Review: Some good, Some bad
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 07 8, 2013
I really felt like this was almost two different books in some ways, one I liked, and another that I didn't care much for. I did think that the author was very creative in developing lots of "hidden" plot elements that unfolded clearly as the story went on. Unlike some other reviews I just read, I really didn't have any difficulty following either the story, nor the characters...it was a pretty easy read from that standpoint. At the end, the author challenges us to go back and re-read a couple specific chapters to perhaps find hidden meaning...I did so out of curiosity (I didn't feel confused about anything at the end), and am really not sure what the point was. There just wasn't any moments like in the movie Sixth Sense, where watching it again let me catch lots of stuff once I knew the "twist".For the most part I really enjoy how the author's sense of humor can work its way into group dynamics and dialog. This as a talent I hope continues to develop, and it does much to offset her habit of shallow characterization through emotional response. What I mean by that is that the characters (for the most part) lack the emotional nuance during dialog and interaction... everyone always "fills with rage", gets blinded by fury, shakes in terror, or literally sh*ts themselves, over and over. Fortunately their actions and internal dialogs do much to create more rounded characters without using all the emotional hyperbole. But I feel this is a definite weakness in the writing that will hinder this and future stories from reaching that next level.I didn't care for the basically omnipotent status of the Geuji...I think this hurt the realism factor to the point of moving the character out of Scify and into the realm of fantasy. Many segments of the book began with a prelude of the Geuji describing exactly what would happen, and I kept having flashbacks to those old, campy Greek mythology movies where Zeus sat up on Mt. Olympus and dictated the actions of the mere mortals below. It was bad enough at times that the following prediction would have fit right in: "In 23 days the human will succumb to depression while thinking of his childhood, and he will eat ice cream, forgetting that he is more lactose intolerant in a low-G environment, and therefore will be stuck in the crapper for 3 hours, which will cause him choose landing site B and forget to seal his biosuit."A couple glaring inconsistences bothered me. After all the effort Joe went to, to find his brother, all the guilt of getting him caught, all the out-of-character binge drinking drama right up through the execution... he finally finds Sam late in the book and he... robs and strands him? with a cheesy lecture about crimes? huh?And Maggie. There is an entire segment where she fantasizes about sex with a man, who turns out to be a Huouyt in disguise, and becomes enraged to find she may have been manipulated by intentional hormonal releases. I won't say why, but anyone who's read the book to the end can see that this is not only inconsistent, its just absurd.Oh, and why would the Dhasha decide that a good revolt somehow entails congregating on one planet and digging themselves into deep holes to sit in? What could this possible accomplish? What possible strategy could this be? Why didn't congress simply park some ships around the planet and let them starve, or whatever?Anyway, despite the problems, I did end up enjoying the last 25% of the book far more. The repetitive cycles of going down caves just wasn't interesting for long, but once the story finally moved on I liked it much better. Will I read the next book? I might...not sure yet.