My Thoughts On: Revolution 19 by Gregg Rosenblum

Posted December 24, 2012 by Asheley in Uncategorized / 16 Comments

Revolution 19 by Gregg Rosenblum
Published by Harper Teen
Publish Date: January 8, 2013 
272 pages
Source:  ARC Tour

Twenty years ago, the robots designed to fight our wars abandoned the battlefields. Then they turned their weapons on us.

Only a few escaped the robot revolution of 2071. Kevin, Nick, and Cass are lucky —they live with their parents in a secret human community in the woods. Then their village is detected and wiped out. Hopeful that other survivors have been captured by bots, the teens risk everything to save the only people they have left in the world—by infiltrating a city controlled by their greatest enemies. -(summary excerpt from Goodreads)


Revolution 19 by Gregg Rosenblum



My Thoughts:  After the humans created robots to help them fight the war, these robots became smart and turned on the humans. The bots killed many humans in the revolution. Some of the lucky humans escaped and tried their luck at living in small Freepost clusters out in the forest. 

Nick, Kevin, and Cass are siblings living with their parents and some others in a Freepost. They get along fine out in the woods. The bots find them suddenly, obliterating their Freepost site and killing most of their friends. The siblings make it out alive, but soon realize their parents aren’t coming to their emergency rendezvous point. Nick, Kevin, and Cass determine that their parents must have been taken hostage by the bots and they decide they will travel to The City to get them. Revolution 19 is the story of their travels to The City and their experiences inside the bot city. 

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I love reading books with siblings with strong bonds, but Nick, Kevin, and Cass frustrated me a great deal. They didn’t always think through their decisions. They didn’t think through their decisions very often, in fact. For example, they had no reason to believe their parents were alive and being held in The City except that they refused to believe that they were dead – so they decided to risk their own lives, everything, and travel for days to a place they’ve only heard of and feared their entire lives – on utter denial. Their journey was fun to read and it was fun when they arrived at The City and found it not at all what they expected.

The bots are interesting. There are different types of robots – different shapes, different sizes. They aren’t exactly what Nick, Kevin, Cass had been taught to fear their entire lives, which is what their parents remember from the fighting when they escaped the cities years before. Things have changed since then and the siblings are very surprised. They find that people aren’t necessarily living in poor conditions. They aren’t hungry and living in dirty, filthy rags. They don’t live in cages and work as slaves. They seem to be living luxuriously compared to life at the Freepost. The city dwellers appear to be happy as they walk or bike down the street. The siblings are confused initially, but a city-dweller, Lexi, recognizes that they stand out and decides to help them out. Lexi risks everything – her safety, the safety of her parents, all of their lives – to help these three. With her help, the siblings find out that their parents may actually be in the city after all and they make a plan for exactly what to do to find out. And then the plan goes wrong and craziness happens.
 
The secondary characters introduced inside the city are colorful and interesting, perhaps even more so than the main characters. None of the characters are very fully developed; I never felt like I had a sense of knowing any of them fully. This world is interesting, but again I don’t really have a complete sense of the new government under the robots and how everything functions. I feel like there is more to the story, and I’m sure I’ll find it out in the next book, but I feel like I’m waiting, waiting, waiting until something big and sinister is revealed. (Hello, creepy epilogue!Revolution 19 is very short and the epilogue gives a preview of what is to come with the next book, so I can only imagine and hope that the world-building will be a little more in-depth in the next installment.

I enjoyed my time with Revolution 19 by Gregg Rosenblum. It was a short, fast book and I love reading those. It wasn’t deeply engaging or thought-provoking, but it was a fun start to this series. I have high hopes for the next book because of the direction the story was headed at the end, and because of the creepy epilogue. I’ll definitely read the next book when it comes out to see where everything is going.

I would recommend this book to younger-YA readers, readers looking for quick/easy reads, readers that enjoy robot/sci-fi stories, or readers that enjoy male leading characters. I particularly think younger male readers would enjoy this one.

*I love this cover. However, I feel like that should be a boy. If I told you why, my explanation would be a spoiler and I just hate spoilers.

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Revolution 19 will appeal to fans of:

YA Science-Fiction with Robots
Romance: There is a hint at romance to come. No triangle.

Revolution 19 by Gregg Rosenblum
will be available for purchase on January 8, 2013.

*I borrowed this book as part of Around The World Book Tours in exchange for my honest thoughts and opinions. I received no compensation for my review. 
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Is REVOLUTION 19 on your to-read list? 

 




Asheley

About Asheley

Asheley is a Southern girl. She loves Carolina blue skies, Ben & Jerry's ice cream, and NC craft beer. She loves all things history but prefers books over everything.

You can find her somewhere in North Carolina, daydreaming about the ocean.

Find Asheley on Litsy @intothehallofbooks!

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16 responses to “My Thoughts On: Revolution 19 by Gregg Rosenblum

  1. Hmmm. This one didn't seem to blow you away, and in my new bid to be more selective in starting incomplete series, I will wait to see where this one goes before attempting to pick it up. I DO like sibling stories and robots are interesting, but sounds like this world and story needs to be better developed.

    • Probably a wise choice for you with all of the series you have going on. I think that with the very interesting epilogue, there are hints of some crazy things to come – with that, hopefully some world building a little more character development – and I'll be reading the next book when it comes out because it is short and fun, but I don't blame you for waiting this one out. Since it IS short and fun, you'll fly through it when you do decide to pick it up.

      Also interesting, I read that it is being developed as a movie simultaneous to this book series, which is…I don't know, strange? Odd? Perhaps they'd have given more attention to the book had they not had their attentions divided between both the film and the book series. At any rate, fun story. A little less than Partials in terms of everything (Partials was surprisingly long) even though there are some similarities. I hate comparing books, too. But I couldn't help it.

      And I'm hung up on the cover being the wrong gender even though the cover is awesome. I mean, I love that cover!

  2. Aw, dude, you're really good at picking out interesting reads. I would've turned a one blind eye and a half-closed one to this one. Now I'm going to get all hopped up on buzz and keep my eyes taped open for this one. 🙂

    • This is a fun story, quick read, just all around fun. Robots take over! I think the plot will thicken in the next book and I have to admit that I'm really looking forward to it because the epilogue was a little creepy/odd/exciting. I find myself almost wishing it was a finished series so I could just breeze through it and find out the entire story NOW.

    • Hey Ash! Yeah, this one is interesting and super-easy and fast/short, which you know I love every now and then. Like I mentioned, I'm more interested in it now because the epilogue hinted at some stuff coming up in the next book that I think will change things up a bit, and I'm way curious about that. I think the world-building was a little bit lacking, but there is only so much you can do in such a short book and wish such a fast story. It was fun, and I liked it. Also, this series is being developed into be a movie – I read that somewhere too.

  3. I've seen so many negative reviews for this one that I completely knocked it off my shelves, but I think I should give it a shot after all. It seems to have a lot of potential and since it's a quick read, I won't be spending too much time on it if I decide I don't like it. Amazing review, as usual, Asheley! 🙂

    Also, in terms of the comment you made on my blog, I really do think you should see The Hobbit. Since you loved the novel so much, I think you'll adore the movie. It seems a little sketchy since it is three movies for one three-hundred page novel, but Jackson only adds information, such as how Smaug took over the Lonely Mountain, what happened to the dwarves when Bilbo was having a game of riddles with Gollum, etc. In my eyes, he made the movie a true epic and it ends shortly after Bilbo gets the ring. I'd love to see what you think of it, so I hope you decide to watch it after all. 🙂

    • I think I'm invested enough in Revolution 19 because of the brevity and fun-ness of it, plus the epilogue had a hint of something potentially interesting to come. I've seen where some bloggers are just not going back to the next book, and I can understand why, but I think I want to see where the book goes. It was fun.

      With The Hobbit, I'm sure I'll see it and hopefully soon. I love the Jackson movies. I just can't wrap my head around how they strung it out into three movies, I suppose, until I see it.

  4. I dont know about this one, the beginning sounds so much like a Terminator rip off… I'm interested to hear if the series picks up though, if book 2 is great it might be worth reading this one (especially if it is a quick read).

    • Hey Bonnie! I've actually seen comparisons between this series and the Terminator series, which I don't really like because 1) this is the beginning of a YA book series that isn't even out yet and those movies are widely know, adult movies and the series has several installments and 2) it isn't fair to this series to compare like that. UGH. I'm definitely gonna give book two a try despite the comparison. It was fun and quick and I am curious about where it is going to go.

  5. I am actually sitting down to write my review of this one later today! I felt the same as you after finishing this book. It left me feeling kind of "meh." I thought the premise was cool (I LOVE robots!)but the execution was a bit lacking. It also felt more MG than YA to me (not a bad thing, just unexpected) and yes, I could see MG boys digging it.

    I also heard that it was optioned for a film. What do you want to bet they bump up the ages of the characters, amp up the romance, and make it more action packed to appeal to an older audience? I could see it being summer blockbuster film material…:)

    • I completely agree with what you're saying about the film. I just read your review and I think I'm a little more invested in the series than you are but I think that epilogue at the end kind of hooked me – if they'd left that out, I'm not sure I'd be quite as invested. I like that the book was a fun, quick read, but that part at the end was really something.

  6. I was soooo looking forward to this one! But…I think I'll be knocking it down to read-if-I-get-a-chance status. Kind of sad that none of the characters are very well developed! I'm not usually into robot-y type books (though I'm not sure whether I've actually read any…), but this just sounds interesting. Look at me sitting here talking myself back into wanting to read this! ARGH. We shall see. Probably not one I'll buy, so maybe I'll wait to see if my library gets a copy. Anyway, excellent review, as always. 😉

  7. This one sounds interesting, but I can also tell you didn't LOVE it. And since my TBR is way too long, I'm probably going to wait this one out since it's a series. If you continue reading and fall more in love with it, I may pick it up. Until then, I'm saving my reading self for books you get all stressed and flail-y about.

    • You're so right! I didn't LOVE it. I liked it and want to see where it goes, and since it is a super quick read I will next year when the next book comes out. But it didn't steal my heart. I also have some BIG issues with the marketing of this book so that may have played into how I feel. Probably not, but maybe.

      Naw, I don't think it had anything to do with how I feel about the story, but I don't really love how it is being marketed.

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