Review + Giveaway: Shards & Ashes

Shards & Ashes

Editors: Melissa Marr & Kelley Armstrong
Contributors: Veronica Roth, Kami Garcia, Margaret Stohl, Rachel Caine, Nancy Holder, Beth Revis, Carrie Ryan
Pages: 384
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication Date: February 19, 2013
Source: For review from YA Books Central

Description from Goodreads:
Gripping original stories of dystopian worlds from nine New York Times bestselling authors, edited by Melissa Marr and Kelley Armstrong

The world is gone, destroyed by human, ecological, or supernatural causes. Survivors dodge chemical warfare and cruel gods; they travel the reaches of space and inhabit underground caverns. Their enemies are disease, corrupt corporations, and one another; their resources are few, and their courage is tested.

Powerful original dystopian tales from nine bestselling authors offer bleak insight, prophetic visions, and precious glimmers of light among the shards and ashes of a ruined world.

Review:
Basically every time I review an anthology, I do things differently. This time, since there aren't that many stories and they're a bit longer, I'm going to break it down with my thoughts about each story.

Story 1: "Hearken" by Veronica Roth
In all honesty, I was expecting to hate this story. I really was not impressed with Divergent and had no higher hopes for this short story. Well, it just goes to show that giving authors a second chance can be a good thing. I really did like this. The concept is fascinating, if not entirely sense-making. In this world, terrorism is rampant, and people are dying from bombings left and right. They've developed, for reasons that seem rather sketchy, the ability, with an implant, for certain highly musically-inclined individuals to hear a person's life music and death music. The story follows a half-Indian, half-white girl, Darya, through her decision about whether to choose to hear the life song or death song. I did laugh hysterically when Darya's life song turns out to have all of the instruments, rather than just some like most people; she's divergent, y'all! The world building opens up a lot of questions which it can't answer (How does this ability actually help anything? Does the death music actually predict when the death will occur?), but the idea itself is appealing enough that I was willing to mostly let that slide and really appreciate the story. While it does loosely fit in the post-apocalyptic category, it's REALLY loose. Darya has some depth to her, and the writing is better than it was in Divergent, if still not of particular note. 3.5/5

Story 2: "Branded" by Kelley Armstrong
Kelley Armstrong stays in familiar territory with her contribution to the anthology, in a tale about werewolves in hybrids. In her post-apocalyptic vision of the future, mankind's attempts to create super-soldiers have ultimately lessened odds of survival. The remaining humans hide behind well-guarded walls, swiftly persecuting anyone found to possess supernatural blood. Rayne's secret boyfriend has just been accused. The story is fun, and will appeal to Armstrong fans. 3/5

Story 3: "Necklace of Raindrops" by Margaret Stohl
Well, this story probably marks my final experience with Margaret Stohl. I hated Beautiful Creatures and, if anything, this is worse. In Stohl's contribution, in a dystopian future, people's lives are tied to their necklaces. If you run out of beads, you die. The other option is to drop, aka go sky diving to your death. At the beginning of the story, Jai's brother, Rama, drops. Jai is not actually bothered by this, instead embarking on a nauseatingly corny romance with Z. Even better than that nonsensical plot and the motivationless characters, Stohl writes almost solely in sentence fragments, and all three points of view read the same. 1/5

Story 4: "Dogsbody" by Rachel Caine
Caine's story follows along a classic dystopian line, with a despotic, ruthless government. Xavier, known as Zay, is recruited to work as a dogsbody, essentially a slave. This story will thrill action fans, as about half of it is an extended shoot-em-up scene. I found the characterization lacking and couldn't stop yawning, despite the action. Also, choosing to name one of the rebels Virtue is rather heavy-handed. 2.5/5

Story 5: "Pale Rider" by Nancy Holder
In Nancy Holder's contribution, another from an author whose previous work I hated, we have yet another world that makes absolutely no sense to me. Apparently, there was a collapse, consisting of explosions, earthquakes, and riots. In 8 years, the world fell apart entirely. I was already skeptical, but we've also got a hot German guy with powers and it turns into this weird paranormal thing. I wouldn't really call this a dystopia, and the writing is nauseating. 1/5

Story 6: "Corpse Eaters" by Melissa Marr
My main reaction to this story was "CHICKA-WHUT?" There's not nearly enough world building to sell this story of some Lizard King god arising from the deeps with his lizard followers. Then apparently some humans start worshiping him and they all eat people. The main characters, Harmony and Chris fight them. Yes, it's dark and creepy, but would probably work better either with a lot more background or as some sort of superhero comic. Also, the relationship between Chris and Harmony is creepy, since he previously had a relationship with her sister Chastity. In fact, he and Harmony first hook up when he thinks she is Chastity, during a drunken haze after Chastity's death. I didn't like the characters or the world, unfortunately. This was a major letdown, since I generally enjoy Marr's work. 2/5

Story 7: "Burn 3" by Kami Garcia
Well, another author has succeeded in surprising me and exceeding my expectations. Kami Garcia chooses a simple premise for her story: global warming leading to post-apocalyptic conditions. A society, within a dome, is managing to limp along, but, even beneath the glass, people suffer from burns. Garcia doesn't shoe-horn in any romance, or try to make the story overly hopeful. "Burn 3" follows classic lines, and does so without being melodramatic or boring. 4/5

Story 8:"Love Is a Choice" by Beth Revis
Yet again, Beth Revis' short story contribution is set in the AtU universe. Unlike some of the others, I actually really liked this one, which gives background on Orion. In this story, you can really see why he ended up losing his mind, and how he became so ruthless and crazy, despite his good intentions. 4/5

Story 9: "Miasma" by Carrie Ryan
Yet again, romance dominates any sort of actual world building. Carrie Ryan has some cool ideas. Something has happened to the environment, and now there's a deadly plague and creepy beaked doctors. Conceivably, this could be awesome, but it's all just there as a backdrop to an instalove sort of relationship. Pass. 2/5

Though most of these stories fell flat for me, the collection is very readable, with even the worst stories not boring me. This made it a nice easy read. I wouldn't recommend it to those who look primarily for world building, but, otherwise, it's a quick, fun read, and, unless you're OCD about such things, you can just skip the stories you don't like.

Rating: 3/5

Giveaway:
I have two copies of the ARC to offer up to my readers. Fill out the Rafflecopter to enter. US/CAN only.
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