Reviews

Birthright: Recall by Dale Thomas Vaughn, Dale Thomas Vaughn

toggle_fow's review

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adventurous hopeful medium-paced

1.25

I've read some books in my time that were just painfully, offensively bad in every way.

This is not one of them.

There are books that just make you want to list in a tirade all the things that were blatantly wrong. And then there are books that seem outwardly healthy. They seem like they should be fine, if you look at them from a distance and squint. But something about them is just a bit... off. Soulless. Empty in a way that almost defies description. 

Anyway, this book is about a boy raised on Mars when they suddenly receive a distress signal from the thought-to-be-long-dead Earth. This plot is almost too good to fail - the mystery! The drama! The space danger and adventure! How could you make that boring?

Unfortunately, this manages to make it very, very boring.

All the characters are oddly flat. You spend time in all of their minds, bouncing around in a way that seems very old-fashioned from a writing technique perspective. And yet, for all we know about them, they just seem unrealistic, unrelatable, and hard to care about. 

The suspense that should have driven the story inexorably forward is completely just... not there. We know what's happening on Earth the whole time, and it's boring. Where I should have been compelled by the mystery and tension, I was actively turned away by the odd and uninteresting nature of the Earth perspectives.

The mechanics of this whole thing just defy my suspension of disbelief, as well. 

For example: the very beginning of the book. Renny, our main character, is listening to the President of Mars announce the Earth signal on some kind of televised address projected across the whole colony. Then, somehow, he interrupts the president by screaming "I volunteer <strikethrough>as tribute</strikethrough>!" The televised address is, I guess, a FaceTimed address and the president has the ability to see and hear all the people who are seeing her on every screen around the whole colony?

First of all, how is this logistically practical. Second of all, the president stops her speech to <i>interact</i> with Renny and engage him in conversation. In front of the whole colony, which is watching on every TV screen. Except are they seeing Renny too, or just hearing the president's one-sided conversation? The whole thing is wack, except if this colony contains only like a hundred people.

The moments of awkward incredulity just continue to build up, too. 

I don't understand how this colony is run, job and resource wise? Who grows the food, where does the power come from? Apparently nobody gets this, either, when the president literally has a conversation where she asks, "So solar power doesn't run the whole colony?"  

Everyone we meet is somehow a college student who gets drafted into becoming an extremely powerful cog in the machinery of the interim government? Is there no one around who's actually competent? Why are all these nobody college students in charge suddenly? 

How does the social structure work? A huge deal is made over Renny and his nonbinary sibling's parents' deaths, but it seems like nobody else has parents either? Why is no one who left on this possibly-a-suicide-mission worried about the loved ones they left behind?

These are the questions actually plaguing my mind, while the narrative tries and fails to woo my attention with some weird, failed alien political summit. There is nothing interesting going on here, except some very peculiar wording. Once someone's expression of wide-eyed shock is described as their "eyes growing double." What?

In summary, I would call this book a kind of odd husk. It resembles a great story like, under certain conditions, a scarecrow resembles a living person.

kimalah's review

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adventurous emotional lighthearted fast-paced

3.5

I enjoyed Birthright: Recall. It held my attention and the story appealed to me. Sometimes the POV switched too fast so it took more effort to connect to the characters. The dialogue was stilted at times, which threw me out of the story once or twice. I really liked the diversity portrayed by the various characters. Overall, I spent a nice afternoon reading this book. 

I received Birthright: Recall as a Goodreads giveaway. My opinion is my own.

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latitudea's review

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3.25

Interesting characters, flat worldbuilding. There’s a nonbinary character who uses they/them pronouns and it’s just never made into a Deal which is super cool, especially in a science-fiction novel. Also the cover is _very_ cool. 3.25 stars.

mrbooks's review

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adventurous challenging lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

3.0

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