Leviathan Wakes, Revisted

Leviathan Wakes (eArc, NetGalley). It took me at least 3 months to finish Leviathan Wakes, and catching it on the shelves in Mysterious Galaxy a few weeks back, I realized that my favorite part of the entire book was the pink lettering on the side. There needs to be far more pink in space opera. Pink looks great in space. (Which reminds me-- I'm desperate for a book either involving spectroscopy or planetary geodesy in one of its core plot elements. Any recs?)

Humanity has colonized the solar system - Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt and beyond - but the stars are still out of our reach.

Jim Holden is XO of an ice miner making runs from the rings of Saturn to the mining stations of the Belt. When he and his crew stumble upon a derelict ship, The Scopuli, they find themselves in possession of a secret they never wanted. A secret that someone is willing to kill for - and kill on a scale unfathomable to Jim and his crew. War is brewing in the system unless he can find out who left the ship and why.

Detective Miller is looking for a girl. One girl in a system of billions, but her parents have money and money talks. When the trail leads him to The Scopuli and rebel sympathizer Holden, he realizes that this girl may be the key to everything.

Holden and Miller must thread the needle between the Earth government, the Outer Planet revolutionaries, and secretive corporations - and the odds are against them. But out in the Belt, the rules are different, and one small ship can change the fate of the universe. (from amazon)

At first glance, LW seems exactly like my type of book, which is why its probably more interesting to explore why it didn't work for me rather than what exactly I thought about it. There are countless glowing reviews , but in fact, io9's headline underscores possibly the single biggest reason I didn't love it-- comparing it to a big-budget Hollywood science fiction movie, which I tend to avoid like the plague or only watch when I'm feeling feisty.

Considering space opera I do like (I am quite addicted to everything archaeological space opera-- Jack McDevitt, Alastair Reynolds, etc, so it isn't like I'm some snob who doesn't love a good pseudo-scientific rip rolling yarn), I remembered I don't really like the kind of movie that LW wants to be in book form, and that's a problem. Because it really does read like a movie. Which isn't necessarily a fault-- "Feed" and "Deadline," with their pop culture mash up, devastatingly fast pace & twists also remind me of movies, but that's not why I like or don't like them. When it comes to LW, it is basically my least favorite science fiction tropes plastered into a snazzy Hollywood-style shell. I couldn't keep any of the characters straight, I had no investment in the plot, and at least there are female characters, we'll give it that.

Also, I should probably confess I do adore the MLN Hanover books, so it isn't like I'm not a Daniel Abraham fan. Though I did bounce off Dragon's Path as well. Perhaps Leviathan Wakes just didn't click, alas.

YA Double Feature

Saving June, Hannah Harrington (Netgalley eArc)

Harper Scott, trying to come to terms with her perfect older sister June's suicide, takes a road trip and finds love with a mysterious boy who had a connection to June-- and may know more about her sister's life and death than he's telling.

Harper is a fairly strong, likeable character, and I enjoyed that she wasn't the smart, gifted, academic and nearly good at everything protagonist that is so common in YA--but that's because in her family, that role was filled by her sister, who committed suicide before high school graduation. However, I ended up being distracted by the mystery of why her sister would ever want to get married right out of high school--I barely understand the flock who do so right after college. But that's the point-- there are no answers really, for other people's choices and why they do these things, so we don't really get them, and in turn, your enjoyment of the book will hinge on whether that is something you can deal with. It seems somewhat unfair that this was one of the first YA books I read after Jay Asher's Thirteen Reasons Why, which has a superficially similar plot, but I found both far more contrived and compelling, strange how that works. There really was the core of a good book here, but Harper doesn't really come into her own into the second half of the book, in which there is an absolute deluge of plot, while the first half is far slower. I think another reason I had trouble clicking with the earlier scenes in the road trip was because I have never been to any of the states, and some of the characters mentioned offhand or in short encounters was uncomfortably stereotypes, and I never really got a sense of places, which I needed, because I don't know anything about these states.

Verdict: Very strong for a debut, with something there and emotional, but just doesn't quite click.

The Bermudez Triangle, Maureen Johnson (Paperbackswap)

Why I read it: I am unintentionally on a mission to read all of Johnson's books

Since coming together at the age of eleven, the Triangle has never been apart. The summer before senior year, however, Nina goes away to a summer program in California. When she returns, she expects to be welcomed back into her friends’ arms with great excitement. Instead, something has changed in the Triangle—Mel and Avery are acting strangely. There are in-jokes Nina doesn’t get, pauses in the conversations that seem to be full of some meaning that she just can’t grasp. She’s suddenly an outsider, and she has no idea why. Until she wanders into a dressing room and finds Mel and Avery kissing. What exactly do you do when your two best friends in the entire world start dating?

Copying & pasting that description, I just noticed something--when the book was published, I was the same exact age as the characters! Even more reason I should have loved it, right? However, I didn't. There just didn't seem to be quite enough plot, and there was background/offscreen parent syndrome. Maybe the OC and Gossip Girl have ruined YA for me--the parents are there and even have their own storylines on screen, while in this novel, they pop up as needed to dole out advice or be awkward or in the way. Also, I attended summer camp at Stanford several years previous, and it just isn't captured; the kinds of things you remember, the places you hang out at, the fountains you play in, isn't mentioned--at Stanford, you don't really have the bay, and she keeps mentioning it! That was really distracting. Also, as a graduate of their crossbay rival, I now feel like I need to be cleansed after saying that word so many times. I liked the idea of the hippie dippie boyfriend (I would, wouldn't I, after the other information I just disclosed, right?), but he's such a cipher and appears onscreen for such a short, ineffective period of time that it is unfortunate that nearly her entire character arc is based on him.

Looking over some of the other reviews though, I don't necessarily disagree--the characters ARE believable, but in the age of exceptional/whatever YA protagonists, it really just doesn't seem to be enough. It is a quiet portrayal of senior year events and relationships, but that's about it. And sometimes though, that works and is enough in a book. I was about to say that perhaps this would be my last Maureen Johnson book, but then I realized I have yet to read The Last Little Blue Envelope, so yes, I will have to read another of hers!

Verdict: Okay, but nothing special. Also, it is really quite dated!