The narration-style and first-person voices of Amy and Elder didn't do much for me though and my overall enjoyment wasn't all that high.

I'm not sure yet if I care to continue with the sequel. Yes, there's a cliffhanger but I think I'm pretty okay not knowing how things continue. Not to mention, despite the mystery surrounding the antagonist, it was pretty obvious who that person would be, so no shock there. At least there were plot-points that still kept me on the edge of my seat despite the predictability on some fronts.

[Terri M. LeBlanc]

Across the Universe by Beth Revis has been sitting on my bookshelf a long time! I picked it up at a used bookstore during my vacation to Seattle in 2013. So it was on my TBR pile for OVER a year. Yikes!

I enjoyed the plot most of all in the end. The writing, at times, was beautiful and philosophical. The ideals behind Godspeed's purpose seemed realistic and reasonable considering the conditions on Earth at the time of its departure. However, I did not like the characters.

Both Amy and Elder were whiny and unmotivated. They never did much to propel the story forward. Things happened to them or events happened on the ship that caused them to race to the next point of their "investigation." They were not active in pursuing the cause of Amy's unthawing and Eldest's behavior. The lack of knowledge sharing between the characters and their lack of motivation to buck the system made things slow going at times.

While it may seem odd, I'm still giving Across the Universe a thumbs up. The idea behind Godspeed, its secrets and moments of beautiful writing are still with me weeks after finishing the book. I won't be continuing with the series, but my copy of the book is studded with post-its highlighting my favorite bits.







This review was originally posted on Second Run Reviews.

[Katie King]

**3 Stars**

To be completely fair, I have read this book before (so nothing was a surprise) and I finished it over a month ago (so it's been a while). Oh, college...

Across the Universe is the story of Amy and Elder, two teenagers from completely different circumstances, on a spaceship traveling 300 years to a new planet. Elder is the ship-born leader-in-training. Amy is the "non-essential" daughter of two brilliant minds, all cryogenically frozen, destined to help on the new planet. But what happens when Amy is woken up 50 years early?

I have a weird relationship with this book. On one hand, I really love the concept (reminds me of Wall-E) but on the other hand, it was poorly executed. Almost all of the major plot elements were given away in the very beginning. For instance, the first-Elder-gone-bad idea was great, but making him a creepy, antisocial librarian with scars where his com should be? It could not have been more obvious. I'm surprised that passage wasn't just highlighted for the reader's ease. I'm the type of person that never picks up on those "obvious" hints, and even I could tell he was some type of antagonist.

Another example of this would be the mind-control aspect. Amy feels weird when she drinks the water, the mating season, there's a random, suspicious access point to the entire ship's water line that Elder can get to... to me that all screams THERE IS SOMETHING IN THE WATER.

Another problem I had with this book is the romance. Elder saves Amy when she gets woken up, and then they just casually decide to be together forever. I didn't feel any sort of connection between them other than the fact that Elder kept repeating that Amy was different and Amy kept repeating that she was different. Then throw in the fact that Amy is obsessed with her womanizing ex-boyfriend and waking up her dad from cryo-sleep and you've got to wonder why exactly Elder likes her.

This review has been mostly negative so let's talk about some positives. Like I said, I liked the entire concept of the book. It's a great idea and the blurb really sells it. Even if the blurb didn't, the cover alone sells this book, I'm sure. Anyways, building a spaceship to find a new planet and develop a new Earth with people frozen 300 years ago is cool. Finding out that it's been over 300 years and there's a massive cover-up to keep the population under control was crazy. I love mysteries and watching Amy and Elder try to figure it out was great. Amy was like the perfect "non-essential" because she came across as your average angsty teenager. Amy's friend Harley was fun, but I really felt bad for where he ended up.

This wasn't a bad book, but it wasn't a fantastic book either. I, by far, enjoyed it more than I didn't enjoy it. The problem was it could've been SO much better. Make things a little harder to figure out, make the romance feel a little more real, cut down on Amy's whining...easily 4 stars.

[Kelly]

4.5 Stars.
http://www.divabooknerd.com/2014/03/introducing-professor-birdbrain-and.html

[Angie]

Listened for Dewey's Readathon. :)

I really did not like Amy's and Eldest's voices in Elders chapters. So annoying.

[Vicki]

3 stars

[nannah]

Trigger warnings: attempted rape, what seems like unnecessary abuse to the female lead.

Now, this book has me a little torn on the ratings. Because while there were things that really just HURT to read (and not in a good way, I mean like she should NOT have put that in her book), I admit I still enjoyed the novel as a whole. I loved the concept and many of the twists made me literally gasp . . . well, except for one, which I called from the beginning, but maybe that's one we're supposed to know about.

But let's get the negatives out right away because almost everything I didn't like about Across the Universe are issues I find EXTREMELY important--especially in YA books, and ESPECIALLY in YA books that more girls will read than boys.

First, the attempted rape scene. Is it a new fad or something to write a scene for a the lead woman protag to almost be sexually violated? No, seriously, is it? Because I've been seeing it a lot in new YA books, especially those targeting a young female audience, and it's making me sick. And worst off, it served no real purpose in the book other than showing (though it had already been shown) that the people aren't reacting to situations like people should. I get that that particular point wanted to be put across, but putting this poor girl through that pain, and then dropping the issue for the rest of the book pretty much is inexcusable to me. Maybe it's because I have a particular rough background with the issue, but I don't think it's fair to have the female lead go through such a traumatic experience just so we readers get "oh, something's not right." Especially since we already got that a long time ago.

Secondly, to make things worse, a couple chapters after this Amy gets her will taken away (and yes, this review has some spoilers, but I won't go as far to say by what). She gets abused AGAIN, this time mentally. And this time the abuse is only for Elder's development. So her first abuse was for our understanding, the second was for Elder's character development. There's nothing I hate more than the abuse of a woman for the sake of a man's character development. It happens ALL the time in stories and media, and it just hurts and it makes me sad.

Thirdly, it's Elder's obsession with Amy that makes me feel really uncomfortable. Yes, I get that she's different and that makes her super interesting. But in the beginning when he's thinking about her, I feel violated. I didn't want them to get together, I wanted her to run, yes, run Amy! Far away! (I'd like to point out as the book progressed I forgot about that scene, as did the characters, and Elder seemed to gravitate towards her because of the way she was, every aspect of her personality, etc., not just how exotic she looked, so thank you, Revis, for that).

Okay. Fourthly, and lastly, I come to the issue of the extremely light racism that came across here. I get that Revis wanted to portray a mono-ethnic culture (and goodness, she stressed the point enough), but I did get a little uncomfortable when Amy thought at one point, "they all look the same!" or something to that effect, and also "and I'm so bright" in comparison to them. It just made me cringe. Also, when describing the ship's population for the first time, she kept using words relating to food, which always gets me going.

ANYWAYS. I'm sorry to have ranted on so much about the negatives. Because, as you see, I gave this book four stars! But yes, these issues are important to me. And yes, I think they're all sorts of wrong and should have had no part in the story. However, I did enjoy the overall story. I enjoyed the plights of a culture stuffed onto a ship for over 250 years, I enjoyed the concept of the Elder/Eldest and how that concept came to be. I loved how there was no "evil/good" because you could sympathize with both ways of thinking. You could understand why everyone did what they did, even if it sickened you. And Elder's thoughts really put those feelings across well.

And Harley. God, I love Harley. I'm going to go out on a limb here without having read any other reviews and say that he's probably everyone's favorite character. What a vibrant personality. I knew how his story was going to end, even if I think it didn't have a function in the overall picture (and even if it did make me really sad, like oh please WHY sad).

And the writing was very nice, GORGEOUS at some points.

So yeah, I'm looking forward to reading the second installment.

[nitzan_schwarz]

For this review and more, pop by my blog - Drugs Called Books

This book has been sitting on my shelf for ages - I have a paperback from the first edition, bought brand new. That should give you some idea as to how long it set there.
I really wanted to love this book. Wanted to see in it what everyone else have
Alas...

It's not that this is a bad book. The ideas behind this book are so intriguing and fascinating.
But... yes. Here it is. The BUT.

I did not get into the book, and by that I mean it was super easy to put it down and super hard to force myself to pick it up again, until the last 20% of the book. Before those 20% I was planning on giving this book no more than 2 stars, and I was super sad about it.

THE CHARACTERS
In the end, I can honestly say that I didn't really like Amy or Elder. There were moments I liked one but disliked the other, then they switched, and honestly I have no idea how I feel toward the two in the end.
In some place, I felt they were flat. I never connected to them on an emotional level.

My first impressions of Amy was of a little childish girl:

Her responses to things seemed a bit childish to me, but I did appreciate her spirits - the one that says she's not going to let them intimidate her into hiding in her room or anything.
On the other hand, spirit or not, she didn't do much but run in the story, did she?...

As for Elder... he was fine, for the most part. But that's about that - nothing more than just fine. I liked him better than Amy, but his reactions to stuff where sometime weird. Or rather, his lack of response...

I think I actually liked Harley, Elder's best friend, most. And still, when the stuff with him happened, a voice in my head told me "I should cry at this, shouldn't I?". I didn't. Goes to show how detached I was, even with him...


THE ROMANCE
God. Damn. You. Insta. Love.
This was so frustration for me, romantically wise! Amy has woken up to a reality she doesn't know, without the people she agreed to leave earth for in the first place, but she feels it might be alright because of Elder, whom she's knows for exactly three minutes.
And Elder was basically in love with Amy from before she was even alive!

This kind of things drive me mad... And his confession in the end, while being super shocking and unexpected, didn't really help my opinion on this love relationship...
I wish their love was founded, at least a little bit!
I did, however, like that they didn't move into it this book. Leaves me with hope the next book will redeem this relationship in my eyes.
Plus, Amy forgave Elder sooooooooooooooooooo easily!

THE SYSTEM
I want to give Mrs. Revis kudos for coming up with such a spectacularly creepy system. The ship Amy and Elder are on operates on an Elder/Eldest system--which is basically a system in which for every generation a leader is born in advance, and the Elder before him trains him to lead.
They have timed sexual periods (which are like animals and heat), mono-ethnicity, the people with an artistic bone in them are labeled "crazy" and live in the hospital, everything that is different needs to be dealt with and a lot of other stuff that would be spoilers so I'll keep quiet about them.
Bottom line - it creeped me out. Which is one of the good things about this book.

THE VILLAIN
Eldest, who is Elder's senior, is supposed to be the villain in this story. An evil dictator, if you will.
Pfffffttt.
Good joke. He was the least scary dictator I ever read about! First of all, I understood where he came from. Sure, he did some stuff that were bad, but those came from a long line of people he deemed smarter who planned those out.
Second, he was just not scary at all. Elder went on and on about how scary Eldest can be, but I just didn't see it.
I was more afraid of Doc, who calmly talked about sedating and medicating people for the rest of their lives if they don't behave, than I was of Eldest. And even with Doc, he had about two, three moments like that. The rest of the time he wasn't scary, either.

THE WRITING

The story is told from dual POV, Amy and Elders. Quite frankly, I found all but one of the parts from Amy's POV while she was sleeping unnecessary and meaningless. Personally I felt they just shouldn't really be there...

As for the writing itself, it was pretty unique because it takes inspiration from prose.
It used visual means
Such
As
This
which was really interesting to read. I've never came across a book who uses this before.

One of the most bothersome parts in this book was the made up slang. Revis uses three made up words; frex, frexing and Chutz. Frex and Frexing were easy enough to figure out, but Chutz kept appearing in different context, in different meanings, so I've got no idea what might be his current-slang counterpart, and that irked me. I had several discussions on the subject on Goodreads, trying to get to the bottom of this word. And when you spend more time figuring out the slang than reading the book, you know something's wrong.
However, it would seem Revis erased this word from the other editions? My friends told me they couldn't remember reading it, so maybe it was just cause I've got first edition?

If you've got this book - tell me if it's there?

(PS. I tried using GIFs in this review. Is it better with or without?)

For this review and more, pop by my blog - Drugs Called Books