Review: This is just bad
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 12 16, 2013
Based on two things: 1) I've really enjoyed Mr. Bunker's prior books, and 2) all the glowing reviews for this book (installment?), I seriously considered if maybe I was the problem before giving this a 2 star review. I've even gone back and re-read some of what I felt were some of the worst sections, to see if maybe I was missing something, or was just in the wrong frame of mind when read initially.After thinking it through, I can't help but say that Pennsylvania 2: Non-Electric Boogaloo is poorly conceived, poorly executed, and poorly written from start to finish. Oh, and I love science fiction, liked the first book Pennsylvania, and see no reason why an Amish character couldn't be just as interesting as any other alien culture  ;)SPOILERS:Non-Electric Boogaloo picks up where 1st book ended, and it remained interesting for a bit. Where it started falling apart was at the antique shop. I really started to get fed up with our main character Jed asking a very relevant question such as "Who are you?", "What is happening", and being told "We are in too much of a hurry to answer questions!". We are, however, not in too much of a hurry to go into long discourses about 3D printer technology, or hear about all your interesting Amish experiences on the farm.And the dialog and accompanying emotive gestures is just discordant. From covered with blood and panicked, to everyone winking at each other, to special ops discipline, to weird laughter and punching shoulders, to threatening to shoot each other...back and forth. The dialog about whether Jed has a girlfriend and is Dawn seeing Billy, that was just so off-kilter and poorly written.Then we get to this big plan to get Jed out and into the Amish Zone. Honestly, at this point the fact that we still don't even have a hint why these people are willing to sacrifice their lives to get Jed to his new farm, and it isn't mysterious...its gotten annoying. When an author baits the reader, but then withholds important information to create mystery or suspense, the reader needs to trust the author for this to work. However, when the big "plan" to get Jed captured in a bus, that maybe will land somewhere close, and race 3 other factions to get Jed back...wow, this is just so, so poor. Painful even. This is the level of writing one can encounter in YoungAdult, selfpub fantasy. Seeing it here makes me lose any trust in the author... let the wild world of unrestrained deus ex machina and magical accidents begin.I really think Mr. Bunker should consider pulling this book and coming back to this story when he has the time to focus and take his time with it. If it weren't for the fact that I have seen how well this author can do with subject material that is both off the grid and close to his heart, I wouldn't have even bothered writing this.