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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
adventurous
medium-paced
Strong character development:
No
Okay, in all honesty, the cover drew me in pretty hard. Look at it! It’s gorgeous!
We start out with Piper, a scrapper in a crappy town who makes her living repairing broken machines that people pick up in meteor fields. I thought that was a cool thing to have. Random junk from “other worlds” fall in these meteor storms, and then people run out and collect the junk once the storm is gone. Of course the other worlds mentioned include our Earth. Immediately we know the story isn’t taking place on Earth, but it’s somewhere close by.
Piper is smart, and she cares about people but tries not to show it. Her father died from lung disease in a faraway factory (in a rival kingdom, actually), so she’s all alone. Her friend Micah is younger and she kind of looks out for him, so when he runs out into the meteor fields during a storm, she goes after him. While there, she finds an unconscious girl in a blown-apart wagon. She takes the girl home, where she wakes up.
The girl’s name is Anna (which I laughed uproariously about much later, for dumb spoilery reasons), and the way her dialogue came across at first made me think she was being written as autistic. She was very obsessed with logic, order, rules, and organized everything so she could see it (took bowls out of cupboards, etc). When she gets hooked on something, she speaks very fast and goes on tangents. She’s very science-minded. It made her a very unique, likable character with a distinct voice.
Piper and Anna stow away on a train, where they’re found by the train’s chief of security, a boy their age (14-ish) named Gee. Immediately the reader knows there’s something up with this kid, but what is in fact up isn’t revealed until a little later.
Gee. He’s grouchy and doesn’t trust strangers and also is a secret lizard. That’s not a spoiler. You find that out almost immediately after meeting him. He’s a Middle Grade love interest for Piper, and I wonder to see how their relationship goes in the next book.
This world has humans in it, as well as other creatures called chamelins (AKA secret lizards) and sarnuns (AKA psychic squid-faces?). There may have been others that I forgot about, and if so they were so minor that they don’t really matter. World building was very interesting, although sometimes I felt like Piper was remembering a Wikipedia article she had read once about King Aron or the Dragonfly Territories or what have you. Info-dumpy.
At times there was a very jerky cycle of action and rest. They’re running like crazy and then come screeching to a halt on the train for three days until they reach the next city, and then they’re running like crazy again. I appreciate lulls in the action, but these lulls were too extreme sometimes.
Overall, I really did like this book. Some things weren’t resolved, but the main storyline (Piper rescuing Anna) reached its conclusion, so I’m happy! The open stuff is good to leave open for the sequel(s). It’s a great read for ages 10+!
We start out with Piper, a scrapper in a crappy town who makes her living repairing broken machines that people pick up in meteor fields. I thought that was a cool thing to have. Random junk from “other worlds” fall in these meteor storms, and then people run out and collect the junk once the storm is gone. Of course the other worlds mentioned include our Earth. Immediately we know the story isn’t taking place on Earth, but it’s somewhere close by.
Piper is smart, and she cares about people but tries not to show it. Her father died from lung disease in a faraway factory (in a rival kingdom, actually), so she’s all alone. Her friend Micah is younger and she kind of looks out for him, so when he runs out into the meteor fields during a storm, she goes after him. While there, she finds an unconscious girl in a blown-apart wagon. She takes the girl home, where she wakes up.
The girl’s name is Anna (which I laughed uproariously about much later, for dumb spoilery reasons), and the way her dialogue came across at first made me think she was being written as autistic. She was very obsessed with logic, order, rules, and organized everything so she could see it (took bowls out of cupboards, etc). When she gets hooked on something, she speaks very fast and goes on tangents. She’s very science-minded. It made her a very unique, likable character with a distinct voice.
Piper and Anna stow away on a train, where they’re found by the train’s chief of security, a boy their age (14-ish) named Gee. Immediately the reader knows there’s something up with this kid, but what is in fact up isn’t revealed until a little later.
Gee. He’s grouchy and doesn’t trust strangers and also is a secret lizard. That’s not a spoiler. You find that out almost immediately after meeting him. He’s a Middle Grade love interest for Piper, and I wonder to see how their relationship goes in the next book.
This world has humans in it, as well as other creatures called chamelins (AKA secret lizards) and sarnuns (AKA psychic squid-faces?). There may have been others that I forgot about, and if so they were so minor that they don’t really matter. World building was very interesting, although sometimes I felt like Piper was remembering a Wikipedia article she had read once about King Aron or the Dragonfly Territories or what have you. Info-dumpy.
At times there was a very jerky cycle of action and rest. They’re running like crazy and then come screeching to a halt on the train for three days until they reach the next city, and then they’re running like crazy again. I appreciate lulls in the action, but these lulls were too extreme sometimes.
Overall, I really did like this book. Some things weren’t resolved, but the main storyline (Piper rescuing Anna) reached its conclusion, so I’m happy! The open stuff is good to leave open for the sequel(s). It’s a great read for ages 10+!
The mood and world-building of the first quarter of the book were fascinating--I couldn't wait to hear more about this strange and futuristic non-Earth where remnants of other lives and planets crashed all around our central character in much-anticipated meteor showers. But the storyline didn't go where I wanted it to go, which is not at all the fault of the book. It's not the talented author's fault that my expectations and wishes weren't met, but I'm still disappointed at what seemed like, for me at least, the disconnect between the intoxicating mood at the start of the book and the less strong ending.
I do love the independence and intelligence of Piper, our young teenage heroine. Her fierce determination and resilience are something to behold.
Once in awhile, Johnson's twists really surprised me.
Other times, I felt that the author was inserting her own knowledge into her protaganist's thoughts, as Piper has a tendency to make huge leaps of understanding and insight in service to the plot and pacing.
It should be noted that I read this book during one of the busiest times of my year (I own a bookstore and it's Christmas season), so I was a little more distracted than usual, so you should take my comments with a grain of salt.
If you decide to purchase this book because of this review, please consider buying it from your local, independent bookstore (search indiebound.org to find your home bookshop). Don't have a bookshop nearby that you love? Get it here: http://avidbookshop.com/book/9780385376150
I do love the independence and intelligence of Piper, our young teenage heroine. Her fierce determination and resilience are something to behold.
Once in awhile, Johnson's twists really surprised me.
Other times, I felt that the author was inserting her own knowledge into her protaganist's thoughts, as Piper has a tendency to make huge leaps of understanding and insight in service to the plot and pacing.
It should be noted that I read this book during one of the busiest times of my year (I own a bookstore and it's Christmas season), so I was a little more distracted than usual, so you should take my comments with a grain of salt.
If you decide to purchase this book because of this review, please consider buying it from your local, independent bookstore (search indiebound.org to find your home bookshop). Don't have a bookshop nearby that you love? Get it here: http://avidbookshop.com/book/9780385376150
3 stars for myself, but 4 or five if I'm thinking about younger readers, especially those who enjoy fantasy and can hang in there for some world building.