Review: A TV Show for Your eReader
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 29, 2013
This whole idea of serialized fiction has me intrigued. Why not release episodic content like a television show, week after week? Maybe it could draw in a new crowd of readers who want quick fiction.I took the plunge on The B-Team by John Scalzi to see how he attempts to do this. With the first installment of the 13 episodes, I was very pleased. Bear in mind, I'm not familiar with any of his other books. This is my first time reading his work.Scalzi gets right into the action, establishing a secret negotiation between humans and an alien race that goes awry. The beginning feels like episodic content should: It sets you up with the problem that lays the groundwork for the rest of the story.Without ruining the story or what may come in future stories as a result of this one, I'll say The B-Team comes in to help.Overall I enjoyed the story very much, and I look forward to reading the other episodes. And that should be easy enough to do, because they are short. This first episode should take somewhere around an hour to read.If I had a gripe with the story, it is with some of the dialogue. Often, to clue the reader in on the technological mumbo jumbo, the characters, particularly Wilson, describe what is happening. I can't help but feel that the interaction between characters to describe it felt unnatural, and unfortunately lends itself to a good portion of the middle of the story. I would have been fine with less dialogue explanation and more narrative explanation, or even just less explanation in general.But that's a minor grip. The story for The B-Team is fun and fast paced. Maybe you're unsure if reading episodic content is for you. There's only one way to find out if that's the case. I suggest you give this first episode a read, and if it does what it's supposed to, you might find yourself wanting to read the next episode.