is230-808-2017 discussion

Although we read only 15 pages of the book so far, I can already conclude that Yancey did a good job of transitioning to The Infinte Sea from the first book, The 5th Wave. The 5th Wave left off with Cassie Sullivan, who has fortunatley reunited with her little brother Sam, after both were parents were killed, and now along with a few other kids are trying to survive when the majority of the population is already wiped out after The Others invaded. The 5th Wave left me in a great amount of suspense, because the event that the book ended in was very exciting, but also devasting because although Cassie was able to renunite with her only family member still alive, there is barely anyone left in the planet to rebuild a society. What makes this bok even more intriguing is that since the Others cut off electricity, making vehicles and tools such as phones unable to work, survivors would have to go back and find ways to accomplish tasks without the things they have grown up to become dependent upon, just as people decades ago have done when these technological advances were not yet made. I am very excited that I've got my hands on the second book, and am very interested to encounter how Cassie, Sam and the other kids survive and plan to continue their lives.

15 pages through, the book begins by reminding the reader with what the characters are facing, and left with. Evan, who had come to rescue Cassie had planted a bomb in the building in the previous book so that all the remaining Others would die, and promised to reunite with Cassie outside after the bomb went out. However, he was no where to be found. Therefore, the begininng of this book starts with having the charcters question about Evan, and what may have happened to him. Furthermore, the charcters as a group plan on going out and traveling in hopes to find other survivors. This is all that the text revealed 15 pages through, and I am definteley intrigued to continue further into the book and see what these young characters plan to do to survive and reconstruct not only society, but their own lifestyles as well.

The author of this book adds a unique backstory of characters in this book, and uses narrative techniques in his writing, even though we are only 15 pages into the book. For example, he explains Zombie's backstory as surviving from "the infection", which is basically the aliens' plan to eliminate all human life and take over the earth. The author describes Zombie as deadbeat, as he usually is run about low, and can be seen doing knuckle push-ups while bleeding everywhere. This could add characteristics and new emotions to the characters, as he is the first of his kind in the franchise so far into the book. So far, the author uses dialogue and emotions to express his characters, such as Cassie, who is trying to survive but feels left alone and uncared for.

We haven't read that much about the book, (only 15 pages), so I can't add much on. There are aliens who are trying to eliminate all of the human beings on Earth so they can take over the Earth themselves. Teenagers and other people are trying to survive on Earth, after a post-apocylyspe caused by the aliens called "Others." The author describes the characters to us in the first few pages, and stated that Cassie managed to reunite with her brother. However, everyone in her family had died.

As i read only 15 pages, my comprehension of the sequel to the book, the 5th wave, is diluted and thus isn't accurate. I didn't read the prequel to this tri-novella series, though i observed some of the most essential characteristics within the character dilation throughout these pages.
Ringer, was an alien and now he is 'human'. Though he says so, his alliance with the rest of the group is murky and thin as all of them dissemble the conclusive diagnostic that his alibi makes no additionary strands of build up, and thus he isn't trusted. They took him in since they felt bad for him, since he saved their lives in the prequel, the 5th wave.
Zombie, is also a questionable character throughout the 15 pages. During the pages, Zombie attempts on several occasions to flirt with the protagonist, which expresses a relationship result in this book. He is about the protagonist age, and is a male, which is ideal compared to the other kids in the story, young.
The protagonist is by herself the roundest character throughout the pages read. She is fullfilling a goal to lift the weight off Sullivan and Teacup to find Evan Walker, despite him killing a numerous amount of people. She hopes to find some good in him, despite he tried to fake being human but ended up as a loyal alien

I would like to start with disagreeing with Tashi when he said "She hopes to find some good in him, despite he tried to fake being human but ended up as a loyal alien." I would have to argue that Evan actually is a loyal human, because although he was originally an alien or an "other," he was able to realize it and control himself as a human being. He risked his life and put only his own life in danger in helping Cassie survive and find her little brother. Reffering back to the first book, the 5th Wave, if it wasnt for Evan, Cassie would've bled to death on the highway. Also, at the end of the book, if he had'nt blown up the Camp, the "others" would've still been alive, and the characters including Cassie, Sam, Teacup and Zombie would not have been able to survive. We are 30 pages through The Infinite Sea, so we still do not know much about the plot, but we do know that Evan is still not found, and assumed to have died from lack of time for him to escape the building before it blowing up. With that being said, Evan definetly gave tremendous efforts to help the humans, especially Cassie so that the "others" would not take over, and as many humans would survive. Therefore, he is NOT a loyal alien, because he could've easily joined Vosch and his staff to trick the kids into killing the humans, and he could've killed Cassie after gaining her trust, but instead he risked his life multiple times in hopes to save the humans. So although he may not be complete human, he is as close as he can be, and it is not fair to conclude that he is a "loyal alien," looking at all the decisions and actions he commited.

From reading 30 pages into the book, I have noticed that because these characters are fairly young, and they are beyond scared for their life, they are resorting to and proposing ideas that are not at all thought through, and could easily lead to more destruction than benefits. For example, Teacup had proposed that the best way to get rid of any evidence for any of the alien survivors if there is any, is to burn the camp. However, the camp is their only shelter at the moment, as it just barely good enough so that it provides a roof, and decently sturdy walls to keep cold wind out and not topple at any time. Furthermore, these kids get scared very easily, so they begin using their weapons irresponsibly the second they feel threatned. However, this got Teacup shot. Fortunetley, the wound was on her leg, so she is fine. However, if it was somewhere like her chest or brain, chances are she wouldve lost her life. It is reasonable that they are making these decisions and commiting these actions because they are so young, and honestly at a sutuation where they may be the only survivors left in the entire planet, their choices are limited and all they have in mind is to save their own lives. So making these quick and unethical decisions is fair, but they should definetly get their own house under control before proceeding in hopes to rebuild a society.

The Infinite Sea, in a way, resembles a dystopian world. Think about it, you have some humans who are overrun by aliens and are scavenging to survive. Humans are no longer the dominant species and since they are nothing compared to aliens, they are trapped and left with a cold environment. It is clearly present in the book, when Cassie and the others were spending the day on an abandoned house and playing Chess, they were extremely lonely, and their only company being rats and the cold wind outside. They were trapped in the house when the helicopters came outside the house, presumably The Others (the aliens who look exactly like humans), to hunt them down, and they were pretty lonely to start with anyway. Both of these are characteristics of a dystopian society. Also, the fact that the aliens look just like humans adds a sign of problems with trust. In a dystopian society, the protagonist at first accepts the terms of their society, but later on he/she has suspicions. This could be in the text because it is hard to tell who is the human and who is the alien. This adds to the idea of a dystopian society by adding a sense of suspicion for the people around the protagonist.

I would like to get onto ideas of how the author uses Point of View to further enhance the story from the first book. In the first book, the chapters would switch perspectives, with Cassie and Ben given their unique first person perspective, while Evan and Sammy would be given third person perspective. The book would switch between them and give a unique telling of what they are going through and what challenges they face. In the 2nd book though, Ringer, Cassie, Evan are given first person point of view, and one part so far was shown in a 3rd person point of view focusing of Poundcake. This could potentially stir more depth into the ideas and feelings of characters.
Also, the author builds tension between characters and the plot overa

Sorry, I pressed post by accident. Moving on. (second paragraph)

Also, the author builds tension between characters and the plot overall. For example, this could be seen when Cassie wanted to play chess with someone else (forgot name) and the other one started to get angry of frustration because of the fact that they are wasting their time on chess while scavenging to survive on an abandoned house. The tension increases more, as she poses a death threat to Cassie after interrupting the game, by saying that she will shoot Cassie. When the helicopters come, the characters are shocked and run for their life, creating more tension.

I would like to add on to Arindam about the influx of new ideas occuring within this discussion. Now, Evan Walker has been granted a first person point of view, which both shows the irony of Cassieopia when she declares during the end of her narration that she hates Evan, and how Evan feels differently. When Evan is miracolously alive, this both shows the purpose of him in this world, and the uneasy alliance to the alien Grace. The author then stirs empathy for Evan as the reader realises that Evan is severly injured across his entire body, most severe being the ankle. This technique is used to encourage the reader to cheer for Evan as he runs away from Grace to go find Cassieopia. The memories shown in the chapters between this escape is used by the author to build context, and to make the reader more accustomed to the narrator, Evan. The narrator originally thought of Evan as a traitor and a betrayer to Cassieopia as Cassie talks about him abandoning her. Later, however, Evan talks about he is deeply in love with Cassieopia, and left due to an emergency. Evan hopes to find Cassieopia by returning into the same place he thinks she was the last time. This builds a sense of limited perspective, as the reader knows the generalised perspective, yet Evan Walker doesn't. This therefore shape-shifts a gradual perspective of omninous and like a classic horror story. As Evan is not in great vigor, it also aids the reader's intellect as Grace, the other alien, is not trying to kill him, but trying to catch him to talk to him. This makes the author set yet another technique embedded within this twisting novella, foreshadowing. By setting a chase with the chaser not being fully dedicated to it's maximum potential, it aids in the foreshadow of another dilemma. This is proven by the random gunfire at both aliens. The author's techniques overall throughout the story construct the structural base of this novel in a whole.

As i was more captivated by the book itself when i was reading it, i generated more author techniques used across the pages. When the story of Poundcake was displayed, it was an anecdotal technique used to explain the reason why Poundcake doesn't speak, but also the horrifying nature of the Earth before the 5th wave. This generates context for the reader to further fill their comprehension. When Ben hears choppers of helicopters above, this shows an example of raising the stakes, as they think they were discovered by the aliens. However, when the helicopter chopper sound disappears, a fake sense of relief generates yet another, hardly noticeable, technique. Foreshadowing. This will then appeal to the reader that something is wrong, and the reader's feelings are confirmed with a girl transported to the hotel. This generates a sense of raising the stakes as well as Evan Walker discovers that a CO2 bomb is installed within her abdomen and thus will blow up the whole hotel. This is greatly aided with the two characters, Ringer and Teacup, missing, and the group hoping they come back by tommorow. This quickens the date as the gang has to evacuate, or try another possibility. This is killing the girl. Cassieopia's thinking of Evan sinking down farther then her when it came to his sanity and his past thinkings associates with the actions that happened after the 5th wave. By killing the girl, Ben is morphing into a cold, dutiful and honorable person. But at the same time, he's being an evil, notorius killer with a cold heart.

I'd like to start with agreeing with Tashi when he pointed out that the author is sort of in a way encouraging the readers to cheer on Evan on his quest to to reunite with Cassie. I feel that this is an extremely important part of the novel because it serves as a foundation, and leads the pathway for the upcoming events. For example, it is obvious that Cassie and Evan left off at sort of a weird position. They were for say "in love" but it could of also been the desperation for a partner in such an event where you feel that there is no one left to comfort you. However, after Evan claimed that Cassie was the only one that had made him feel "human" again, their relationship shifted and they began to get closer and closer together from there. Therefore, after it was revealed that he in fact did survive the bomb he planted on the Camp, we were all curious to encounter the truth on whether Evan really meant all that he had said to Cassie, and how he plans to rejoice his original plans to continue off with Cassie.

To recapture what the novel is about this far into the book, it is revealed that Evan Walker had survived Camp Haven's destruction after he put out the bomb and made everyone assume that he too he did not survive. However, Evan is severly wounded and hurt. He gets rescued by Grace, who happens to be a silencer like him. They spot Cassie at the hotel along with the other kids on there way heading to Graces' home. Grace goes immature and tries to make a very close love relationship with Evan, but still attached to Cassie, he refuses and attemots to attack Grace for her actions. While escaping her house, Grace shoots at him, though Evan thought he killed her. She lets him go, knowing that he will lead her to Cassie. While he rests and Grace confronts him, they are attacked and Grace is shot at, giving Evan the opportunity to escape. Fortunatley, not too soon later he finds the hotel they stay at and finds Ben first who stabs him before he had the chance to understand it was Evan and that he was not an enemy. Evan then also finds Sam and sees the gun in his hands which Cassie had gave him to defend himself in case he is threatned. However after diving at Sam unaware that he would be responsible with it being so young, he attmpts to forcefully take it away. But Cassie shoots him and he becomes unconsious. This novel is defintley breath taking and very engaing because every chapter leaves at a cliffhanger, hooking the teacher and leaves them begging for more. Very excited to continue reading what will happen when Evan wakes up.

As I read the whole story, surprisingly having 300 pages, I learned to answer some questions that I've been wondering throughout the whole novella.

- Are the aliens actually aliens? (Besides Vosch)

No, in fact they used to be human. The aliens are from the future, and to make a human an alien they do not have an alien ancestry and reproduction cycle. Instead, they just inject a lethal drug into your arm that injects thousands of micro-robots, which syncs into your body's system and gives you immunity against many things. However, this makes the person 'alien' as they have super strength, speed, etc. This only lasts until a short grace period, which means that your body either gave up on the micro attackers, or your body beat the invaders, which is near impossible. After the body gives up on the attackers, your body is specified as half alien half human. This takes away most of the special powers granted by the dose.

- What did the appearence of Evan Walker and namesake of him even do to the characters?

For Cassie, it is obvious. Cassieopia turned into a confused being as she continually denied the love for him, however secretly wanted him more as she devised plans later in the book to show how Evan would go to her. For Ben Parish, it's obvious as well. Ben is jealous of Cassieopia's past relationship with an alien that 'betrayed' her, and hopes to be Cassie's boyfriend instead of Evan. He believes that he is more fit and the more plausible choice to be the rightful boyfriend, however this is only the spectrum of minimal perspective. The other characters don't sway much to the disconcern of Evan Walker, though Ringer does. When Ringer first hears of Evan Walker, she decides that Evan did not betray, but left her. She also mentions he didn't do it for the wrong reason. This makes Ringer a little wary of Evan Walker, though she doesnt see him as she and Teacup go on a trek. Later on, when Ringer finds the truth of the alien invasion, she realises that she is just like Evan, and Evan was a human that had his life stolen with a dosage of lethal micro-bots.

- The constant mentioning of the camp they went to during the waves contributes to....?

The protagonists continually talk about their camp and how Vosch killed Cassie's father. This has a sway towards the characters of the story. Firstly, it makes a questioning at the beginning of the book, of the nicknames that the camp director chose for the fellow kids. This stirs a question frenzy and eventually a mistrust between Ringer and Cassieopia with the topic as the infamous Evan Walker. Secondly, it also covets a strong bond amongst the characters, with the exception of Teacup and Ringer. Teacup was later in the book ranting about the conditions, and refused to talk to anybody, as she was stung with the factual world, the world that was not a dystopian, but one of a pure reality. Ringer was a quiet observant person who never took part of a discussion, unless it was directed to her with an Evan Walker statement, which make her more distant to the pack. The gang did all their adventures together, such as the disarming of the bomb, the finding of a new base in an alien's layer, and more.

These are 3 of many questions I've answered over the course of the story that both amazed me and made me inquisative of the plot and context of the story.

The Infinte Sea was defintely quite a lengthy novel, but with all the plot twists and unexpected twists and turns within the lives of some of the main characters, getting lost in the events may the novel seem almost too short. Similiar to Tashi, I also had a great number of confusions, or questions throughtout the novel which was answered as I finished the book. The first which bothered me very much, was the effect of the change in POV from the first book to the second. The first book, The 5th Wave, had a POV from Cassie, which I really enjoyed because as a young girl with not only her own life at hand, but her younger brother as well, it was very enjoyable and breathtaking to hear the story of a young girl struggling to save the world when such an unbelievbly horrifying event has occured. With both Cassie's parents dying and having a unexplainable relationship with half alien and half human Evan Walker, telling the story from Cassie's point of view was far more relatable and personally, enjoyable as well. However, in The Infinite Sea, the author had decided to shift the POV and hand over the mic to Ringer instead, which bothered me a ton. Ringer is a great and interesting character, but I feel like her significance to the storyline and event at place was not as luxurious or valueble compared to Cassie. Yes, it is true that Ringer is great at play in terms of standing up to make game plans and seriously be a leader, and this is thanks to her "edgy" attitude and demanding personality. But it is safe to say that because of her "edgy" attitude and demanding personality, she is always resorting to the voilent methods, which I kind of dislike about her, because she is negatively influenceing Sam who is extremely young, and encouraging behavior that is more likely to gether them nowhere. For example, Ringer kills Claire and disables Jumbo, knocks out Teacup, and forces a pilot to fly them in a helicopter which ultimelatley does lead to the pilot crashing and passing away. However, the author does do a good job of giving a decent amount of background of Ringers life to provide a little bit more comfort for suddenly change the POV to someone you would'nt exactly expect to have much say in her side of the story. Like Evan and Ben or even Sam may have been a more reasonable or expected perspective, but to have the story told by Ringer was not at all predictable. I feel that this shift in POV took away a little bit of my interest half way into the book because i had really missed being told the story by Cassie, but it had me back as the book started rising more tension. Therefore, I was not a super big fan of changing the POV to Ringer, but in the bright side this change gave the reader new points to start thinking about, and challenged the reader as they now had to suddenly accept that they'd be told this plot through a completley differening tone, and perspective.

Another thing I wanted to bring up with this book was that the characters really made quite a few "silly" or unreasonably dumb decisions. Then again, I dont blame them, because at a time where the only human survivors are a bunch of young kids and teens, and they are among aliens with intentions to kill and hunt down each and every survivor, making the smartest decisions is not always the easiest thing to do. Thinking straight is remarkbly difficult. But one specific event, really got me saying over and over again, "what in the world were they thinking!!" This was when they found the bomb that blows up with contact with carbon dioxide and decided to give it to Sam to hold the way home. First off, the first thing wrong with the was that they decided to hold the bomb. The bomb will explode with contact with carbon dioxide, meaning if you talked on it, or coughed or in any way breathed on it, it would explode. Therefore, it should've been greatly packaged to avoid its contact with a breathe, or more specifically carbon dioxide. Also, why would they give it to Sam!! He's so young, and he is less likely to rememeber or understand its capability. Unknowingly, he could breathe on it. Or, he could drop it, which is exactly what he did half way through the journey, leaving the group with no absolute idea on where it could be, and when it will explode. The group was outraged, and almost shocked, which bothered me, because how could they not expect something like that not to happen.

All in all, I really liked this book because at kept me at the edge of my seat from page 1, to 300. Can't wait to read the next book!

Although this is a solid book in which the 300 pages were exciting and innovative, there seems to be some form of inconsistency, (IN MY OPINION, DON'T KILL ME PLEASE) in the pages. What I mean is that in the first 200 pages, the plot is slowly building up, and preparing for a massive conclusion in the book. In the last 100 pages though, the plot seems rushed, even though the ending was shocking. This inconsistency left me with a few questions for the book that I felt wasn't cleared up that greatly. I will also present some predictions/questions about the sequel of this great book.
Firstly, what happened to Evan and Ben later on in the book? The major part of the plot includes Evan and Ben in some shape or form, but towards the end, I felt like they were not getting further character development. I mean, sure, we learnt that Evan is actually a human from the future from the ending, but still, how does this turning point affect Evan? Ben was also cast out (sort of) as he was shown to be Cassie's future boyfriend more than an influential character.
Secondly, how does Razor's death have an effect on everyone? To be honest, I was extremely sad when Razor died, but how did everyone else react to this? This was not very developed in the book as I wished to see.
Now, I have some questions about the sequel. Mainly, how does the fact that "The Others" are humans from the future set the seed for the sequel? Since now we know the ending, how will character relationship between Evan and the others change? I believe that Cassie will not want to be as close to Evan anymore, knowing that he is actually someone else from the future.

If I had to rate this book, I would give it a 8.5/10. Great book overall, but with some plot holes that left me confused.

I agree with Arindam, and don't want to kill him (why ever I would). Here is a "brief" summary of the Infinite Sea: There are aliens who want to eliminate the human race, but there are some survivors left. These aliens can look exactly like humans, so any actual survivors have to be careful. The book starts off with Ringer, leaving in search of a new hideout and thinks that someone is pursuing her. She is correct, and out of fear shoots the persuer. The persuer is actually her friend, Teacup, who is obviously wounded from the gunshot. Ringer is then captured by Vosch (bad guy) and is supposed to be injected with the 12th system. However, she meets a "enemy" who isn't really an enemy, called Razor. They then kill Dr. Claire (who was supposed to inject her), and all of a sudden Vosch declares this was a test of the 12th system. Stuff happens (I don't rememeber), and Razor and Teacup are killed. Ringer then escapes, and is finally free. Cassie and her survivors have a base in the woods, and Cassie also manages to reunite with Evan.
I also agree with Arindam on the fact, that the first 200 pages were slow-paced but the next few 100 pages were absolutely horrible and rushed. I didn't really like the first 200 pages either and lost interest after 150ish pages. Overall, the book gets a 6.5 out of 10, unlike the 8.5 Arindam gave.