Sara Creasy

Prelim review: Quite honestly I picked up the first book because Chris McGrath did the artwork and I continued with it because even though Creasy has a lot of science fiction talk throughout the books, Finn and Edie were two characters I really enjoyed reading. They were both terribly lost, complete martyrs to boot who exhibited a distinct recklessness with their lives I found exciting.

This companion/sequel to "Song of Scarabaeus" picks up a little over a week from the ending as Finn and Edie make their great escape to the Fringe. There are a couple of standard 'relationship' obstacles thrown into the mix (aside from the real and present danger of the leash), but these books were never quite about the romance so much as the relationship. Finn and Edie are both supremely flawed people--Edie lived a relatively sheltered life all things considered while Finn went from a normal life to the life of a rebel and then prison. Neither was very good at just being.

Full review to be posted later… (más)

Somewhat of a mix between sci fi and sci fi romance. I didn't like this one quite as much as the first. Maybe there wasn't quite as much fast paced space opera inspired daring do. It seemed that Edie and Finn were just battered about by events instead of actually doing stuff themselves. Also even though I know that this isn't really a sci fi romance, their relationship didn't pack the punch that it promised to in the first book. Hmm... still worth the read but I wouldn't read it if you haven't read the first one. You would be guaranteed not to understand what was going on.… (más)

I really liked this book. It was good solid sci fi with ethical dilemmas. Written in 3rd person from the the POV of the main character, Edie Sha'nim, a woman whose job is to terraform worlds. I liked the plot and that terraforming was a problem and not a panacea for expanding into space. In that there was plenty of conflict for the characters to overcome. I like characters who are not all powerful but who have to struggle to overcome their obstacles.

The only problem was that in places the science parts were a bit dense. But better a bit dense than so simplistic that even old English majors like myself could scoff at the science as being unrealistic. This was a minor quibble though and didn't impact my enjoyment of the book at all. I just place this stuff under my willing suspension of disbelief file and move on.

The characters were well written and believable and I liked that these two didn't just jump into a romance but that the focus stayed on the action of the story. One of the things I found outstanding about the book was the character of Haller. Everytime he went beserk and snapped, I was surprised and I love to be surprised by characters. I
think in my mind I expected him to act a different way as perhaps other writers have conditioned me to expect. I kept telling my husband, boy I wouldn't want to serve under that XO.

I'm looking forward to seeing Edie and Finn's romance develop, to learning more about Finn and to reading about their adventures saving worlds. I hope there will be many more installments of their story as they go from planet to planet.




… (más)

So in the end I *did* like this book. I'm writing this over a week after I finished it so this it's bullet time:

- I didn't have a huge problem with the idea of slavery that was introduced in this world, mostly because it was just an element of their life. Some people treat the serfs like slaves, non-people, while others are uncomfortable with that.
- That little bitch of a commander deserved his disgusting death. Agreed with Finn on that one.
- Speaking of Finn... Didn't get him. He was almost a non-entity to me for all the personality he seemed to display. A few angry moments, some take charge-ness near the end, a hazy history as what amounted to an assassin mercenary. That was about all I got.
- Edie, meanwhile, made me want to slap her all over the place at multiple points. She never seemed to understand how important she was to the mission... If they treat you badly, just refuse. What can they do? Hurt Finn? Then you *really* aren't going to cooperate. Pfft, whatever.
- Scarabaeus... Woah. That was Little Shop of Horrors on cocaine steroids. Freaking as hell, especially when the plants... Did what they did. Shudder.
- In the end though, I'm not interested enough in the characters that I want to read the next book and find out what they do about that whole implant thing. Curious, yes. But in a cliffnotes kinda way.… (más)