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review SPOILER ALERT! 2013-09-27 02:15
You know when people use "Young Adult" as an insult? This book is why.
A Beautiful Friendship - David Weber

Sometimes I feel like some books just DO NOT work as audio books. This is one of them. Everything that might have been mildly annoying in a print/read-with-your-eyes version just got 10000000 times worse when you have to read-with-your-ears. For instance:

 
* The time jumps - so you've captured the bad guy and poof two seconds later everyone is laughing around a table about that one time you caught the bad guy? We're not even going to see him be led away in handcuffs? (Though to be fair, that part read more like a script to me, and would totally work in a tv show)

* Where the fuck did Fisher/his treecat come from? They just kind of got thrown in there for the 2nd act along with a whole back story that never got properly discussed BUT got brought up constantly. Who is Yubel (sp?), what did she do that treecat clan, also never properly explained but got mentioned way too much. It just didn't work in the audio version.

* Over-explaining EVERY DAMN THING. We get it Steph is a "genie" and super smart, her parent's should have a sitcom laugh track behind them every time they go "Oh Steph!" [hands on hips, crooked smile on face as Mom shakes her head], Fisher apparently got bashed in the head and has the "Sight", the people in Treeforks are stupid townies who aren't as good as the educated Harringtons, etc.


I liked Steph and Lionheart's weird understanding of each other as time went on, they both seemed like fully fleshed out characters. Which made some of the other characters unbearable (the villain, Treeforks people) because in comparison they all seemed like walking trope cardboard cutouts. And I know that we're not supposed to use the word "Mary Sue" anymore because it's sexist, but that is exactly what Steph is for all her likeability. They even made her a goddamn Wildlife Ranger in the end for fuck's sake!

I do know that if I was in 4th grade when I read this, I would have eaten this up with the biggest spoon in the world. Steph would be the COOLEST and I'd never miss a new release. I think this book needs to be sold as Middle Grade because it is way too simplistic and over-explainy to be Young Adult. It's a good book and would be a great introduction to sci fi for a reader between 10-12, but it was just not my cuppa tea at all.

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