The Shore of Monsters
The first novel in J. Rain's epic vampire mystery series. Scout Blades VR Book 1. Beta testing becomes more dangerous than imagined in the first Virtual Reality adventure based on the most popular role-playing game of all time. The Apocalypse is here, brought by a Prophet who serves an evil master Check this box-set out, because you won't be able to stop reading! Looking for your next favorite novel? Come meet the Prophet, because you won't be able to turn away! A witch, her ex, and her hunky new boss untangle the mystery of a magical murder in the most unexpected of places.
Product details File Size: Nix November 8, Publication Date: November 8, Sold by: Related Video Shorts 0 Upload your video. Share your thoughts with other customers. Write a customer review. There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
Most Viewed Stories
Kindle Edition Verified Purchase. In the current literary world, the print world is almost frozen with fear for publishing a book and having to suffer a loss. Gone are the publishers that stand behind a talent and help them get going by helping them hone their craft while promoting their works and building an audience. Hence the rise of ebook and Amazon has managed to grab a huge market share. I admire Indie writers trying to make it on their own. I do a lot to support them, including buying their books and leaving reviews. I'm a member of a couple of writing groups, and have a lot of my own fiction online under my penname.
They can grow and develope even. Things of that sort. For that kind of writing I will shell out my hard-earned money. I've read YA books, sometimes by choice, and I understand there are some things that are not even mentioned in that type of literature.
A lot of people, mostly librarians and women, seem to like this book. They think it's great for the YA crowd. I suppose if you like your post-apocalyptic world more as scenery for all angst and emotion in the fantasy realm and not the Science Fiction side, this story will be just fine. Sex is talked about indirectly, but nobody has any as it's all implied and off-stage.
But there is a deliberate suicide. For me, that continues to be the odd prudish part of American culture, a culture I grew up in.
- Customers who viewed this item also viewed.
- Navigation menu.
- The Shore of Monsters by David J. Nix.
- North Shore Monster - Wikipedia.
- !
- Adobe Flash CS4 Professional on Demand.
- Software Testing with Visual Studio Team System 2008;
YA books can't talk about sex and especially can't have any, and young women who engage in sex are loose, but we can have plenty of violence. Murder, butchery, suicide, and cannibalism? I'm not a young adult. I'm a mature reader. If someone builds a world, it needs to make sense to me.
It can be different, even radically so, but it needs to function sustainably. I suppose the cover should have warned me. It's categorized as dystopian, which I guess sort of fits, but to me that usually means a society in slow decline, not one that has already collapsed and barely hanging on. The latter is post-apocalyptic. Because there are a lot of them. I gave this story three stars because the writing and editing were quite good. It was how the story unfolded, and how the characters behaved that by turns anger, appalled, repulsed, or frustrated me. Sky is competent at survival and a hard worker.
Taught survival skills by her fisherman friend and ship captain, Willow Evans, Sky is good at fending for herself and is okay with being alone. We learn a bit about Sky's society. Men catch the plague and become homicidal and cannibalistic monsters. There's a cure for women, discover within a few years after the island's refuges arrived and shared with the rest of the world.
But the story takes place almost a hundred years after the world civilization collapsed. Those on the Compass Islands believe they are the last group of true humans remaining. The Order rules the islands, and tells them that if they but wait it out, the monsters on the main land will die out.
The society is an interesting idea. Young girls help around and learn. At sixteen, they undergo their rite of passage, and if they survive, they get a blue necklace and become an adult. Sixteen to twenty are general labor; young women labor where they are needed. Twenty to thirty, women become breeders, giving birth and raising the next generation.
Because male babies catch the plague and become vicious before their first year, they are supposedly taken care of lovingly on one of the other islands. Thirty and above, until one is infirm, you become an artisan of some sort. And Enders are basically those waiting to die; a rather cold term for their senior population. Very much in passing, the idea that women get lonely and sometimes share a bed or a hug. I recalled it being mentioned twice. The emphasis was more on hugging and companionship, though, than sex. Which I found incredibly hard to believe.
Libidos vary, but a lot of women like sex as much as men do. But this is geared to YA, so it's wink, wink, nudge, nudge, we won't talk about that nasty idea. Sky has a good friend Fern, but once they get separated, Sky never really thinks about Fern again. Fern is passionate, a good quality of a romance heroine.
But she is also terribly self-centered. The novel portrays itself as dystopian, but it's more post-apocalyptic. Dystopian implies a degeneration, not a catastrophic collapse, which is this case here. In any event, the novel finally kicks in the main adventure about half-way through. The islanders need replacement parts, like wire, metal, machine parts, etc. The stuff on the islands is either in short supply or wearing out. Wire is corroding, one person says. But if that's the case, wouldn't the unattended wire on the mainland be in a similar state after a hundred years?
The writer ignores this. The disease itself is interesting, but has some weird, unexplained catches. The plague-infested humans are homicidal cannibals traveling in packs like feral dogs for prey, and apparently live solely on raw meat. They are attracted by loud noises, and arrive in droves.
They will turn on their own kind if they are wounded. They fear water and high altitudes. And inexplicably won't go near graveyards. So I guess they are god-fearing or at least reverent plague-carrying-homicidal cannibals. The water idea makes it seem based on rabies, but the altitude one is a puzzler. And the graveyard is a WTF? But this allows the heroine and her new boyfriend, a boy who's born immune to the disease, to rest without worry. However, in another scene later on, deep in the territory patroled by these monsters, the boy fires a pistol, yet it's over an hour before the monsters show up, and it's only two of them.
Another convenient author exception. Another point that nagged at me, is if they are willing to attack their own for food, how are they surviving to the next generation? Late stage pregnant females and infants are easy prey. But this is conveniently ignored by the author, too. Not only are the numbers of monsters not going extinct, they've leveled off and are expanding at the time of the story.
Fear water and high places. Don't eat pregnant women or babies. Everyone else is dinner. That's not science or science fiction, but pure fantasy. One thing that really bothered me was the author referring to Sky as a girl and Thomas as a boy. I did it above, because the author uses that repeatedly for them. A young adult woman. A girl is pre-puberty. Sky passed her rite of adulthood at sixteen. Yet she's still somehow a girl, not a young woman. The same for Thomas.
Interesting plot and character development. In the current literary world, the print world is almost frozen with fear for publishing a book and having to suffer a loss. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. And the formerly heterosexual women allowed this to happen. This book is escapism lite.
He's nineteen, in a survive by your strength and wits world, and should be considered a grown man. Leaving her companion to fight alone and die. For a dystopian or post-apocalyptic novel, we expect the hero or heroine to at least fight to protect themselves. Sky runs to save herself. If someone falls behind and dies, well, she feels bad they died, but she doesn't dwell on it, nor does she think about how she could have done it differently. Like banding together and working together. Instead, every time encounters a threat of physical confrontation, her response is to run, and she doesn't pay attention to how the others fare.
Rory Miller, in his insightful book, "Violence, A Writer's Guide," talks about how there are levels of confrontation that some people won't go beyond. But at the least, one would expect the heroine, if she's not going to fight, to at least look out for her companions. Only once did she pick up a weapon, but she saw Thomas fighting and went, "He's just like the monsters!
Worse, Sky not is not only a selfish coward, she passive-aggressively attacks Thomas for being violent, that being human "means more than killing. She guilt-trips him for protecting her. He should run, not fight. That kind of morality is ludicrous. Keep right on saying that while the homicidal cannibals tear your body apart and eat you. This attitude, though, is endorsed by the other women. They are given weapons before they embark on their journey to get supplies.
Not to fight with. But to commit suicide with. Something the author depicts quite graphically later on in the book. So, like mainstream literary standards, YA audiences should abhor violence, even in self-defense, and suicide is okay. But we won't discuss sex. The characters in the story repeatedly use tools and knives to fight with. Then inexplicably drop or leave them behind. So the islanders have to brave getting killed for parts every so many years, but there's plenty of steel knives around that they can leave them lying around. So Thomas and Sky arrive in Haven, and find the people who left the islands "to find the truth.
It's mentioned that besides Thomas, there are eight women in addition to Sky at their refuge of Haven. Even if you exclude Thomas' mother for the sake of the social taboo of incest, there are seven other healthy women between the age of twenty and forty; they have a healthy male who is immune to the plague, yet there are no babies running around. Most of the women have had children through artificial insemination.
There are horses, goats, and chickens doing their business all the time. The women know what needs to happen to get pregnant. Regardless of what you think about monogamy versus polygyny, or even marriage. This should have been a no-brainer for the women. Even if there's no love, they need him to sire a new generation of healthy, plague-free babies, especially more boys.
Love could develop, but their population is static, and their species is about to be overrun by homicidal cannibals.
The Shore of Monsters has 76 ratings and 6 reviews. Lucinda said: A distinctive distopian of incredible, sweeping vision and extraordinary premise as to. Editorial Reviews. About the Author. David grew up in the borderlands of the Wind River Indian The Shore of Monsters - Kindle edition by David J. Nix.
This was another WTF moment for me. And then I realized that this really wasn't a dystopian or post-apocalyptic novel at all. It was a teen romance with a different background. The other women "wouldn't talk about terrible things" so as to spare Sky. Keeping secrets, especially ugly ones, allows them to continue. One is not always able to stand and force a change. But keeping silent is sin by omission. Therein lies the crime. The crime turns out to be, besides banning all but approved books and cutting off radio contact with another remaining colony, is that immune-boys have been born before.
And the Order, to keep power, they exile these healthy boys to the mainland, where nearly all are eaten by the monsters. In any event, the Order believed their way kept men from returning to society. The women in power were men-hating implied lesbians. And the formerly heterosexual women allowed this to happen. I wonder if this is a subtle suggestion that women are incapable of governing.
May 19, Lucinda rated it really liked it. A distinctive distopian of incredible, sweeping vision and extraordinary premise as to leave you aghast! The intricately woven plot containing in-depth description and engaging dialogue, blended seamlessly together for a well-crafted tale that pleasantly surprised me. The fantastic main protagonist and heroine faced her challenges with such s A distinctive distopian of incredible, sweeping vision and extraordinary premise as to leave you aghast! The fantastic main protagonist and heroine faced her challenges with such strength and spirit, to present an epic journey of self-development of resonance and impaction.
Additionally, the convincing sequence of events containing ingenious world building added to the overall fluidity of the prose. Short synopsis- This Dystopian story is set within a fictional Earth that was destroyed and plaque filled the entire world. Somehow, men have this plaque that kills every single of them leading to extinction. The heroine was a survivor of the group called Committee that lived in the other part of the world where they claimed to preserve humanity. Of course, there is more intricate depth and substance to the background history of past events.
The moment that protagonist 17 year-old Sky believes that she is going to face Death, a mysterious man shows up who resembles a monster and shockingly saves her life. It is not until then that she encounters a man for the first time in her entire life!
The Shore of Monsters
I cannot wait to read the concluding sequel as it is a story in 2-parts , having been left teetering on the edge of an unfinished cliffhanger ending in suspense and anticipation. This is my second published novel. The premise is very good, and inspired by a short story I read in high school, the name of which I can't recall. Anyway, I more-or-less pulled off what I had in mind when the premise came to me. I hope this novel catches your interest, as well as the concluding sequel.
Jul 25, Nana rated it really liked it. This book was so weird, but have interesting parts that made me wanted to read more. This Dystopian story sets in a fictional Earth that was destroyed and plaque filled the entire world. Of course, there is more to it. Sky, protagonist, ends up lost in the Dark City, a place This book was so weird, but have interesting parts that made me wanted to read more.
Sky, protagonist, ends up lost in the Dark City, a place that monster exist, during a expedition with her mother. The moment she thought that she was going to face Death, a mysterious man shown up who resembles a monster, saved her life. There, she saw a man for the first time in her entire life. However, she didn't anticipate that would experienced the feeling of love that was never exist in her philosophy. Dec 09, Tasha rated it it was amazing. I happened upon David Nix's blog. Plus the Kindle price was incredibly affordable And with The Shore of Monsters, Nix definitely didn't go wrong.
I loved the heroin and the challenges presented to create character development. In addition, the world building felt real and the story flowed fluently. Nix created a wonderfully entertaining story. The Shore of Monsters was a pleasant surprise. Dec 02, Dane Coriell rated it it was amazing. I loved the concept, and the way adventure and romance were weaved into an end-of-the-world theme. Oct 24, Polly Roth rated it it was ok Shelves: Amber rated it liked it Sep 24, Haili rated it liked it Jun 23, Katie rated it really liked it Aug 11, Tiffany Morris rated it really liked it Jan 14, Lynette Mendoza rated it it was amazing Mar 17, Kat rated it really liked it Oct 04, Jennifer rated it liked it Sep 10, Alannah Murr rated it did not like it May 31, Trey Beswick rated it really liked it Jan 12, Mala s rated it it was ok Sep 22, Julz rated it did not like it Mar 01, Kara rated it really liked it Aug 06, S rated it it was amazing Jan 15, Brandee rated it really liked it Sep 28, Dokoohyar Ahmadipour rated it it was amazing Jul 17,