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rhodered's review
2.0
This showed up for sale at Amazon Kindle the other day, although it was apparently written about ten years ago just before the author died. It's a follow up to the Rissa Kergeluen series from the last 1970s and early 80s.
That series was a landmark for feminism (despite some wince worthy sexist mistakes by the well-meaning author) along with being a grand space opera with plenty of planets, spaceships, etc. so, I was psyched to see this suddenly appear. I suspect it was found and published by the author's family.
Sadly, they do not appear to have had anyone edit it. It needs an edit badly. The dialogue is actually a bit better - less stiff - than the author's earlier books. It looked like the plot might be fun. I say looked like because as of now I'm stuck on a big fat DNF around page 50 or so.
I just could not get through the beginning without flagging. A big party at Rissa's place to celebrate the nth anniversary of the time she and her pals took over the earth. We see the entire thing through the eyes of Renalle, Rissa's college aged daughter who is bored because the party and her thoughts are used to inadequately mask a MASSIVE INFODUMP from the author, including all past book's plots, who's done what since then, and even a drawing of a family tree. Really, Renalle pulls her mom to the side during the Party of the Year to stick a family tree in her face.
I had just re-read the prior books, so I was up on the universe, but the INFODUMP was so massive that it slowed me down and ultimately stopped me in my tracks. I can't imagine what it would do to a new reader.
The other books started with a couple of pages of intro that summed up the story so far. If you knew the story, you could skip it and go straight to chapter one to dive into all-new action. Why didn't that happen here?
Just saying. Painful.
That series was a landmark for feminism (despite some wince worthy sexist mistakes by the well-meaning author) along with being a grand space opera with plenty of planets, spaceships, etc. so, I was psyched to see this suddenly appear. I suspect it was found and published by the author's family.
Sadly, they do not appear to have had anyone edit it. It needs an edit badly. The dialogue is actually a bit better - less stiff - than the author's earlier books. It looked like the plot might be fun. I say looked like because as of now I'm stuck on a big fat DNF around page 50 or so.
I just could not get through the beginning without flagging. A big party at Rissa's place to celebrate the nth anniversary of the time she and her pals took over the earth. We see the entire thing through the eyes of Renalle, Rissa's college aged daughter who is bored because the party and her thoughts are used to inadequately mask a MASSIVE INFODUMP from the author, including all past book's plots, who's done what since then, and even a drawing of a family tree. Really, Renalle pulls her mom to the side during the Party of the Year to stick a family tree in her face.
I had just re-read the prior books, so I was up on the universe, but the INFODUMP was so massive that it slowed me down and ultimately stopped me in my tracks. I can't imagine what it would do to a new reader.
The other books started with a couple of pages of intro that summed up the story so far. If you knew the story, you could skip it and go straight to chapter one to dive into all-new action. Why didn't that happen here?
Just saying. Painful.
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