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TezMillerOz

TezMillerOz

Gravity - Melissa West They say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover. Bollocks! A brilliant cover can make you pick up a book you otherwise might've ignored. I am superficial - the art first attracted me to Melissa West's Taking series. Look at them! Seriously some of the most beautiful photos out there. Admittedly the scene from Gravity's cover doesn't occur in the novel, but the image is so awesome that I'll accept any reason to show it off.The Taking itself (after which the series is named) is pretty darn creepy. Ancients can't survive on Earth without some sort of antibodies that they can only get from humans. So each Ancient is assigned a human. At midnight, the humans don a "patch", which is a mask that suctions to the face, covering the eyes, so the human can't see their Ancient. From the trees, the Ancients emerge, climb in through bedroom windows, and "Take" from their humans. Okay, I'm somewhat fuzzy on the details, because I find the whole concept of Taking rather scary and perhaps a bit rapey.Another thing I'm foggy on: the Ancients themselves. They're supposedly really distinguishable by their golden skin and blue-green eyes. But if they're easily recognisable as Ancient, how come people don't seem to have cottoned on that [name redacted] is Ancient? I need a closer read or a better explanation.The Australian Trinity has since been dissolved, thanks to the last leader being unable to have children to continue the legacy of the founding Australian leader. That region is now controlled by the African Trinity. What, they couldn't hold an election? Why does there have to be nepotism? Also, it's more likely that we'd be controlled by Asia. Think of soccer - we're in the Asian group. This is just nitpicking on my account, though - this probably won't bother non-Australian readers.Gravity is my favourite kind of sci-fi - it's set on Earth. Albeit, I've heard Book 2, Hover is set elsewhere, but I still plan to give it a go. Melissa West's debut is big on action, low on romance (but still present), and abounds in science and technology that I'd love to learn more about. I've never read anything from Entangled Publishing before, but if Gravity is any example, they must be doing well. I'm definitely looking forward to reading more by Melissa West.