Scan barcode
tiannastarfall's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Have never seen the TV series, but as this is a prequel it made sense in it's own right. Interesting concept, that has echoes from other sources such as Hitman and Maze Runner. I liked the main character Max. The writing was a bit jangly at times, but a pretty quick read. I have the other books in the series, just hope they don't assume knowledge from the TV show either as I would like to read the rest of Max's tale.
everlaerian's review
1.0
Kinda starts off a bit after the show ended. Freak nation is being accepted by society slowly...
dramxarama's review
2.0
Okay so I've been wanting to read those since the TV series was cancelled because it fucking ended on a cliffhanger and mama needed answers. It took me a long time to get my hands on them and actually get to read them. I have to say I was scared of it ruining the show... And well...
This first book is actually kind of a prequel to the series. The problem is that it destroys a lot of canon stuff of the TV show... I'm kind of at a loss as to how it will answer the cliffhangers of the last season if it starts by breaking a lot of things established by the TV series.
So yeah, it ruined the show lmao. I'm probably gonna read the other two books just to see what the author did with the story because honestly I don't know how he could come back close to the show with what he did with the first book...
Also, the writing isn't really good. He does not understand any of the personality of the characters from the show which is bad, they almost all felt ooc to me. Max in a gang was like????? O.C. in the army????? The world building isn't always respected, like things don't make sense around the post pulse economy and stuff like that.
There is some good moments, nice scenes but overall, if you're not a fan of the show and really wanted to take a look to see if you could get answer... probably don't get that book, you will not quite understand everything and the plot would probably not make sense, same goes for the character's personality and why they do their shit.
If you are a fan, don't think you will get what you were looking for with this book. It's almost completely ooc, it almost feels like an AU since too many things from the past and the plot point are changed (the first episode of the series doesn't make sense with this book).
Anyway, I wrote a fanfiction when I was like 13 or 14 to feel like I still could connect with the series and well... it almost feels like it was as good a job as this book...
I'll read the next two to see if it gets better and because they're not that long. But I wouldn't recommend at least this first book.
This first book is actually kind of a prequel to the series. The problem is that it destroys a lot of canon stuff of the TV show... I'm kind of at a loss as to how it will answer the cliffhangers of the last season if it starts by breaking a lot of things established by the TV series.
So yeah, it ruined the show lmao. I'm probably gonna read the other two books just to see what the author did with the story because honestly I don't know how he could come back close to the show with what he did with the first book...
Also, the writing isn't really good. He does not understand any of the personality of the characters from the show which is bad, they almost all felt ooc to me. Max in a gang was like????? O.C. in the army????? The world building isn't always respected, like things don't make sense around the post pulse economy and stuff like that.
There is some good moments, nice scenes but overall, if you're not a fan of the show and really wanted to take a look to see if you could get answer... probably don't get that book, you will not quite understand everything and the plot would probably not make sense, same goes for the character's personality and why they do their shit.
If you are a fan, don't think you will get what you were looking for with this book. It's almost completely ooc, it almost feels like an AU since too many things from the past and the plot point are changed (the first episode of the series doesn't make sense with this book).
Anyway, I wrote a fanfiction when I was like 13 or 14 to feel like I still could connect with the series and well... it almost feels like it was as good a job as this book...
I'll read the next two to see if it gets better and because they're not that long. But I wouldn't recommend at least this first book.
hawkelf's review
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
Look, I like tie-in books. I even like tie-in books of rough quality. I did not like this book. I was willing to write off some of my problems to it being a 2002 tie-in to an urban sci-fi/dystopia series, but that doesn't really do it.
It was like watching an episode on fast-forward. The fun answers to Before The Series (how Max meets her friends, gets to LA, gets a job) aren't answered creatively or are fast forwarded through entirely. There isn't a journey of a story so much as things happening one right after another, like an inexplicably well-timed check list, until well into the second half of the book when the plot finally takes some kind of shape.
I haven't watched Dark Angel recently enough to say whether there's any canon that's ignored here, but it does feel like the author is more relying on someone else's accounting of the show, rather than having watched it himself.
Also, the male gaze of it all is overpowering. The author seems more comfortable in male characters' POV than Max's, and as a sample of how he hyper-sexualizes all of the women, at one point Lydeckerthinks about an X5's 'pert breasts' as he shoots her. So that's fun. The author also constantly refers to all the womens' hands as tiny, which started to bother me after a while. If nothing else, I think he vastly misjudged the primary audience of this show. The 'hidden' pop culture references to everything from Harry Potter to Wheezer to Justin Timberlake where more tiring than funny, even twenty years later.
Again, I really wanted to like this book. I just didn't.
It was like watching an episode on fast-forward. The fun answers to Before The Series (how Max meets her friends, gets to LA, gets a job) aren't answered creatively or are fast forwarded through entirely. There isn't a journey of a story so much as things happening one right after another, like an inexplicably well-timed check list, until well into the second half of the book when the plot finally takes some kind of shape.
I haven't watched Dark Angel recently enough to say whether there's any canon that's ignored here, but it does feel like the author is more relying on someone else's accounting of the show, rather than having watched it himself.
Also, the male gaze of it all is overpowering. The author seems more comfortable in male characters' POV than Max's, and as a sample of how he hyper-sexualizes all of the women, at one point Lydecker
Again, I really wanted to like this book. I just didn't.
Content Warnings
Minor: Sexual assault and Sexual violence
littlebitofe's review
3.0
Enjoyable read. Very true to the show. I could see the characters and hear them just as they were on the show.
lara_bookella's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Ho letto questo libro in inglese e per di più in formato eBook: è stato l’unico modo in cui sono riuscita a trovarlo. Non avete idea che fatica io abbia fatto a finirlo! L’inglese poi era molto slang, pieno di abbreviazioni e parole inconsuete: una faticaccia. Nonostante la difficoltà, però, ho tenuto duro: ho amato il telefilm da cui è tratto e muoio dalla voglia di sapere i retroscena e ovviamente il finale (visto che i produttori hanno deciso di non fare la terza stagione lasciando tutti noi fan con la storia a metà 😠 ).
Before The Dawn invece ci racconta di tutto quello che sta nei dieci anni tra la fuga di Max dalla base e il suo arrivo a Seattle e scopriamo perchè ogni episodio termina con Max seduta sullo Space Needle. Il finale è stato veramente toccante, perfetto. Mi è piaciuto moltissimo.
Il personaggio di Max è di certo il più bello e il più complicato della storia, continuamente in bilico tra l’essere una macchina da guerra progettata per uccidere e l’essere una diciannovenne in cerca del suo posto del mondo. La ricerca della sua “famiglia” e la voglia a tutti i costi di ritrovare le persone che l’hanno salvata dimostrano tutta la dolcezza di cui solo un essere umano è capace, ma la sua fredda determinazione in ogni missione le ricordano ogni volta che lei è stata creata per essere un soldato.
Accanto a una protagonista fatta di contraddizioni c’è un personaggio maschile tutto d’un pezzo: Logan Cale alias Eyes Only, una sorta di cyber-superero per cui le cose sono bianche o nere, la gente o è buona o è cattiva e il giusto e lo sbagliato non possono convivere. Per tutto questo romanzo Logan e Max vivono due vite parallele che non si incontrano mai… ma i fan che approdano a questo libro dopo aver visto la serie tv sanno che finiranno per incontrarsi e scoprire quanto abbiano bisogno l’uno dell’altra.
L’unica cosa che non mi è piaciuta è stata la troppa azione: ci sono veramente troppi punti in cui si descrivono minuziosamente le scene di lotta. Tra il fatto che non mi appassionano e l’incomprensibilità di certi termini inglesi, ho saltato qualche pagina… e questo non è mai una nota positiva per un libro. Spero che nei prossimi ci saranno meno mazzate e un po’ più di sentimento (che poi è la cosa di cui ho davvero sentito la mancanza leggendo questo libro).
L’ultima nota che voglio fare è a proposito dell’ambientazione.
Amanti del distopico, aprite bene le orecchie: questo è un romanzo distopico. Forse uno dei primi. Forse così vecchio che il distopico, come genere, non esisteva ancora e per questo è stato definito “fantascienza”. Comunque la Seattle devastata dall’Impulso che ha bruciato ogni cosa elettronica e ha fatto regredire l’avanzata civiltà statunitense, la gente povera che vive come riesce, il controllo quasi marziale della polizia, le mezze verità dei governi… insomma, se non è distopico questo non so proprio cosa sia. E sono veramente felice di aver trovato un distopico ante litteram, uno di quelli che non ha scopiazzato più o meno bene da Hunger Games e che per questo è veramente originale.
Before The Dawn invece ci racconta di tutto quello che sta nei dieci anni tra la fuga di Max dalla base e il suo arrivo a Seattle e scopriamo perchè ogni episodio termina con Max seduta sullo Space Needle. Il finale è stato veramente toccante, perfetto. Mi è piaciuto moltissimo.
Il personaggio di Max è di certo il più bello e il più complicato della storia, continuamente in bilico tra l’essere una macchina da guerra progettata per uccidere e l’essere una diciannovenne in cerca del suo posto del mondo. La ricerca della sua “famiglia” e la voglia a tutti i costi di ritrovare le persone che l’hanno salvata dimostrano tutta la dolcezza di cui solo un essere umano è capace, ma la sua fredda determinazione in ogni missione le ricordano ogni volta che lei è stata creata per essere un soldato.
Accanto a una protagonista fatta di contraddizioni c’è un personaggio maschile tutto d’un pezzo: Logan Cale alias Eyes Only, una sorta di cyber-superero per cui le cose sono bianche o nere, la gente o è buona o è cattiva e il giusto e lo sbagliato non possono convivere. Per tutto questo romanzo Logan e Max vivono due vite parallele che non si incontrano mai… ma i fan che approdano a questo libro dopo aver visto la serie tv sanno che finiranno per incontrarsi e scoprire quanto abbiano bisogno l’uno dell’altra.
L’unica cosa che non mi è piaciuta è stata la troppa azione: ci sono veramente troppi punti in cui si descrivono minuziosamente le scene di lotta. Tra il fatto che non mi appassionano e l’incomprensibilità di certi termini inglesi, ho saltato qualche pagina… e questo non è mai una nota positiva per un libro. Spero che nei prossimi ci saranno meno mazzate e un po’ più di sentimento (che poi è la cosa di cui ho davvero sentito la mancanza leggendo questo libro).
L’ultima nota che voglio fare è a proposito dell’ambientazione.
Amanti del distopico, aprite bene le orecchie: questo è un romanzo distopico. Forse uno dei primi. Forse così vecchio che il distopico, come genere, non esisteva ancora e per questo è stato definito “fantascienza”. Comunque la Seattle devastata dall’Impulso che ha bruciato ogni cosa elettronica e ha fatto regredire l’avanzata civiltà statunitense, la gente povera che vive come riesce, il controllo quasi marziale della polizia, le mezze verità dei governi… insomma, se non è distopico questo non so proprio cosa sia. E sono veramente felice di aver trovato un distopico ante litteram, uno di quelli che non ha scopiazzato più o meno bene da Hunger Games e che per questo è veramente originale.
billydoubledown's review
3.0
The show had a lot of potential to really rock but unfortunately, it was cancelled. Before the Dawn was a nice prequel though.
dulindiel's review
1.0
This is why I don't generally read books by men. This is terrible, nonsensical fanfic. Why would she have spent at least 6 years in one place? There is no way that all of her Seattle set up could have been done in 2 months and all of the plot points were pastiches of actual episodes- so much so that one chapter has the same name as an episode. It lacked originality and characterisation.
vylotte's review
3.0
Okay, yes, I'm copping to actually reading a Dark Angel book. Whatevs, we all have our trashy reads! And this one was actually pretty well written, with humor and pathos and all the things I want in an easy read. And no stupid, convenient, "she's a girl and therefore must have a romantic interest" relationships shoehorned in. Just a (genetically modified) kick ass heroine trying to do the right thing.
And bonus extra points for a stylistic dystopian vision of Seattle, land that I love.
Read during the October 2015 24-hour Read-a-thon.
And bonus extra points for a stylistic dystopian vision of Seattle, land that I love.
Read during the October 2015 24-hour Read-a-thon.
roguem's review
2.0
It's kind of simple, but works very well as an introduction to the Dark Angel universe. There are some questions about why events in the book are never mentioned in the show, but apparently that'll pop up in the books that close of the tv-show, so if that's true I think this is an okay way to round off the tv-show.