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tome15's review
3.0
Tapscott, V. R. Jane Bond: Some Assembly Required. Kindle, 2020.
V. R. Tapscott is an indie writer with a lot of promise, but this first novel in the Jane Bond series needed another draft or two before it was posted. Here is the promising part: Our heroine is a young librarian who uses her vacation to hike and hunt for fossils in the Montana wilderness. Suddenly, a voice in her head asks for help and directs her to a crevasse where she digs up the AI pilot of an ancient starship. It needs help finding and reassembling other crash-landed pieces of itself. That is a great premise. The two characters are engaging. We learn that Jane’s parents were military types who were fans of double-O Seven. The AI needs to learn how to be a social entity. Then, sadly, the plot starts. The writing gets rushed, and maddingly, some new characters are introduced way too late in the game. Finally, let me nitpick about the title. The various covers and the title page create ambiguity about what it is. Goodreads decided it should be Some Assembly Required, perhaps because one cover shows the phrase in larger type than the character name above. Another cover, reverses that, making Jane Bond the clear title, with Some Assembly as a subtitle. Jane is a librarian. She would care. A generous three stars from me.
V. R. Tapscott is an indie writer with a lot of promise, but this first novel in the Jane Bond series needed another draft or two before it was posted. Here is the promising part: Our heroine is a young librarian who uses her vacation to hike and hunt for fossils in the Montana wilderness. Suddenly, a voice in her head asks for help and directs her to a crevasse where she digs up the AI pilot of an ancient starship. It needs help finding and reassembling other crash-landed pieces of itself. That is a great premise. The two characters are engaging. We learn that Jane’s parents were military types who were fans of double-O Seven. The AI needs to learn how to be a social entity. Then, sadly, the plot starts. The writing gets rushed, and maddingly, some new characters are introduced way too late in the game. Finally, let me nitpick about the title. The various covers and the title page create ambiguity about what it is. Goodreads decided it should be Some Assembly Required, perhaps because one cover shows the phrase in larger type than the character name above. Another cover, reverses that, making Jane Bond the clear title, with Some Assembly as a subtitle. Jane is a librarian. She would care. A generous three stars from me.
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