Review: Into the Void....
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 16, 2012
Okay, let me be the first to say; I am *so* happy I volunteered to review this book. It took me by surprise how much I actually enjoyed it, and how much I want to go back to read the first one. To be honest I had no idea I was reading the second in a series, until my brain caught up with all of the information I was missing within the text. Luckily, Mr. Abramowitz does a well good job of filling in enough detail for someone to at least guess at what happened in the first book.Keeping that in mind, I've had to tailor my review because there *are* chunks I am missing from the story. This tune mostly sings toward character development. Obviously there's a difference between reading a character from book one to book two. One would hope the author has progressed his or her characters far enough to notice some sort of change in them.In this case, Mr. Abramowitz has done well by his characters in that they seemed to jump off the page right from the get go. Alex was believable as a teenager who believes that her Weaver powers are the only thing that make her special. What kid wants to be normal, anyway? Her father, mother, Agent McBain and other supporting cast were written in a way that I was able to grasp their personality within a few words *and* jump to conclusions that later proved wrong. A wonderful surprise.The other part is back story. There is plenty I don't know about with how Alex's mother Ainslin, treated her in book one. All I have to go on is that she was not a very nice person. Another conclusion that had me startled as more of  her character was revealed.Without going into too much detail (I don't want to employ spoilers, as it would ruin the whole thing), Alex's father has left her mother because of what she was doing to Alex. Basically, injecting the poor girl with nasty shots to give her these Weaver powers. Like any good dad, he got his daughter out of there quick, fast, and in a hurry. Well, from what I can gather, a Weaver, has visions about Xorda attacks. Some visions are in the future, other visions are about the past. Alex's visions are about her mother in her college days. So, what dad said about mum and her badness may not be entirely truthful.In the Weaver Saga the FBI gets involved. Well, a part of the FBI that no one really knows about and that employs Weavers to help them locate the Xorda and get rid of them, for reasons I'm not quite sure about yet. Other than the soul-sucking bit. You know, which is never fun. Now normally, the FBI doesn't employ 15 year old girls. In our universe, anyway. However, in this universe, they do.I think I would have been more open to the fact had I started from book one. It was a tough pill to swallow coming into book two, but not all that unrealistic once the scope of the Xorda problem and these `Weavers' were explained.In short; it worked for the world I inhabited for 190 pages.Overall it was a fun and exciting read, the action moved along fairly quickly and the pages kept turning as my interest in Alex and her plight grew. The dialogue was snappy, though it felt forced in some places, and it was relevant to the situation-there was very little deviation into nonsensical conversation that, overall, had nothing to do with the plot as a whole. I immediately found myself attached to the characters and interested in what was happening to them.A right feat considering the audiobook I *was* listening too was a nominee for the Hugo and Nebula awards. But, that's another blog post.The only problem I could *really* find with the book were some of the fight scenes. Reading through them proved troublesome, as some of the action got confused. There was only one unrealistic scene I could find;  when Agent McBain had a Xorda a few inches away from her face and kicked him in the head.  I had to raise an eyebrow at that one.Other than that, the book was fun, well written, and an awesome read. It, and its predecessor, are available on Amazon's Kindle Store.For me, the book gets a solid 5 for its characters, fast pace, and overall excitement.Well done, Mr. Abramowitz. I look forward to the next one!