Matt returns to the land of Opium as the new "El Patron." He starts out as an idealistic 14 year old kid. He wants to feed the microchip enslaved workers. However, he discovers that it may be impossible. He also learns he must act like a ruler to be one. He starts to adopt some of the cruelty. (After all, he is genetically identical to the original leader.) He tries to free "waitress". He sees some small emotion come out, but she still remains a "zombie". He wants to spend time with his friends. However, he also is required to be involved in many big issues of running a drug empire. He gradually learns more details about how people are "enslaved". He is never able to free waitress, but he does manage to stumble upon the way to free others, but with a sacrifice to a space station. The novel spends just a few paragraphs covering what would be the very difficult task of repatriating this zombies into society.
The characters in the book are all quite complex. It is not a case of clear-cut good guys vs. bad guys. Instead, there are different characters with different values. There are often trade offs with many problems not having a clear-cut best solution. There are also plenty of coincidences that are needed to make the book move along. The ending is almost too "happy". The drug empire was essentially a garden of eden for the rebirth of the ecosystem after the ravages of humanity elsewhere. Oh, we could dream.
In the series, the author occasionally drifts into technical discussions about various phenomena or tactics. I wonder if he is knowledgeable in the specific fields, or is just making things up. I guess it really doesn't matter, since this is his fictional universe, and he can choose how things should be. 
Endling takes place in a world of sentient animals. There are a few major species that can talk and do magic. The book centers on the adventures of the dairne Byx. They are dog-like creatures that can identify when people are lying. She sneaks off from her family to see the ocean. She encounters a poacher and saves a small creature. When she returns she discovers that her entire family has been destroyed. From there, she goes off with the "quest" with a tracker, and many other animals. They get involved with various palatial intrigue as she hopes to find others of her species.
The I Survived series looks like it would be a blast to write. As an author, you research historical events, and try to experience them yourself. The characters need to survive the event, but also see all that takes place around them. For the Battle of Gettysburg, the story is of two runaway slaves who end up with the Union Army at the battle. I wonder how reasonable it was for former slaves to be that accepted by the Union. (Is there perhaps a little too much of a modern viewpoint in place?) The audiobook is short, and there is just about as much commentary as actual audio. There is plenty of discussion of the Gettysburg address and the "short", yet memorable speech that Lincoln had made.
It took me a little while to figure out what was going on in The House of the Scorpion. The protagonist, Matt, gradually finds out more about his existence. He lives in the world of opium fields between the United States and Mexico. The inhabitants here are a motley bunch, including "eejits" who are laborers that have their intelligence removed (and are treated like as less than human) and a security patrol consisting mostly of men wanted for crimes in other countries. This land of Opium is ruled as an independent country by the ancient "El Patron", who is many decades past his 100th birthday. He likes to consider himself a near diety, similar to ancient Egyptian Pharaohs. We discover that Matt is actually a clone of "El Patron". We later learn that the purpose of these clones is to harvest organs for El Patron. (This is how he has lived to be so old.) 
Gunner Skale is a short story that introduces us to "super gamer" Gunner Skale and the birth of the mortality doctrine. Gunner is the best gamer around. However, he regrets publicizing this. He is mobbed whenever he goes out in public. He also feels he can't game with his significant other because it will district from his prestige. In spite of this, he is fairly content with his life. He spends his non-gaming hours working with sponsors and others who desire his name for their cause. One group he encounters has created the "mortality doctrine". They are old school and use VR goggles instead of immersive "coffins" to show the experience. He feels misgivings upon meeting them, however, he becomes enthralled with it and really want to meet in the "coffin" virtual world. He goes there and lose their life and the mortality doctrine to rouge AIs. 
Book three of Ranger's Apprentice picks off where book one left off. Will and the King's daughter are sailing away with some mercenaries. They are not treated poorly, and in fact get fairly free run of things once they meet landfall. (Though they don't know she is the King's daughter yet.) Holt goes to extreme measures to try to find Will. Since the King will not let him go, he starts bad-mouthing the king in public, resulting in him being sentenced to banishment. This is not the first time in the series he has used a passive aggressive approach to get what he wants. Some times he seems to be nearly "perfect", while at others he falls into passive aggressiveness.
Partials is yet another YA post apocalyptic novel. Humans created "partials" to help fight wars. These part-human/part robot creatures eventually turned on their human overlords. They unleashed a virus that wiped out much of the population. The novel centers on a society based in Long Island that thinks of itself as the last remnant of human civilization. They require every woman over the age of 18 to be perpetually pregnant in hopes of birthing a baby immune to the virus. Alas, the babies rarely live more than a few days. We follow the trail of a young medic and her friends who seek to find a partial in order to discover a cure. They eventually get the partial. She studies it and she (of course) becomes friends with him. However, they discover that they were pawns in a power grab by the controlling Senate. They see this as a great opportunity to declare martial law. Our heroes then escape and team with the partial to cure the virus. Only they discover a few more things in the process. The novel ties things up with peace, but leaves a large number of open threads for the sequel.
At the end of the first Mila book, she escaped from the government compound with her "mother", only to have "mom" get killed. (With the way the government goons were portrayed you ahve to wonder why they would be creating a an android girl.) In this book, she is on the run. She calls her friend Hunter. He is crazy enough to drive from Minnesota to Virginia Beach to see her. (You have to wonder what is up with that?) She doesn't tell him the truth, and suspects that something may be up with him. Perhaps he is a spy? You feel that she is overreacting just a little too much. You just wish she would be a little more truthful. IT feels that he is innocent. Her "mom" seems to have led her on a random "quest" to find more information about herself by following a random adventure. In the quest she learns that there is a part of a real human in her. She also discovers that the bad guys might actually be good guys, or perhaps they are really bad guys. People she trusts are pawns in the actions of others. She doesn't trust the right people enough, but trusts the wrong people too much. How do you know who best to trust? Being a teenager is tough. It is even tougher when you are an android.
The dust bowl is scary in that it happened in relatively recent history and we have learned very little from it. The southern plains of the US were some of the last areas settled. The region was though of as the great American desert, and not very suitable for residents or agriculture. However, it was the last "open land" and was finally gobbled up in the early 20th century. Alas, a combination of factors led to rapid environmental destruction. A boom in grain prices and a adequate precipitation led to farmers plowing everything in site. The excess grain helped, coupled with the onset of the great depression caused prices to tumble. The immediate response was to plow even more land, further depressing prices. With prices so low, many farmers abandoned their fields altogether. And then a drought struck. The land that had once been covered with native grasses had been denuded and just blew away, causing the massive dust storms that spread dust across the country. Meanwhile, the economy was stuck with low grain prices and excess grain nobody wanted to buy. We still see similar aspects repeat. Dotcom and housing bubbles followed a similar economic trap. There is still great tendency to "outsmart" the environment.