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A review by robotswithpersonality
Genrenauts: The Complete Season One Collection by Michael R. Underwood
adventurous
hopeful
Have I mentioned the only thing I hate more than a book that ends on a cliffhanger (always a cheap gambit to keep a reader interested in a series when the author can't rely on the quality of the book to do so), is a cliffhanger at the end of long book? Considering this is an omnibus collecting a bunch of sequential novellas originally published separately, I can only imagine how frustrating the original reading experience was. The sad part is, up 'til then, it was a decent read. I won't say a great one, because the trouble with an interesting premise like journeying between story worlds to patch tales going wrong is that you're dropped into stories in progress and don't hang around long enough to witness character development/full arcs or get invested in said characters. The genrenauts themselves have story beats, but it feels a little thin on the ground considering how much it was spread out between stories. Just, generally unsatisfying. Debating whether it's worth looking up the last book (all 57 pages of it) or at least the only one published outside this omnibus, which apparently hasn't had an entry in a couple years, with a 5 year break in between. It's not looking good for a satisfying ending.
There is a bit of that fanfic cozy glow, where you know the characters and just pop them briefly into a different setting, but the trouble is we don't know the characters as well as we'd like, and the storytelling relies on tropes so heavily it's hard not to feel formulaic, whereas fanfic in my experience often turns tropes on their head.
Diversity win-ish. Characters are Black (man), Chinese-American (woman), Jewish (woman) , in a wheelchair (woman), Middle Eastern, transgender woman, action hero man with ADHD, all written by a white guy, who does acknowledge where the story archetypes are based on racist stereotypes.
I honestly wish there was more time spent discussing the meta aspects of interacting with story worlds reliant on formulas, but I recognize pushing the action forward, especially in a novella, makes that difficult.
Considering that one character is identified as a stand-up comic and the other as a comedienne, humour was a little thin on the ground.
Collection really could have benefitted from another editorial pass, to correct formatting, missing words, punctuation, etc.
I think given the credit attributed to a Kickstarter campaign, this was a project brought in on a shoestring budget, and unfortunately it shows.
There were rich backstories hinted at and the shadowy High Council and increasing dimensional disturbances definitely need a spotlight and a magnifying glass thrown on it, which just makes me that much more bummed that it doesn't appear the author will be giving such material the denouement it deserves. 🙎🏼♂️ I will be happy to be proven wrong, I just hope it's not going to take another five years.
There is a bit of that fanfic cozy glow, where you know the characters and just pop them briefly into a different setting, but the trouble is we don't know the characters as well as we'd like, and the storytelling relies on tropes so heavily it's hard not to feel formulaic, whereas fanfic in my experience often turns tropes on their head.
Diversity win-ish. Characters are Black (man), Chinese-American (woman), Jewish (woman) , in a wheelchair (woman), Middle Eastern, transgender woman, action hero man with ADHD, all written by a white guy, who does acknowledge where the story archetypes are based on racist stereotypes.
I honestly wish there was more time spent discussing the meta aspects of interacting with story worlds reliant on formulas, but I recognize pushing the action forward, especially in a novella, makes that difficult.
Considering that one character is identified as a stand-up comic and the other as a comedienne, humour was a little thin on the ground.
Collection really could have benefitted from another editorial pass, to correct formatting, missing words, punctuation, etc.
I think given the credit attributed to a Kickstarter campaign, this was a project brought in on a shoestring budget, and unfortunately it shows.
There were rich backstories hinted at and the shadowy High Council and increasing dimensional disturbances definitely need a spotlight and a magnifying glass thrown on it, which just makes me that much more bummed that it doesn't appear the author will be giving such material the denouement it deserves. 🙎🏼♂️ I will be happy to be proven wrong, I just hope it's not going to take another five years.