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sreddous's review
adventurous
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
The most engaging thing about this book is the plot -- this has a really really creative sci-fi plot! It’s super interesting to see the "future consequences" of a character’s actions really come back to haunt them. This is a mature and well-detailed book especially for middle-grade readers, and I believe that younger readers will feel respected by the more-complicated details while overall this still has genre- and age-appropriate topics and tones.
There’re some pretty cute quotations that make this sci-fi world feel grounded – stuff like "Edward looked as though he wanted to stamp his foot, not something that was advisable in zero-g." made me chuckle out loud! This has a really fun overall tone.
If I could say there's one thing I wish was different, it's that in general there's too much dialogue, in my opinion. This seems to be a trend especially in the beginning and middle -- a lot of things happen in the first chapter really through dialogue, especially once we meet the mom, and I found myself confused. Then we get a little too much dialogue once we first arrive at the station too, and they’re talking about food and such – while I definitely want people to talk about day-to-day things like food, I think it’d be more interesting to have more exposition describing what Tania is seeing and feeling to really get us ‘onto the base with her’. A time I found myself feeling 'disconnected' is around page 100, where Edward is starting to blame himself for things that have happened – Tania is the POV character in that section, but these scenes are so important and so plot-driving that it made me wish Edward was the POV character in these scenes, to make his realizations more emotionally engaging. Windracer and Mark get some POV chapters, but I found myself wishing that more chapters/scenes were Edward’s! Basically, I think a little more exposition instead of direct dialogue wouldn't have slogged down the plot and would have made things more immersive.
Overall, this is a fun experience, a really creative sci-fi premise!
There’re some pretty cute quotations that make this sci-fi world feel grounded – stuff like "Edward looked as though he wanted to stamp his foot, not something that was advisable in zero-g." made me chuckle out loud! This has a really fun overall tone.
If I could say there's one thing I wish was different, it's that in general there's too much dialogue, in my opinion. This seems to be a trend especially in the beginning and middle -- a lot of things happen in the first chapter really through dialogue, especially once we meet the mom, and I found myself confused. Then we get a little too much dialogue once we first arrive at the station too, and they’re talking about food and such – while I definitely want people to talk about day-to-day things like food, I think it’d be more interesting to have more exposition describing what Tania is seeing and feeling to really get us ‘onto the base with her’. A time I found myself feeling 'disconnected' is around page 100, where Edward is starting to blame himself for things that have happened – Tania is the POV character in that section, but these scenes are so important and so plot-driving that it made me wish Edward was the POV character in these scenes, to make his realizations more emotionally engaging. Windracer and Mark get some POV chapters, but I found myself wishing that more chapters/scenes were Edward’s! Basically, I think a little more exposition instead of direct dialogue wouldn't have slogged down the plot and would have made things more immersive.
Overall, this is a fun experience, a really creative sci-fi premise!
trishacole's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Tania, her friends and the bodyguard teddy go to a big hotel for a holiday vacation. Tania's mom is there, another interesting character that was developed just right. This sort of gives away the part of the story's best part, but they all have to work together to stop a warp machine from destroying the planet. It's simply brilliant, and made me eager to read the next in the series.
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