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3.59 AVERAGE
3.59 AVERAGE
The science stuff was over my head but the ending was sure gripping! Luckily I have the 2nd book available :)
I don't even know where to begin reviewing Robin Brande's latest book, so let me start with this: it was, like everything she has written, excellent. "Into the Parallel" had the same spot-on characterization, emotion, and dialogue that I have come to expect from Brande, but it also added aspects of reality that read like fantasy to mix. "Into the Parallel" will undoubtedly satisfy both fantasy fans and the contemporary realistic fiction crowd with it's mix of quantum physics that seems too crazy to be true and a smart, adventurous narrator who couldn't be more true-to-life. Brande effectively brings some of the most complex theories of quantum physics down to a level that the average reader can understand and, as she's done in "Evolution, Me, and Other Freaks of Nature" and "Fat Cat," shown that science is way more cool than the average high school chemistry teacher may lead you to believe. With a cliff-hanger ending that has me counting down the days until the end of August when book two is released, "Into the Parallel" has me shouting off the rooftops that everyone should read this novel.
This is a fun read. Audie is a real person. The whole trying to get in to the college she thinks is the best is real life. I could go on and on about her life, you laugh or cry at the way she thinks through things. Then when she meets Halli and everything changes. Audie's ordinary life is no more. How many dream that our ordinary lives would change? Again her reaction to her new life is so real. What would you do? If you are looking for a new type of story read this book and then the whole series.
Robin Brande takes readers into a new dimension—literally—with her YA sci-fi, INTO THE PARALLEL. While various elements of the story, such as plot and characters, don’t feel as tight as her YA contemporary novels, INTO THE PARALLEL is nevertheless an enjoyable story that draws only lightly on advanced scientific concepts.
The majority of INTO THE PARALLEL unfolds through dialogue: Audie talking to Hallie and trying to figure out what’s going on, Audie talking to the professor, Audie lying to her mom…really, the amount of information that’s revealed through stationary dialogue is rather disconcerting, as you realize that there’s not much going on in terms of plot. Due to the talky nature of the story, little seems to be at stake: about halfway through the story, I found myself wondering, okay, so are we ever going to get to the gritty conflict? Alas, I felt like no such thing ever appeared—INTO THE PARALLEL was really just an exploration of a new situation, with little else driving the story.
The characters all seem to suffer from various symptoms of character flatness. Audie is a pretty straightforward protagonist, but sometimes she bugged me because her thoughts and behavior were at odds with her supposed intelligence. Honestly? This is one girl who will not be getting into Columbia, her dream school—and if she does, I will be tempted to chalk it up to fictional wish fulfillment (sigh). Hallie’s unwillingness to draw attention to herself and her accomplishments is at least consistent and admirable, if a little boring. As for Audie’s love interests, well, not much distinguishes them either. I feel like the character development relied too much on dialogue, at the expense of actually allowing readers’ connections to the characters, and the characters’ connections to one another, to unfold more naturally.
INTO THE PARALLEL tackles the fascinating possibilities that quantum mechanics and string theory offer, but it does so in a way that is rather elementary: in fact, the story could’ve done without the astrophysics element and still worked. Therefore, I’d say that it is a less sci-fi and more just a series of events that unfolds in parallel universes. Nevertheless, I give Robin Brande credit for all her research into this fascinating topic, and for writing a KILLER of a cliffhanger ending that, fortunately, can be immediately remedied, as the sequel is now out online. Will I be reading it? Hmm. Perhaps. INTO THE PARALLEL was lacking in a number of elements that are important to me in an enjoyable and well-written story, but everyone has those few authors they make exceptions for, and Robin’s one of them for me.
The majority of INTO THE PARALLEL unfolds through dialogue: Audie talking to Hallie and trying to figure out what’s going on, Audie talking to the professor, Audie lying to her mom…really, the amount of information that’s revealed through stationary dialogue is rather disconcerting, as you realize that there’s not much going on in terms of plot. Due to the talky nature of the story, little seems to be at stake: about halfway through the story, I found myself wondering, okay, so are we ever going to get to the gritty conflict? Alas, I felt like no such thing ever appeared—INTO THE PARALLEL was really just an exploration of a new situation, with little else driving the story.
The characters all seem to suffer from various symptoms of character flatness. Audie is a pretty straightforward protagonist, but sometimes she bugged me because her thoughts and behavior were at odds with her supposed intelligence. Honestly? This is one girl who will not be getting into Columbia, her dream school—and if she does, I will be tempted to chalk it up to fictional wish fulfillment (sigh). Hallie’s unwillingness to draw attention to herself and her accomplishments is at least consistent and admirable, if a little boring. As for Audie’s love interests, well, not much distinguishes them either. I feel like the character development relied too much on dialogue, at the expense of actually allowing readers’ connections to the characters, and the characters’ connections to one another, to unfold more naturally.
INTO THE PARALLEL tackles the fascinating possibilities that quantum mechanics and string theory offer, but it does so in a way that is rather elementary: in fact, the story could’ve done without the astrophysics element and still worked. Therefore, I’d say that it is a less sci-fi and more just a series of events that unfolds in parallel universes. Nevertheless, I give Robin Brande credit for all her research into this fascinating topic, and for writing a KILLER of a cliffhanger ending that, fortunately, can be immediately remedied, as the sequel is now out online. Will I be reading it? Hmm. Perhaps. INTO THE PARALLEL was lacking in a number of elements that are important to me in an enjoyable and well-written story, but everyone has those few authors they make exceptions for, and Robin’s one of them for me.
I am wondering a few things about certain aspects to the physics being used in this book but I'm hoping that they may be answered in the next book. I found this read enjoyable and not hard to follow, as I was told by a fellow reader that they were lost. I am interested to see where this 2nd book takes us now that Audie has taken over Halli's body.
I thought this book was pretty amazing. I was thrilled when I found out I won the whole signed series. This book was great. I loved how Audie defies so many laws of physics. She is a true rebel. Halli is a great strong character.
Interesting premise around alternative universes. The cliffhanger ending was abrupt and seemed out of place with the rest of the book.
I would have given this 2 stars only I can't stop reading this series so I guess it warrants another star for being compelling.
Otherwise, it's the kind of book that makes me crazy with not being able to suspend my disbelief. You'll notice I tagged it fantasy even though it definitely wants to be sci-fi. Also it's a young adult novel, which isn't its fault, I just tend to be irritated by young adult protagonists.
So first, the main character is a girl (Audie) who is terrible at math but great at physics. So already, I don't believe her. I'm sure you can understand physics to a point without math, learn the theories and whatnot in plain language (that's what I do), but I seriously can't imagine being able to actually BE GOOD at physics, especially in a university setting (which is where Audie wants to go), without understanding the math behind it. Someone, please, prove me wrong, it just doesn't seem possible to me given that physics IS MATH.
The next thing is that Audie somehow figures out (using her unparalleled physics skills, I assume) that "changing your vibrations" can catapult you into an alternate universe. The way she changes her vibrations is by meditating. And she has to be meditating at the same time as her counterpart in an alternate universe is meditating. Which doesn't seem all that hard, so my question is, how come this hasn't been documented before in all of human history? Audie literally disappears when she goes to the other universe, in a human history full of spirituality, I can't imagine that there weren't a lot of people disappearing and coming back with stories of alternate universes. And you don't even have to be good at meditating, Audie had only been doing it for 6 months before it worked for her!
She finds this professor that all the other physics professors laugh at because he does fringe research on vibrations and shit, and in his lab is a grad student who hooks polygraph machines up to plants to measure their stress levels (as if plants show stress in the same way that people do). So really, I'm thinking, yeah, this guy should probably be laughed out of the physics conferences, except that his research turns out to be right, and they explain the fact that he's not respected by claiming that cognitive dissonance and fear is causing the other physicists to not believe the proof that he's showing to them.
Audie meets her alternate self, Halli, who is exactly like her genetically only she was raised to be an adventurer and is therefore buffer and better at problem-solving. I'm assuming this means that their universes split at least just after they were both born, but that's wrong, because their parents are totally different too. So their parents, despite their crazy-different personalities, still managed to get together and have kids at exactly the same time with the exact same gene configuration. I know, I know, infinite universes contain infinite possibilities, it just seems KIND OF CONVENIENT.
And then Audie is also mooning over this love of her life, her best friend's brother, who is dating a caricature of an annoying person. He's the best most selfless and wonderful guy in the entire world and Audie has never told him that she into him, she just licks spoons that he's used when he's not looking. This is where I start to zone out because I hate reading about mooney love-struck teens.
Audie has adventures with Hallie in the alternate world and then shit goes down, right into a serious cliffhanger. At which point I need to decide: do I walk away from this series, or double-down and read three more books? Despite all of the above, the cliffhanger was really serious and amazon's one-click purchase thing with the kindle app is really dangerous so now I'm reading the omnibus.
Otherwise, it's the kind of book that makes me crazy with not being able to suspend my disbelief. You'll notice I tagged it fantasy even though it definitely wants to be sci-fi. Also it's a young adult novel, which isn't its fault, I just tend to be irritated by young adult protagonists.
So first, the main character is a girl (Audie) who is terrible at math but great at physics. So already, I don't believe her. I'm sure you can understand physics to a point without math, learn the theories and whatnot in plain language (that's what I do), but I seriously can't imagine being able to actually BE GOOD at physics, especially in a university setting (which is where Audie wants to go), without understanding the math behind it. Someone, please, prove me wrong, it just doesn't seem possible to me given that physics IS MATH.
The next thing is that Audie somehow figures out (using her unparalleled physics skills, I assume) that "changing your vibrations" can catapult you into an alternate universe. The way she changes her vibrations is by meditating. And she has to be meditating at the same time as her counterpart in an alternate universe is meditating. Which doesn't seem all that hard, so my question is, how come this hasn't been documented before in all of human history? Audie literally disappears when she goes to the other universe, in a human history full of spirituality, I can't imagine that there weren't a lot of people disappearing and coming back with stories of alternate universes. And you don't even have to be good at meditating, Audie had only been doing it for 6 months before it worked for her!
She finds this professor that all the other physics professors laugh at because he does fringe research on vibrations and shit, and in his lab is a grad student who hooks polygraph machines up to plants to measure their stress levels (as if plants show stress in the same way that people do). So really, I'm thinking, yeah, this guy should probably be laughed out of the physics conferences, except that his research turns out to be right, and they explain the fact that he's not respected by claiming that cognitive dissonance and fear is causing the other physicists to not believe the proof that he's showing to them.
Audie meets her alternate self, Halli, who is exactly like her genetically only she was raised to be an adventurer and is therefore buffer and better at problem-solving. I'm assuming this means that their universes split at least just after they were both born, but that's wrong, because their parents are totally different too. So their parents, despite their crazy-different personalities, still managed to get together and have kids at exactly the same time with the exact same gene configuration. I know, I know, infinite universes contain infinite possibilities, it just seems KIND OF CONVENIENT.
And then Audie is also mooning over this love of her life, her best friend's brother, who is dating a caricature of an annoying person. He's the best most selfless and wonderful guy in the entire world and Audie has never told him that she into him, she just licks spoons that he's used when he's not looking. This is where I start to zone out because I hate reading about mooney love-struck teens.
Audie has adventures with Hallie in the alternate world and then shit goes down, right into a serious cliffhanger. At which point I need to decide: do I walk away from this series, or double-down and read three more books? Despite all of the above, the cliffhanger was really serious and amazon's one-click purchase thing with the kindle app is really dangerous so now I'm reading the omnibus.