Currently reading
See You in the Cosmos
Exploring Space: From Galileo to the Mars Rover and Beyond
The Terranauts: A Novel
A Quiet Kind of Thunder
Gumnut Babies
Progress:
42/264 pages
Highly Illogical Behaviour
Progress:
82/249 pages
Revenger
Progress:
75/425 pages
See What I Have Done
The Dog, Ray
Forgetting Foster
Earth Star
There's something about the way Janet Edwards writes that I find incredibly fun and easy to read. I get pulled in, I care about her characters, I tear through the book as quickly as possible, because I need it all NOW. They aren't without issues, but my enjoyment outranks them for the most part.
The Recaps, won't anybody think of the poor Recaps?:
I understand WHY it happened, and I understand that it means that someone CAN accidentally pick the books up out of order and still know what's going on. But the first couple of chapters were so heavy with recaps.
"As you know, Bob."
Instances of this just don't ring true as dialogue. They read as a bit stiff, and the reader loses the flow.
Once again, I know why they happened, but that doesn't make them any smoother.
Overuse of words I didn't notice in book 1:
Evil grin - Playdon's, that is.
Giggled/giggling - Jarra. Always with the giggling in this book.
Instantly - Not HEAPS, but enough to get on my nerves. I don't LIKE the word instantly when used to describe what a character is doing. Immediately, quickly, and even automatically tend to work better, and not break the flow as much.
Ignorance of the character as to different methods of travel: Military Colonels, Commanders, Majors, EVERYONE seems to think that Portals are the sign of an advanced race, and that a ship, having come from far away, would HAVE to have done so by portal, or taken hundreds or thousands of years.
What about Hyperdrives, what about Infinite Improbability Drives, what about a rip in the fabric of the universe and these aliens aren't actually from this universe?
I felt that the tactical team was very closed minded when it came to figuring out how this alien ship arrived.
Once again, I understand why this is. It was covered in book one, when Playdon told them about the vehicles people used to use, and how fast they could travel. He explained that they don't need fast vehicles anymore, because everyone travels by portal. I understand that they're not used to thinking about things travelling fast.
But the tactical team? In the Alien Contact programme? Aren't they supposed to think outside the sphere?
Wow, looking back on that list, it might seem like I really hated this book.
I didn't. I read it in a little over a day (a day on which I had work) and lost a decent chunk of sleep in order to find out what happened. I love Janet Edwards' books, I love her writing style, I love Jarra as a main character, and I can't wait for book three to come out.