Scan barcode
A review by jodihannah
A Bad Deal for the Whole Galaxy by Alex White
4.0
This series is such a wild ride. I absolutely love it. I'm always wondering what's going to happen next. And I love the fact that none of it should really happen, and White totally knows that, so they feeds that feeling into his characters. I'm not talking the physics shouldn't happen (though, you know, there's that, too). I'm talking, the likelihood that all of these events just happen to turn out ok for our heroes probably wouldn't happen. But that's sort of the fun thing about this series; it's the best of escapism.
As with many second installments, this novel didn't hold up as well as the first one. I think it did a pretty great job, but there were parts of the beginning that dragged a bit. But overall, the plot picked up fairly quickly and did a great job of carrying the story along. The ending, though, was probably the real triumph.
Here's the thing, though. The reason I couldn't give this 5 stars was because this book, far more than the first installment, through me out of the story a couple of times and that was really hard to deal with. The first time it happened was when Armin brought Nilah the tea. I really didn't expect that at all, and it didn't really feel like an "Armin" style. Maybe that was the point the author wanted to make, that none of the crew really "knew" Armin except perhaps for Captain Lammar. But, if that was the point, I would have expected to come up sooner, say, in the first book?
This sudden jarring out of the story by a mishandled introduction happened a number of times. For example, the introduction of pronouns. I'm super happy that novels are tackling pronouns these days, but why were they introduced only half way through the second book? Shouldn't this have been going on since the beginning? The introduction of these pronouns felt contrived the first time White wrote them in; I was tossed out of the story and immediately thought, "Ah! I'm woke!" before I could jump back into the story. Again, I think if these had been introduced in the first book, I probably wouldn't have thought much about it.
But, perhaps the most frustrating part of this book for me, and the one that took the 5 star away for good, was the use of the word "schadenfreude". Seriously. Here's the thing about the word "schadenfreude": in English, "schadenfreude" is a fad word. What I mean by that is that it's sort of like a meme in that it's a hot button word that people really like and ten years from now it will be *almost* extinct from our language because it is very rarely used (let alone used correctly) and people can't pronounce it. Out of sight (or, in this case, out of mouth) out of mind. That means that the use of this word in this novel is going to date this novel so darn bad. Like, really bad. Like people are going to look back at this novel and say, "ah, yes, this was published in the 20 teens" and they won't be wrong. Am I being completely ridiculous? Yes. Yes I am. Did this word literally jar me so hard out of the novel that I had to put it down and come back to it later? Yes. Yes it did. Therefore, I had to take a star away.
But, overall, I really enjoyed this book. I am absolutely in love with Boots and Nilah and Orna. I think they are beautiful characters. And I really can't wait to read the third installment of the series.
As with many second installments, this novel didn't hold up as well as the first one. I think it did a pretty great job, but there were parts of the beginning that dragged a bit. But overall, the plot picked up fairly quickly and did a great job of carrying the story along. The ending, though, was probably the real triumph.
Spoiler
The death of Armin hit me hard. I really appreciated his data ability and his general weird relationship with Boots. But, after he died, I'm not going to lie I really didn't know a whole lot about him - not like I know about all the other characters. Between him and Aisha, I would be hard pressed to pick them out of a lineup of characters.Here's the thing, though. The reason I couldn't give this 5 stars was because this book, far more than the first installment, through me out of the story a couple of times and that was really hard to deal with. The first time it happened was when Armin brought Nilah the tea. I really didn't expect that at all, and it didn't really feel like an "Armin" style. Maybe that was the point the author wanted to make, that none of the crew really "knew" Armin except perhaps for Captain Lammar. But, if that was the point, I would have expected to come up sooner, say, in the first book?
This sudden jarring out of the story by a mishandled introduction happened a number of times. For example, the introduction of pronouns. I'm super happy that novels are tackling pronouns these days, but why were they introduced only half way through the second book? Shouldn't this have been going on since the beginning? The introduction of these pronouns felt contrived the first time White wrote them in; I was tossed out of the story and immediately thought, "Ah! I'm woke!" before I could jump back into the story. Again, I think if these had been introduced in the first book, I probably wouldn't have thought much about it.
But, perhaps the most frustrating part of this book for me, and the one that took the 5 star away for good, was the use of the word "schadenfreude". Seriously. Here's the thing about the word "schadenfreude": in English, "schadenfreude" is a fad word. What I mean by that is that it's sort of like a meme in that it's a hot button word that people really like and ten years from now it will be *almost* extinct from our language because it is very rarely used (let alone used correctly) and people can't pronounce it. Out of sight (or, in this case, out of mouth) out of mind. That means that the use of this word in this novel is going to date this novel so darn bad. Like, really bad. Like people are going to look back at this novel and say, "ah, yes, this was published in the 20 teens" and they won't be wrong. Am I being completely ridiculous? Yes. Yes I am. Did this word literally jar me so hard out of the novel that I had to put it down and come back to it later? Yes. Yes it did. Therefore, I had to take a star away.
But, overall, I really enjoyed this book. I am absolutely in love with Boots and Nilah and Orna. I think they are beautiful characters. And I really can't wait to read the third installment of the series.