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A review by jesshaleth
Crisis on Conshelf Ten by Monica Hughes
3.0
I wish I'd read this as a child, when I read loads of other Monica Hughes books. This one, however, may have gone over my head a bit - there's a lot of interesting politcal stuff. I dunno, probably would have been good for me.
My 9 year old self would like to give this five stars, as it was an exciting book about equal rights, and standing up for what you believe in, and war being BAD. It also has dolphins in, which is cool. The gillmen creeped me out a bit though, as did the almost-death from pressure change when he surfaced too fast. Creeeepy.
My adult self says this has some interesting themes, although it's clearly aimed at children because it's preachy. Really, really nice concept - Monica Hughes has such fantastic ideas, but the book's so short that there's not much time for characterisation. I read this in an hour. (My 9 year old self says she also read it in an hour, and that includes the time it took to make 2 milkshakes. How slow are you.) The setting on conshelf ten was lovely, and the conflict betweeen Topsiders, Moon and Conshelf communities had a lot going for it. Didn't fall in love with any of the characters, and especially not with the dialogue. The gillmen didn't creep me out in the least, but almost-death from pressure change still does a bit, if I'm honest. And, yes, there were friendly helpful dolphins, but I'm an adult, dammit, and I need to talk about things like tone and register and stuff.
9 year old me: :P
My 9 year old self would like to give this five stars, as it was an exciting book about equal rights, and standing up for what you believe in, and war being BAD. It also has dolphins in, which is cool. The gillmen creeped me out a bit though, as did the almost-death from pressure change when he surfaced too fast. Creeeepy.
My adult self says this has some interesting themes, although it's clearly aimed at children because it's preachy. Really, really nice concept - Monica Hughes has such fantastic ideas, but the book's so short that there's not much time for characterisation. I read this in an hour. (My 9 year old self says she also read it in an hour, and that includes the time it took to make 2 milkshakes. How slow are you.) The setting on conshelf ten was lovely, and the conflict betweeen Topsiders, Moon and Conshelf communities had a lot going for it. Didn't fall in love with any of the characters, and especially not with the dialogue. The gillmen didn't creep me out in the least, but almost-death from pressure change still does a bit, if I'm honest. And, yes, there were friendly helpful dolphins, but I'm an adult, dammit, and I need to talk about things like tone and register and stuff.
9 year old me: :P