The Friday 56 (With Book Beginnings): Passenger (Passenger #1) by Alexandra Bracken

Welcome to The Friday 56, a weekly meme hosted by Freda's Voice.

These are the rules:

1. Grab a book, any book.

2. Turn to page 56, or 56% on your eReader.

3. Find any sentence (or a few, just don't spoil it) that grabs you.

4. Post it.

5. Add the URL to your post in the link on Freda's most recent Friday 56 post.

I'm also taking part in Book Beginnings, a weekly meme hosted by Rose City Reader.  The rules are pretty simple - you share the first sentence or so and your initial thoughts, impressions, or whatever else it inspires.  Don't forget to link up your post's url with Rose City Reader.

This week I'm spotlighting what will be my next read, Passenger (Passenger #1) by Alexandra Bracken, which I hope to begin quite soon.  I'm really excited to start in on it, but also kind of scared at the same time.  I've seen a lot of mixed reviews - some of my favorite reviewers have given it high praise, while other favorites have given it low marks.  I don't know who to trust!  Anyway, I really want to like this one, since the concept is so intriguing.

Beginning:

[Bhutan 1890]

[Prologue]

As they ascended, retreating farther from the winding trails that marked the way to nearby villages, the world opened to him in its purest form: silent, ancient, mysterious. 

Deadly.

56:

A sharp, deafening crack broke through the faint hum in his ears; Nicholas swung his attention up, toward the aft of the ship.  A section of the mizzenmast, the third mast of three, had finally snapped under its own weight, just as he'd feared it might.

And it slowed, time did.  He let out a sound that was less a warning and more of a terrified shout as the wood splintered and the sails collapsed in on themselves with a thwack and a flutter.  The lines supporting the mast snapped as if God himself had cut them, and  the whole of it - the topgallant, the topmast. the rigging, and the metal hardware - came crashing down over them.  


I have no idea what's going on in the 56 scene, but it totally reminds me of that scene from the first Pirates of the Caribbean when the Black Pearl attacks the Interceptor.  That part where Ragetti and Pintel fire chain shot breaking and collapsing the mast of the Interceptor onto the deck of the Black Pearl, and Barbossa steps just ahead of it before boarding with the crew.  It happens right before this scene:

Or, maybe that's just me!