Waiting on Wednesday #28

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Breaking the Spine.
It's a weekly meme about upcoming books we're excited about!

Odin's Ravens

(The Blackwell Pages #2)

by K. L. Armstrong & M. A. Marr

Publication Date: May 1, 2014

From Goodreads:

Seven kids, Thor's hammer, and a whole lot of Valkyries are the only things standing against the end of the world.

When thirteen-year-old Matt Thorsen, a modern day descendant of the Norse god Thor, was chosen to represent Thor in an epic battle to prevent the apocalypse he thought he knew how things would play out. Gather the descendants standing in for gods like Loki and Odin, defeat a giant serpent, and save the world. No problem, right?

But the descendants' journey grinds to a halt when their friend and descendant Baldwin is poisoned and killed and Mat, Fen, and Laurie must travel to the Underworld in the hopes of saving him. But that's only their first stop on their journey to reunite the challengers, find Thor's hammer, and stop the apocalypse - a journey filled with enough tooth-and-nail and larger-than-life monsters to make Matt a legend in his own right.

Why Am I Excited

Though I have yet to read Book #1 in this series, the concept sounds fun and similar to Rick Riordan's books. I am also skeptical of it for that same reason. There seems to be a lot of Percy Jackson rip-offs out there, and few of them are any good. But I always have hope, and if this one proves to be one of the better ones, then awesome!

After the End

(After the End #1)

by Amy Plum

Publication Date: May 6, 2014

From Goodreads:

World War III has left the world ravaged by nuclear radiation. A lucky few escaped to the Alaskan wilderness. They've survived for the last thirty years by living off the land, being one with nature, and hiding from whoever else might still be out there.

At least, this is what Juneau has been told her entire life.

When Juneau returns from a hunting trip to discover that everyone in her clan has vanished, she sets off to find them. Leaving the boundaries of their land for the very first time, she learns something horrifying: There never was a war. Cities were never destroyed. The world is intact. Everything was a lie.

Now Juneau is adrift in a modern-day world she never knew existed. But while she's trying to find a way to rescue her friends and family, someone else is looking for her. Someone who knows the extraordinary truth about the secrets of her past.

Why Am I Excited

While not necessarily a post-apocalyptic/futuristic/dystopian fan, I do tend to read a lot of books in this genre (which is probably why I'm not necessarily a fan), and there's always the hope that the next post-apocalyptic I read will be different and surprise me. The whole concept that the world was not devastated by World War III, and that the protagonist was lied to, intrigues me. But I also feel like this could be another letdown. We'll see!