*Mild Spoilers, mostly for comic relief!
Introduction
Glenn is different. She’s so
smart she has the paperwork to skip a grade and go directly to a prestigious
institution that will train her to travel to planet 813 and help colonize it.
Instead of bonding with her peers, she looks at star maps on her tablet. Or she
takes care of her father, a wraith of a man, who is obsessed with building some
kind of machine. He is this way because their mother walked out on them 10
years ago. This is linked to a boarder around their land, the Colloquium,
dividing it from a wasteland called the Rift. As it turns out, many people
believe that there is more to this wasteland than the government is telling
them. Glenn’s father’s project propels Glenn, and her conspiracy theory
enthusiast friend named Kevin, into a land that shouldn’t exist.
See that introduction? Save
yourself 310 pages and fill in the gaps. Whatever you imagine, it will probably
be more interesting and convincing than what Hirsch wrote.
Well, ok, I’ll go into more
detail about this book, if you insist.
Plot
For a book that is 310 pages, not
a lot happens. It is like The Lord of The
Rings-there is a lot of walking, a lot of talking, and a lot of empty
space. A lot of me wondering how long it will take me to finish this so I can
get on to Sever.
Like Velveteen
the blurb doesn’t adequately describe what is actually in the book. The blurb
on the dust jacket does not describe the magic world they go to. I’m not much
for magical themes in books (with a few exceptions, of course), and the blurb hints
at the possibility, but I argue that it doesn’t adequately describe the
complete transportation to a world that is similar (to put it in simple terms)
to The Lord of the Rings world of
swords and sorcery.
From the dust jacket of the
edition that I have, it sounds like a government is being evil (of course!) and
two teens are doing…stuff to fight the government. Yay.
But it’s not like that. Anyway,
moving on…
Without giving too much away, the
author gives us some of the stupidest justifications for doing whatever she
decides that I have ever read.
It would have been far more
interesting if Glenn fought the stigma of having a mentally ill-but genius-father,
and got to go to planet 813 with her cat Hopkins.
Action Scenes
There’s some action. Lots of
people get shot. By the end of the book there are so many injuries I just didn’t
care, and the characters stopped reacting appropriately to what is being done
to them. That irks me to no end. In the beginning, someone is shot, they almost
die, and they are encumbered by this injury for a long time. Good, good, all
clear here. Then people are thrown about, ribs broken, almost drowned, bashed,
shot with arrows, shot with poisonous darts, etc. What happens? Everybody just
brushes it off like a boss. EXCEPT they are not a boss, or bosses. These are
people who just stopped feeling pain…because. Because the author wanted action
scenes but not the after effects of injuries. Hasn’t he ever watched Dragon
Ball Z? Goku goes to the hospital because you know what hurts? Fighting.
Good Guys VS Bad Guys
This story
is about politics, not good and evil. I hate it when books try to make you feel
like everything is so clean cut. It’s my problem with Final Fantasy XII-it’s all politics, but just because one side is
an advanced empire, you’re supposed to hate them. No, that’s not how reality
works. Just because one side has technology and guns, and one side has less
advanced technology and magic, does not automatically make the technology and
guns people bad.
Not that this book can make the reader decide
who the bad guys are. For a long time I felt like I was just supposed to hate
everyone. And boy, do I hate everyone.
Glenn
I’m so smart. But I’m a little sad. Because
I’m sad I’m going to take my cat and go to a distant planet so I don’t have to
deal with anyone ever again.
Oh, hey, magic. I mean, no. I like
science. Magic can’t be real. Let’s not accept this fact until a little more
than halfway through the book. I still think we can go back to the empire
Colloquium after we destroy the one ring the bracelet in the fire of Mount
Doom a blacksmithing town.
Kevin
I am a boy. I like Glenn because. I hate the
government because of conspiracy theories I read on the internet.
I am a boy.
Aamon
I AM TOTALLY NOT A CAT.
Meow.
Cover
There’s something positive: I
like the cover. Bravo *claps hands.
Verdict
Perhaps it is a problem that I refuse to put down a book without finishing it. I am usually not a fan of magic themes, especially those set in medieval-ish times (I know it isn’t the case, but the Rift is devoid of technology). The blurb sold me to give it a read. I wanted to like it. The beginning had me intrigued. Going to planet 813 sounded awesome. Even the possibilities of the Rift were exciting. After that, I died inside, slowly, in agonizing pain. Overall, it was a disappointment for me. I wouldn’t recommend it to a teen reader because there are MUCH better fantasy books out there. I wouldn’t recommend it for a book club pick because of the length and the slow plot-I’m afraid that no one would finish it. I’m glad that I ordered it from my library in November of 2012 and I got it in July 2013 (sarcasm). Considering how long I waited for it, and how much I despised most of it, I am thoroughly disappointed.
No comments:
Post a Comment