J. Patrick Black

Good ideas and imagination, but:
Overall poor worldbuilding, far too much definition of new terms which continues even until the last 20% of the book, character jumps are rough and initially jarring, and resolution is very poor for characters and relational to the amount of buildup involved.

Conceptual questions such as: who are the aggressors? and why are they fighting?, which define the entire conflict of the book, are never resolved.

Minor characters are frequently introduced just to add tension, which is noticed but consistently ignored.
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A well-written story set in a well-designed world. I appreciated how the author threw readers into the deep end with multiple different perspectives, never revealing the big picture until about a third of the way into the book. I also admired the use of literary style and devices to convey character — distinctive tone shifts as the first-person narration moves from viewpoint to viewpoint, with one delightful perspective even including footnotes that are 100% justified by character.

One or two significant plot points seemed a bit strained and some of the viewpoint characters were less interesting than others, but these are minor quibbles for a highly enjoyable book!… (más)

Black, J. Patrick. Ninth City Burning. War of the Realm No. 1. Ace, 2016.
A convenient thing about writing young adult science fiction is that its intended may not have read or seen all the old SF you are cribbing from. In Ninth City Burning, J. Patrick Black cribs from a lot of places. The Earth has been invaded by aliens from other dimensions, here called realms. There is a military acacdemy to train kids to fight them. Think the battle school in Ender’s Game. A few people have special powers that were evidently awakened by the alien attack. Think Harry and Hogwarts. The academy also develops cool technology to fight the baddies. All of it would be right at home in Star Wars. I especially like a war machine called Snuggles. There are even flying cities. Anybody remember the Cities in Flight series by James Blish? It is all rather slickly done with only a few first-novel glitches, the biggest of which is that we never really get to know the alien invaders. The characters have enough variety and personality to keep us engaged, and Black manages to avoid the worst excesses of teenage angst. Three and a half stars from me.… (más)

Space opera (although only last part is in space), that starts on a future Earth in which is barely recognizable by us. We follow how the path of several characters will intersect: the nomad sisters, Jax the boy who trains to be a special type of soldier, Kizabel the rebel scientist, Vinneas the critical cadet and others. Their quest is to fight an unknown but very aggressive alien race and this makes a good adventure that goes from the wilderness to elaborate cities, to the space. Characters are well described and enjoyable. The story suffers from not presenting things clearly from the start, which means you never know if something does not make sense or it was not yet explained.… (más)