Episode: New Vegas – Frozen

Frozen by Melissa dela Cruz

It’s freezing but casinos in Vegas are still hot hot hot! Welcome to New Vegas.

She eyes me with confusion then says “Can I deal you in?”.  But before I could answer, somebody bumps me off the chair and I hear a man’s voice saying “Maybe, what’s the ante?”. I saw her looking at me from the table and I waved trying to tell her I was ok.  I face planted but I was ok.  She’s Nat, Natasha Kestal, blackjack dealer at the Loss who escaped from the psych hospital by jumping off the window and gliding. She a marked, she doesn’t know what her powers are yet but she is.  And just like other marked, she wants to find the blue, well at least that is what the voice inside her head is telling her. Now you know why she was locked up! Haha. It’s not really why she’s there…but I’ll talk about that later.  The guy who bumped me off my chair (he probably didn’t see me) is Ryan Wesson, also known as Wes, a former marine sergeant now the best runner in New Vegas.  

Frozen is set in the Big Freeze, the second coming of the Ice age.  Some places survived, some became a waste land and some, were fully covered up by ice. It’s also a place where people born with colored eyes are also born with a Mage’s mark and they possess special abilities.  Some can control people’s minds, some have telekinesis, some can tell the future.  There are also the small men, the sylphs and the drau.  They used to be drafted in the military but due to an incident showing how strong their powers were, People were taught to fear them and they get locked up. Nobody knows about the voice in Nat’s head, but she is marked, that’s why she was there.

Ok so let me fast fast forward to what happened. Nat needed 3 things to get to the blue, the map to Arem which is the doorway to Vallonis (the blue), money and a runner with a boat that would be willing to take her to the Blue.  Nat was in New Vegas to for the map. It’s a blue stone with a circle in the middle which rests on Joe’s neck. Joe also works at Loss. She got the map from him, I’m thinking using some of her unknown powers.  She got the money by stealing 4 platinum chips that Wes tried to steal when she dealt him in.   And for her runner, she got the tall, caramel-colored hair, honey brown eyed Wes and his crew, Shakes, Daran, Farouck, Zedric.  Leaving New Vegas, they got into a gun fight coz they broke the curfew and did not stop to have an inspection for their secondary identification then they were off to the Trash Pile.  During the Big Flood, trash was carried from California to Vegas and that whole stretch of land where the trash settled is was now called Trash Pile. There they passed MacArthur Med, the treatment hospital Nat escaped from, they saw thrillers, a bear killed  by caravan hunters, got into some pop-can explosions while Daran and Zedric were trying to loot houses, they paid a huge amount toll booth, then they hit K-town and won back Wes’s boat.  They took Wes’s boat to the gray poisonous waters of the Pacific now known as Garbage Country coz of the heaps of garbage floating around as if they were icebergs. So what happened during their journey thru the Garbage Country? I can’t say, I got too sea sick. I’d rather not spoil the story too much. ;)

Frozen is one of my top YA dystophian novels. Why? Coz it’s fresh, and if any of the dystophian novels would come true, this is how I think the world would end up.  A great flood then back to the Ice Age.  I think its fresh coz of the Las Vegas feel at the start (casinos, shows, newlyweds, people who don’t know when to stop gambling), the old world inserts (songs, places) and the fantasy novelish ending. And the trash.  Mountains of trash floating at the ocean.  Polluted water. Dark sky.  Those things could happen and as strange as it sounds, they make this novel fresh.  On the Old World inserts,  I liked it that when the first time the thrillers showed up, somebody sang “thriller, thriller night”  I found it funny. There was also K-town. When they mentioned it, first thing that popped was K-POP hahaha. Then after describing its location, I thought maybe it’s Korea town? Then there was turo turo.

“At a turo turo, (Nat knew it meant “point point” in forgotten language), all a customer had to do was point at the food they wanted to eat…”              

I LOLed at that coz I remember my aunt trying to explain what a turo turo was to a visitor we had from the US. She said the same thing! “point point” coz you have to point at what you want, no menu, just point.

Frozen is a good book. Originally realistic world with a different save the world attack.  Hahaha. The only thing that I probably didn’t like is how fast the final battle was. It was so easy. Well, I guess it had to be like that to show how powerful Draikon is.

See you at our next location!