The Infinite Sea

So, what did I think of The Infinite Sea?



I want to leave it at that, but Cannonball Read has some stupid word minimum for reviews.



Goddamn it. Anyway, a friend saw I was reading this and asked how I liked it. I said, “I’m about 2/3 of the way through and so far, nothing has happened to justify its existence.â€ù She said, “High praise indeed.â€ù But it’s true. The Infinite Sea fails to do what any competent sequel does, i.e. expand the universe and raise the stakes. Off the top of my head, here are some of the most egregious moments:

1) The title is meaningless. In The 5th Wave, “the infinite seaâ€ù was a crowd of child soldiers. In this book, it refers variably to snow, tears, unconsciousness, show more and blood. In the Harry Potter books, there were not multiple Sorcerer’s Stones scattered about willy-nilly. If you want to ascribe some importance to your book’s title, do not waste it on describing a field of wheat. (Which, by the way, happens in the prologue.)



2) Important characters like Ben and Sam have been reduced to cardboard cutouts in favor of Cassie, who is now the equivalent of nails on chalkboard. While I appreciated her will to survive and her morbid sense of humor in the first book, now she’s judgmental, self-righteous, catty, and possessive. Evan hasn’t changed much, which is to say he still has his annoying habits of speaking in enigmas and passing out whenever he’s asked a pressing question. Cassie and Evan’s infatuation with each other, which I was already puzzled by, is even more intense now. These two should just cake on some eyeliner and scribble emo song lyrics on each other’s skinny jeans.



3) Ooh, speaking of the lovebirdsâ€_ I was wrong. There is no love triangle in this book. There is a fucking love hexagon.



4) A minor character dies in a way that just leaves me with this lasting bad taste in my mouth. To be clear, I’m not talking about the usual grief or shock. At least when J. K. Rowling killed off a character, she had some purpose behind it. This book has one of the most unconscionable, horrifying character deaths I have ever seen. The way this character was treated like a plot point throughout the book, and then the way their murder is framed as an act of loveâ€_ No. Just, no. I can’t.





5) There is no new information as to why the aliens have taken over Earth and why they are using the waves. Their approach certainly raises doubts about their capacity for logic. Why do beings without physical forms need to occupy a planet? Why watch humans evolve over thousands of years when you can stamp them out right at the beginning? These questions are asked but are never answered, other than humans suggesting, well, maybe they just like to fuck with us. And you cannot propel your plot just by withholding information from your reader. It is frustrating beyond belief. I guess there is one revelation that could be considered a plot twist, if you stretch it, but to me it was just one more instance of the aliens’ sadistic mindfuckery.



So, I should end this rage-y review by saying something nice, namely what prevents me from rating this fucker one star. Number one, Poundcake. His backstory and the reason he never talks broke my heart. Number two, Ringer. She was the real badass of The 5th Wave and Rick Yancey should just hand over the rest of the series to her. She actually goes and gets shit done. Good for you book, I don’t entirely regret reading you! show less

"That’s the cost. That’s the price. Get ready, because when you crush the humanity out of humans, you’re left with humans with no humanity.

In other words, you get what you pay for."

The Infinite Sea is the second book of The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey. The story picks up within days after the events in book one. Cassie and the rest of the kids have holed up in a dilapidated hotel to plan their next move and then the story stalls. All the momentum built up at the ending of the first book is lost and the story plods along for the first third of the book until the plot finds itself again and the reader is immersed back into the post-apocalyptic world of alien invasion.

Yancey does a better job of identifying which character's chapter show more we're in so it is less confusing to have multiple first person points of view as more characters are explored in this book. Poundcake and Ringer are given their own chapters. The story behind why Poundcake never speaks is explained as is Ringer's childhood. Cassie and Evan, while having their own chapters, take more of a back seat this time around, which suited me fine since their romance is the aspect of the first book that annoyed me the most. Through part of Evan's back story we're introduced to Grace, another Other who has a minor role to play. Ringer, though, is turned into quite the bad ass. I love her logic. It is Ringer that asks the important questions and starts to work through those things that just don't add up. It is also Ringer who figures out more of the Other's over all strategy.

Once it gets going, the action is intense. Philosophical and psychological effects that the Others are having on humanity is explored through the thoughts of the characters. The romance, while still there, is greatly downplayed.

Overall, The Infinite Sea was a good sequel. It changed my perspective on things that happened in the first book. The story doesn't move forward very far but it does set things up for what is to come. show less

Okay, not as BAM! Mind blowing as the first, but wow. I still hit the ending and wanted to cry (I was >
The writing has great movement. A bit of humour thrown into the darkness to keep it from being too dim. More things that make you go, what? wait? huh??? You think for most of the book that there isn't much more mind-fucking he can do after the first, that he's dropped all the bombshells there are to be dropped. You'd think that, but you'd be wrong.

I'd say be prepared to start thinking like you're one of the characters, gauging the value of a single life against what is going on, and start questioning just what you'd do in their shoes.

Damn fine book. Damn fine. ...now to run off and begin the third!!

This is another sequel that fails to live up to it's predecessor; despite being substantially smaller than the first book (464 vs 320 pages) it still felt like it was mostly filled with filler.

You have a new character that drops into the plot, then drops right out towards the end. Lots of talk about what they're going to do, without much of anything actually being done. Then by the end of the novel, despite a bit of handwaving over the aliens motivations, what their plans really are and what they're really doing ultimately not much happened.

Whilst there was some development with the Marika/Ringer character, and a new character, Razor was introduced I couldn't help but feel this was another example of the 'trilogy dip' where an author show more has grand plans yet the execution fails in the middle in an attempt to stretch the story out to be a trilogy rather than just a pair of books. It's as if the marketers at publishing houses have determined young adult books must be a large series, trilogies or stand alones, nothing in between. show less

When I read the first book in the series, The 5th wave, I said to myself, "How is he going to top this book? It is fantastic!" Now, I have just finished the second book, and my mind has been blown! This book is not only a fast read, it will have you scrabbling for him to finish the third! I am not sure if this is totally a young adult novel or not, but EVERYONE, I repeat, EVERYONE should read this book. Not only does he delve into the human psyche, he rips it apart and then puts it back together, only to rip it apart again, leaving you wondering just how he is going to top THIS book, with the third. I am eagerly, eagerly awaiting the third and unfortunately, the final chapter to this magnificent trilogy. I only aspire, to become the show more wonderful writer that is Rick Yancey. Kudos, Mr. Yancey. You are a true genius! show less

The 5th Wave Trilogy Book #2...

Wow, this was a hard one for me to rate. It started out with a lot of choppiness and no clear cut separations between chapters, even more so then the first book I thought. I had to reread the first few paragraphs in each chapter to figure out what character they were even talking about.
 
Also a majority of the story was written in this flowery poetic prose and nothing was ever stated clearly. It was like you had to figure out everything they were talking about and what they meant. I just wanted to scream, just say wtf you mean. I don't think I'm explaining this very well, but it was just like they talked around the bush using hidden meanings and innuendos for everything. It was like a game and you had to show more figure out what they meant. And at least three quarters of the book was like that. It was really hard work reading this book. The writing style just sucked!
 
The plot however, I liked. It was the redeeming part of the book. There was a lot of action and the pacing was good. I liked how things developed between the characters. There were also some unexpected twists that were really good and the ending -wow! It was fantastic! It threw me for a loop but I did like how it all played out.
 
I'm definitely going to read the last book but I really hope Yancey cuts back on all that "can you figure it out" rigmarole writing and just gives it to us straight!  show less

Note: There are no spoilers in this review (so basically I pretty much don't say much of anything).

This is the second book in the post-apocalyptic series that began with the widely-acclaimed The 5th Wave.

Book One primarily focuses on Cassie Sullivan, 16, who survives four waves of attacks by alien invaders which reduced the population of Earth from some seven billion to only a couple hundred thousand. Cassie has a number of goals: to stay alive, to find her little brother and rescue him if he is still alive, and above all, to stay human. To become like the aliens - blindly killing, lacking compassion, and never recognizing the value of individuals - is to lose the war in every way. The probability of Cassie attaining any of her goals is show more low, until she is offered help by another survivor, Evan Walker. But this is a world in which it is very difficult to determine who can be trusted, or who is even human, because the enemy looks just like us.

Book Two continues this riveting story, and this time it is the girl Ringer whose point of view dominates. And in this book, the survivors start questioning all of their previous beliefs, because they just don’t make sense.

Discussion: Yancey has created a story in which a small number of people are confronted by overwhelming odds against the possibility of survival. Yet, he never causes us to lose faith in realism. Yes, there are some technological advances in the plot, but they don’t seem out of the realm of possibility. There are not happy outcomes for all the main protagonists - far from it. And most importantly, there are no deus ex machini to help anyone survive. Only two factors seem to make any difference whatsoever: luck, and love, and even those don’t always suffice.

Evaluation: This book is definitely not a standalone, but is a must-read for fans of Book One; it has some big surprises in store for those who are following the series. I enjoyed it a lot, but it is definitely a trilogy “middle child.” show less