Scan barcode
A review by birdkeeperklink
Shadows on the Sun by Michael Jan Friedman
1.0
This sucked. It had no point. It was poorly written. What a waste of time. And it's most unfortunate because it's a very McCoy-centric book, which I enjoy more than other ST books, since McCoy is my favorite character. I wanted to like this book, but it simply wasn't possible.
Why, you may ask? Well, for starters, the 'resolution' was half-hearted and thoroughly unsatisfying. Jocelyn's death made the emotional investment in the story a pointless waste of effort. We got involved in her and McCoy's history, and picked a side, and got into the Clay-Jocelyn-McCoy love triangle, only to find it was all for naught. We needn't have bothered. She died anyway, so neither one can have her. No one gets to be happy. Suck it, Reader! Or so I imagined Michael Jan Friedman cackling evilly as I read that part.
Secondly, the structure wasn't very good. He constructed the story in an odd way, making the ending seem very rushed and anticlimactic. Also, it was structured in such a way that I made all of the connections except Jocelyn's unnecessary and pointless death. I knew the Ssani assassin from the really long flashback was Shil Andrachis long before we got to the part of the story where it was revealed for sure. Since I never, ever pick up on these things, I can only conclude that Friedman just isn't very good at subtlety.
Lastly, his writing style is like a high schooler's. He tries too hard and ends up just sounding awkward. He's pretty repetitive--I got tired of 'the inevitable sentries' rather quickly. Just say 'the sentries', dude. It's not that big a deal. Your throwing in 'inevitable' isn't that cool. Let it go. Let it go. I'll give you a cookie!
So anyway, this sucked and I'm mad I wasted time on it when I could've read something else. No wonder ST novels have such a bad reputation. I've just hit a slew of bad ones.
Why, you may ask? Well, for starters, the 'resolution' was half-hearted and thoroughly unsatisfying. Jocelyn's death made the emotional investment in the story a pointless waste of effort. We got involved in her and McCoy's history, and picked a side, and got into the Clay-Jocelyn-McCoy love triangle, only to find it was all for naught. We needn't have bothered. She died anyway, so neither one can have her. No one gets to be happy. Suck it, Reader! Or so I imagined Michael Jan Friedman cackling evilly as I read that part.
Secondly, the structure wasn't very good. He constructed the story in an odd way, making the ending seem very rushed and anticlimactic. Also, it was structured in such a way that I made all of the connections except Jocelyn's unnecessary and pointless death. I knew the Ssani assassin from the really long flashback was Shil Andrachis long before we got to the part of the story where it was revealed for sure. Since I never, ever pick up on these things, I can only conclude that Friedman just isn't very good at subtlety.
Lastly, his writing style is like a high schooler's. He tries too hard and ends up just sounding awkward. He's pretty repetitive--I got tired of 'the inevitable sentries' rather quickly. Just say 'the sentries', dude. It's not that big a deal. Your throwing in 'inevitable' isn't that cool. Let it go. Let it go. I'll give you a cookie!
So anyway, this sucked and I'm mad I wasted time on it when I could've read something else. No wonder ST novels have such a bad reputation. I've just hit a slew of bad ones.