Review: Some good concepts, no real delivery
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 11 29, 2013
The only real reason I'm giving this story two stars instead of one is that the concept (both for the world and the characters) held promise, but the novel itself utterly failed to deliver.  The character dialogue was painfully awkward and I often found myself cringing as one character or another said something in a way that no one would actually communicate.  The author spent a lot of time discussing how to get showers or appliances to work, then skimmed over certain conflict points.  None of the characters, primary or otherwise, have any real personality, which was a shame because the backstory for the main character was rife should have made characterization rife with possibilities.  The concept behind the Westmoreland character was pretty clever, but the author's portrayal of her seemed inconsistent, almost as if the concept was finalized in the author's head.  The pacing was flat and there was no real sense of suspense at all.  It actually takes a lot to make me quit reading before the end, but halfway through this one, I just quit (I didn't even bother to skim to the end).  I had no interest in how it turned out.