MY REVIEW:
Thunder is the first book in Bonnie Calhoun’s new Stone Braide Chronicles published by Revell. The story takes place along the east coast of the United States approximately 150 years after The Time of Sorrows when the earth was nearly destroyed by nuclear war and the resulting volcanoes, tsunamis, etc. Some humans survived the holocaust and some even thrived but their world was a strange one with stark contrasts. Many of the humans worked hard for their daily needs using fairly primitive methods while others lived in comfort in a scientifically advanced self-contained city in The Mountain. One would think that after such an apocalypse, people would learn to get along but human nature never seems to change and the practice of defining a person’s worth by their race or where they lived was as common as ever. In this fractured world, Selah was on the verge of becoming an adult and could not wait to prove herself but woke to find that everything she believed about her life was a lie.
Bonnie’s writing style is easy going and held my interest throughout the book. The plot moved along at a good pace and held plenty of adventure, mystery, and conflict to keep me engaged. The characters were well developed and exhibited believable actions and change as the story progressed. Although I found Selah frustrating at times, her behavior was typical of a person her age – eager to prove themselves an adult but not enough maturity to pull it off.
I did enjoy the book although I will be the first to admit that this genre is not among my favorites. I also confess that I still have plenty of unanswered questions, particularly about exactly who the Landers might be. I am hoping for more details in Bonnie’s next installment and hate that I have to wait so long to read it. Overall, Thunder is an excellent adventure and should be read for pure enjoyment rather than trying to analyze it too deeply.
This book was provided for review by
Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
The Time of Sorrows is long past.
The future of Selah and her people is shrouded in mystery.
And the clock is ticking.
Hidden in the tall grasses along a shore littered with the rusted metal remnants of a once-great city, a hunter crouches. It is the eve of her eighteenth Birth Remembrance and high time she proves to herself and her brothers that she can stand on her own two feet. Selah Rishon Chavez waits not for game but for one of the small boats that occasionally crash against the desolate shoreline. Because inside one of these boats she will find her quarry–a Lander.
These people from an unknown land across the ocean are highly prized by the Company and bring a good price–especially if they keep the markings they arrive with.
Everything falls to pieces when the Lander whom Selah catches is stolen by her brothers, and Selah wakes the next morning to find the Lander’s distinctive mark has appeared on her own flesh. Once the hunter, Selah is now one of the hunted, and she knows only one person who can help her–Bodhi Locke, the Lander her brothers hope to sell in the Mountain.
With evocative descriptions of a strange new world that combines elements of disturbing scientific advances, devious political conspiracy, and survival in a hostile wilderness, Bonnie S. Calhoun weaves a captivating tale of a society more like our own than we may want to admit. From the tension-laced first scene to the captivating last page, Thunder is an epic journey into the heart of humankind that explores how far we are willing to go when we’re pushed to the limit.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Bonnie S. Calhoun teaches workshops on Facebook, Twitter, HTML, and social media at writers conferences. In her everyday life she is a seamstress and clothing designer. Bonnie and her husband live in a log home in upstate New York with a dog and two cats who think she’s wait staff. Thunder is her first YA novel. Learn more at www.bonniescalhoun.com.
