Review: Get past the beginning and it is a great read
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 26, 2012
I have to admit when I started reading Alec's Dream by Dave Birchbauer I put it down after the first few chapters never planning to pick it up again. I realize the author needs to give sort of background and get the story going in the first few chapters but I was so totally confused and lost. I found myself re-reading it many times and still helplessly lost in the science and anti-gravity jargon. I really can't say why this bothered me so much because in other fictional books it was fine that a couple of kids go into a thicket of bamboo and find themselves in a world with fairies and unicorns or some guy can walk to a certain spot of the pantry floor and find himself transported back into time and that was perfectly fine but this anti-gravity stuff bothered me.After a few days I picked it up and continued reading and I am so glad I did because it got to the point I didn't want to put this book down. As I said the beginning was confusing and full of some scientific reasoning for how and why Alec developed this anti-gravity blanket with the help from Jessie, his daughter. Alec really isn't well developed as far as the story goes but then again he doesn't have to be as none of the adults really had to be since the main character is really Jessie. Jesse and her friends end up in life and death situations when they find themselves face to face with aliens who not only want to gain this technology for themselves, they want to rid the earth of the life form they hated which are humans. Jesse is the key to getting them all off this alien spaceship alive and get the warning to earth.The story was a bit like what I would imagine Star Wars in the Twilight Zone with a little of Star Trek would read complete with four dimensions, anti-gravity blankets, space portals, space ships and even aliens both good and bad. The weapons as well as the ships were exciting and futuristic and I was never quite sure where the story was going, there seemed to be surprises with every turn of the page. By the time I finished the book I realized somewhere along the way the beginning sort of made sense and I did enjoy the book.The author really has one heck of an imagination with an outstanding sense of detail. I could close my eyes and imagine the inside of the ship and the grass maps as well as the chase on the far side of the moon. I think any fan of science fiction would enjoy this book especially young adults.