Take a photo of a barcode or cover
Unearted is a sci-fi action story, written by Amie Kaufman and Megan Spooner. It follows Jules and Amelia, a linguist/archaeologist, and scavenger respectively, who both end up going to Gaia; a newly discovered planet with an atmosphere similar to Earth, and littered with the Temples of the Undying, an extinct alien race.
I haven't read the Starbound Trilogy, the previous endeavor of this author duo, so I went in completely blind, both on their writing and the type if sci-fi of this book. Sadly, I can't say I was too pleased with the result.
This book was compared to a lot of things; even I, in my early updates compared it to Mass Effect, Tomb Raider and Doom. However, all of these comparisons are mostly aesthetic, and in the case of Doom, thematically similar, like the destruction of the Earth because of an energy crisis, a shadowy international organization which is willing to sacrifice human lives and potentially cause an apocalypse "for the betterment of mankind", and so on.
The actual plot of this novel is straightforward, and there are a few twists here and there, but for the most part, they are all very predictable, and have little to do with the actual themes of the book. The most major twist, the one the book had been building up to from the very start, was so predictable that it barely registered as a twist by the time it happened. The other, more character driven twists were fine, but I had a problem with them too, which we will get to when we talk about the characters.
The other thing that left me very disappointed where the actual puzzles and traps Jules and Amelia had to go through in the Temples. Look, I grew up on Indiana Jones, the first two Tomb Raider movies, Dungeons and Dragons the movie, and a myriad of games, from Tomb Raider, to Prince of Persia to Uncharted, all of which contain some form of puzzle solving, traps, traversals and platforming. So to say that my expectations for the action levels of this book, especially when I heard it compared to Mass Effect and Tomb Raider were high, is an understatement.
There are 2 puzzles in this book, and both are repeated throughout. The only one I found original was the cups of water; everything else was copy pasted from Indiana Jones, from the pressure plates on the floor, to the collapsing cavern. The book did remind me of Tomb Raider; the new one, the one where my main complaint was that the traps and puzzles were near to non-existent and that Lara solved them because the script said she did, not because of any actual skill or logic on her part.
As for the characters, let's start with Jules. To me, he was the more infuriating out of the two; he had this naivete and innocence about him, which made sense with his upbringing. He had a loving if slightly absent family, he grew up rather sheltered in Oxford, and spent most of his time studying, exploring and learning, a classicist in a world on the brink of collapse, in an energy crisis so big, entire cities are abandoned due to natural disasters and lack of drinkable water. What illustrated the disconnect not just between Jules and Amelia, but Jules and the rest of the world perfectly, was a moment where Jules admits to Amelia that he plays water polo. How telling that even when the world is fighting over drinkable water, places that have it would waste it on leisure activities like a sport.
I found Jules so infuriating because his pursuit of knowledge and caution were so ill placed against a backdrop of a natural crisis back on Earth. I have never been a fan of the-one-man who-saw-it-coming narratives, and here I couldn't believe that I was siding with the evil corporation that executed people. Yes Jules, people maybe used to dream and look up at the stars, but now they are DYING, and are a little preoccupied trying to survive and find drinkable water. Their stargazing time is spent on dealing with more pressing matters, and if there is a possibility that whatever technology the Undying had could help the millions of people live, that's the priority. The joy of exploring, or the wonder of discovery are great, when they are not juxtaposed next to PEOPLE LITERARY DYING OF THIRST, and calling them selfish and stupid for wanting a solution to their crisis is beyond entitled and awful.
Amelia was less insufferable, if only because she actually called him out on how naive, sheltered and privileged he was. This didn't make her right mind you; her motives for coming to Gaia are as selfish as his, and she has no intention of saving mankind, but at least she acknowledged the crisis back on Earth, and explained to Jules why people turned to scavenging and stealing to survive. I liked how thrifty and careful she was with all of her resources and made sure Jules understood how lucky he had been to be born where he was.
In spite of this, she was the less interesting of the two, a pretty stock YA female character, who is suspicious, prone to outbursts of anger and emotionally shut off from the world. It made sense that she has become that way due to the life she lead, and I liked that she was willing to actively be unscrupulous to survive, but that didn't make her very compelling, or if nothing else, interesting.
I did like their dynamic, especially in the first third of the book when they were alone. However, as soon as other characters were introduced, something odd started happening. A lot of their interactions, had to do with them not trusting each-other, or being unsure of what the other one is planing or thinking. This is meant to keep the reader on their toes, guessing is Jules or Amelia switched sides. In practice, it didn't work, because this book is FPS, so when Amelia betrays Jules, we are in her head and we know that she is actually not betraying him, so all we are doing is waiting for Jules to catch up to us.
This made me start losing interest in the book after all these other characters got involved, and by the time the ending rolled around, and I got that suspicion this wasn't going to be resolved in one book, I was no longer interested.
Needless to say, I won't be reading the sequel and I don't recommend this book. All of these themes and even this same plot has been done before, and better and nothing that happened was engaging, or compelling enough to warrant a sequel.
I haven't read the Starbound Trilogy, the previous endeavor of this author duo, so I went in completely blind, both on their writing and the type if sci-fi of this book. Sadly, I can't say I was too pleased with the result.
This book was compared to a lot of things; even I, in my early updates compared it to Mass Effect, Tomb Raider and Doom. However, all of these comparisons are mostly aesthetic, and in the case of Doom, thematically similar, like the destruction of the Earth because of an energy crisis, a shadowy international organization which is willing to sacrifice human lives and potentially cause an apocalypse "for the betterment of mankind", and so on.
The actual plot of this novel is straightforward, and there are a few twists here and there, but for the most part, they are all very predictable, and have little to do with the actual themes of the book. The most major twist, the one the book had been building up to from the very start, was so predictable that it barely registered as a twist by the time it happened. The other, more character driven twists were fine, but I had a problem with them too, which we will get to when we talk about the characters.
The other thing that left me very disappointed where the actual puzzles and traps Jules and Amelia had to go through in the Temples. Look, I grew up on Indiana Jones, the first two Tomb Raider movies, Dungeons and Dragons the movie, and a myriad of games, from Tomb Raider, to Prince of Persia to Uncharted, all of which contain some form of puzzle solving, traps, traversals and platforming. So to say that my expectations for the action levels of this book, especially when I heard it compared to Mass Effect and Tomb Raider were high, is an understatement.
There are 2 puzzles in this book, and both are repeated throughout. The only one I found original was the cups of water; everything else was copy pasted from Indiana Jones, from the pressure plates on the floor, to the collapsing cavern. The book did remind me of Tomb Raider; the new one, the one where my main complaint was that the traps and puzzles were near to non-existent and that Lara solved them because the script said she did, not because of any actual skill or logic on her part.
As for the characters, let's start with Jules. To me, he was the more infuriating out of the two; he had this naivete and innocence about him, which made sense with his upbringing. He had a loving if slightly absent family, he grew up rather sheltered in Oxford, and spent most of his time studying, exploring and learning, a classicist in a world on the brink of collapse, in an energy crisis so big, entire cities are abandoned due to natural disasters and lack of drinkable water. What illustrated the disconnect not just between Jules and Amelia, but Jules and the rest of the world perfectly, was a moment where Jules admits to Amelia that he plays water polo. How telling that even when the world is fighting over drinkable water, places that have it would waste it on leisure activities like a sport.
I found Jules so infuriating because his pursuit of knowledge and caution were so ill placed against a backdrop of a natural crisis back on Earth. I have never been a fan of the-one-man who-saw-it-coming narratives, and here I couldn't believe that I was siding with the evil corporation that executed people. Yes Jules, people maybe used to dream and look up at the stars, but now they are DYING, and are a little preoccupied trying to survive and find drinkable water. Their stargazing time is spent on dealing with more pressing matters, and if there is a possibility that whatever technology the Undying had could help the millions of people live, that's the priority. The joy of exploring, or the wonder of discovery are great, when they are not juxtaposed next to PEOPLE LITERARY DYING OF THIRST, and calling them selfish and stupid for wanting a solution to their crisis is beyond entitled and awful.
Amelia was less insufferable, if only because she actually called him out on how naive, sheltered and privileged he was. This didn't make her right mind you; her motives for coming to Gaia are as selfish as his, and she has no intention of saving mankind, but at least she acknowledged the crisis back on Earth, and explained to Jules why people turned to scavenging and stealing to survive. I liked how thrifty and careful she was with all of her resources and made sure Jules understood how lucky he had been to be born where he was.
In spite of this, she was the less interesting of the two, a pretty stock YA female character, who is suspicious, prone to outbursts of anger and emotionally shut off from the world. It made sense that she has become that way due to the life she lead, and I liked that she was willing to actively be unscrupulous to survive, but that didn't make her very compelling, or if nothing else, interesting.
I did like their dynamic, especially in the first third of the book when they were alone. However, as soon as other characters were introduced, something odd started happening. A lot of their interactions, had to do with them not trusting each-other, or being unsure of what the other one is planing or thinking. This is meant to keep the reader on their toes, guessing is Jules or Amelia switched sides. In practice, it didn't work, because this book is FPS, so when Amelia betrays Jules, we are in her head and we know that she is actually not betraying him, so all we are doing is waiting for Jules to catch up to us.
This made me start losing interest in the book after all these other characters got involved, and by the time the ending rolled around, and I got that suspicion this wasn't going to be resolved in one book, I was no longer interested.
Needless to say, I won't be reading the sequel and I don't recommend this book. All of these themes and even this same plot has been done before, and better and nothing that happened was engaging, or compelling enough to warrant a sequel.