Book 15 - 2020
Book 15: The Truth of Different Skies by Kate Ling - 369 pages
Description from bookdepository.co.uk:
What makes you abandon your world? How do you say goodbye when it's forever? A heart-breaking story about survival, love and hope. For fans of Meg Rosoff and Beth Revis.
'I've always feared this place would keep me rooted forever . . . but now, without gravity, I'm flying, floating, falling'
Bea feels trapped. Having never left her small town and with no money or anyone to rely on, she faces the inevitable future of a dead-end job - forced to survive, rather than live.
When a message arrives from space, a mission is planned to travel to its source. Bea knows she has to be chosen to go, no matter what it takes, even though it means leaving Earth forever. Her life has to matter.
Except she didn't plan on falling in love before she left . . .
Thoughts:
Beacon - Bea - sets off on an adventure to join the first multi-generational star ship headed across the galaxy to find the source of the signal. Bea is the ancestor of Seren, the main character of Ling's first two Ventura novels. This book is supposed to give some context as to why anyone would sign up for such a mission.
This was painful! I must have been in a more forgiving mood when I read Ling's first two books in this series, but like those, her main female character is a nightmare. Dramatic, whiny, selfish, self-absorbed, her internal dialogue takes away from what could be a fascinating story. She sleeps with her best friend's boyfriend, falls in love with her stepbrother, and almost throws away the opportunity she spends half the book trying to get and yet somehow through it all everyone tells her how fabulous she is, how resilient and strong and amazing. It's a load of codswallop. Like the first two books, a really clever and interesting idea is completely overshadowed by teenage melodrama. And the whole storyline with falling in love with her stepbrother - that was just plain unsettling and felt hamfisted in to make the story 50 pages longer. It's a quick read, but I wanted to throw it against the wall so often it took way longer than I'd have liked. It gets two stars purely because the ideas have such merit and in the hands of a better author could have been appropriately explored. Such a shame!
Currently reading:
- Journey to the West by Cheng-En Wu - 673 pages
- Dr Space Junk vs the Universe: Archaeology and the Future by Alice Gorman - 282 pages
- Why Young Men: The Dangerous Allure of Violent Movements and what we can do about it by Jamil Jivani - 255 pages
And coming up:
- The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant: Volume 3: White Gold Wielder by Stephen Donaldson - 500 pages
- The Odyssey by Homer - 324 pages
- Visions of Sugar Plums by Janet Evanovich - 152 pages
Description from bookdepository.co.uk:
What makes you abandon your world? How do you say goodbye when it's forever? A heart-breaking story about survival, love and hope. For fans of Meg Rosoff and Beth Revis.
'I've always feared this place would keep me rooted forever . . . but now, without gravity, I'm flying, floating, falling'
Bea feels trapped. Having never left her small town and with no money or anyone to rely on, she faces the inevitable future of a dead-end job - forced to survive, rather than live.
When a message arrives from space, a mission is planned to travel to its source. Bea knows she has to be chosen to go, no matter what it takes, even though it means leaving Earth forever. Her life has to matter.
Except she didn't plan on falling in love before she left . . .
Thoughts:
Beacon - Bea - sets off on an adventure to join the first multi-generational star ship headed across the galaxy to find the source of the signal. Bea is the ancestor of Seren, the main character of Ling's first two Ventura novels. This book is supposed to give some context as to why anyone would sign up for such a mission.
This was painful! I must have been in a more forgiving mood when I read Ling's first two books in this series, but like those, her main female character is a nightmare. Dramatic, whiny, selfish, self-absorbed, her internal dialogue takes away from what could be a fascinating story. She sleeps with her best friend's boyfriend, falls in love with her stepbrother, and almost throws away the opportunity she spends half the book trying to get and yet somehow through it all everyone tells her how fabulous she is, how resilient and strong and amazing. It's a load of codswallop. Like the first two books, a really clever and interesting idea is completely overshadowed by teenage melodrama. And the whole storyline with falling in love with her stepbrother - that was just plain unsettling and felt hamfisted in to make the story 50 pages longer. It's a quick read, but I wanted to throw it against the wall so often it took way longer than I'd have liked. It gets two stars purely because the ideas have such merit and in the hands of a better author could have been appropriately explored. Such a shame!
Currently reading:
- Journey to the West by Cheng-En Wu - 673 pages
- Dr Space Junk vs the Universe: Archaeology and the Future by Alice Gorman - 282 pages
- Why Young Men: The Dangerous Allure of Violent Movements and what we can do about it by Jamil Jivani - 255 pages
And coming up:
- The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant: Volume 3: White Gold Wielder by Stephen Donaldson - 500 pages
- The Odyssey by Homer - 324 pages
- Visions of Sugar Plums by Janet Evanovich - 152 pages