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A review by laurakh
A Million Suns by Beth Revis
2.0
A Million Suns has such a promising premise and many interesting moments to explore. However, it fell flat because of the characters and the plot. The book is marketed as a romance but that couldn't be farther from the truth. Amy and Eldest have no chemistry and very few romantic moments throughout the book.
The plot of the book is hard to invest in because the motivations for the characters seem unnecessary. Amy's main goal is to decipher the clues left to her by Orion, who if I remember correctly from the first book, MET HER ONCE. It doesn't make sense that Orion would leave clues at all, let alone leave them for Amy. Why wouldn't he tell someone he trusted his secret? Or if he thought Amy was the best equipped to handle the secret, why not simply tell her? Plus when the big secret is finally revealed, it is something that I had already assumed so it was a huge letdown.
Meanwhile, Elder's main plot is trying to maintain his leadership on Godspeed. This doesn't make sense either. His only claim to leadership is that he was born into it, and even he says the system doesn't make sense, not to mention he had major issues with the only other two Eldests he's known. He has no training or experience that any other member of the ship couldn't learn in a day, and he's literally the youngest one on board!. We witnessed Elder's "training" in book one--and from what I remember there wasn't any training at all! He also does a terrible job of maintaining any sort of authority on board. People are constantly questioning and undermining him and yet he never uses his wi-com to speak to the entire ship and explain himself. It's even weirder that Amy supports him so much considering she grew up in a democracy. When the reader agrees with the bad guy's logic more than the main characters there is something wrong.
There are also a lot of logic problems. There are several points in the plot when Elder operates complicated machinery with no knowledge of how to work it. Also, how exactly does Godspeed work??
The biggest issue in the book is the characters. Amy and Elder are both flat and uninteresting, and in moments of crisis they mostly just give up. Despite dangerous situations I don't like characters, especially the heroes of the book, to give up so easily.
Overall, I just felt that the flat characters and unrealistic character motivations overshadowed the interesting moments in the book.
The plot of the book is hard to invest in because the motivations for the characters seem unnecessary. Amy's main goal is to decipher the clues left to her by Orion, who if I remember correctly from the first book, MET HER ONCE. It doesn't make sense that Orion would leave clues at all, let alone leave them for Amy. Why wouldn't he tell someone he trusted his secret? Or if he thought Amy was the best equipped to handle the secret, why not simply tell her? Plus when the big secret is finally revealed, it is something that I had already assumed so it was a huge letdown.
Spoiler
Really?! The planet might be dangerous when they land?? If it WASN'T dangerous when they landed that would be a very boring third bookMeanwhile, Elder's main plot is trying to maintain his leadership on Godspeed. This doesn't make sense either. His only claim to leadership is that he was born into it, and even he says the system doesn't make sense, not to mention he had major issues with the only other two Eldests he's known. He has no training or experience that any other member of the ship couldn't learn in a day, and he's literally the youngest one on board!. We witnessed Elder's "training" in book one--and from what I remember there wasn't any training at all! He also does a terrible job of maintaining any sort of authority on board. People are constantly questioning and undermining him and yet he never uses his wi-com to speak to the entire ship and explain himself. It's even weirder that Amy supports him so much considering she grew up in a democracy. When the reader agrees with the bad guy's logic more than the main characters there is something wrong.
There are also a lot of logic problems. There are several points in the plot when Elder operates complicated machinery with no knowledge of how to work it. Also, how exactly does Godspeed work??
Spoiler
When Amy finally finds the staircase that Orion led her to, she says the stairs lead all the way to the keeper level and estimates it is twice as tall as the Empire State Building. So before inventing grav tubes the Eldest had to walk up over three THOUSAND steps just to get home every day?The biggest issue in the book is the characters. Amy and Elder are both flat and uninteresting, and in moments of crisis they mostly just give up.
Spoiler
Elder runs away from every fight that breaks out. When the bridge explodes, Elder doesn't try to save Shelby even though he says she is so close he could have probably reached out and grabbed her if he tried. He then assumes that the bridge being breached means they can absolutely not use it to land the ship. Why not use the space suits to check it out? Then when the bomb explodes in the hospital, Amy doesn't try to get to the cyro level even though she says she can see the floor fairly close at the end of the stairs. Her parents could be burning to death and she just runs back upstairs!Overall, I just felt that the flat characters and unrealistic character motivations overshadowed the interesting moments in the book.