Natural Selection by Dave Freeman
I haven't finished this book yet, but I'm far enough in to tell you an overview of what it's about and how it fails. By the way, what I read so far wasn't a total fail (this is a fun read regardless of the issues), but the problems were major enough to mention here.
The book starts out telling you that evolution is scary and monsters exist (essentially, because it says evolution created the scariest type of creature yet and it is referred to as a monster). Then a short chapter talking about a new species of ray and how the adults are underneath the water WAITING while the babies jump out of the water and see what's that's about. So then we meet a group of people (who are not important other than they move the plot along) who are out sailing and enjoying themselves when a large baby ray plops on their boat. Cue lots of panicking. Then the meat of the novel, where scientists/researchers are alerted and start tracking the rays. And then some stuff about the rays experimenting with flying (which is sort of important later on) and food sources. And then innocent people dying from being attacked by the rays. And then the scientists/researchers becoming more focused in their tracking because "Oh no, they're killing people!" and also "New species! Yay, research papers! Fame!"
There are three reasons the book fails.
One, description is a bit lacking. The author must like the word "very", because when you have a potentially descriptive sentence he'll write "very (insert word or phrase)". Something like "The rays were very large." Um, okay. Eventually he'll give you a specific size so you know what you're dealing with (for example, once he said "1,500 pound juveniles"). He should've done that more often, because this is a book where lack of description causes confusion and frustration.
The other two are character development pieces.
So you have two scientist/researchers, Jason and Lisa. Separately, they're okay. Jason was forgettable, but I initially liked Lisa. She's an intelligent, determined woman. While she has a feminine side (she loves clothes and hates getting her clothes messed up while she's doing on the field research), she's not ridiculous about it. The most appealing thing is/was her personality; she's the type of character that's not afraid to get in another character's face when they're on her last nerves. Our author had a genuinely good thing going with her. Then out of the blue he decides "Let's have Jason and Lisa fall in love!" Okay, fine. Not happy, but I guess everyone deserves some sort of happiness. Problem is, once Lisa is in love, she becomes a giggly/ridiculous mess. She begins turning to her new boyfriend for approval (and not for approval on the research she's doing, which would be the only kind of approval that is appropriate). Yeah author, not impressed. This was not an organic, natural romance to begin with. These characters were fine as single buddies/scientist friends. There was absolutely no need for romance.
While we're talking character fails, can we talk about the "villainous", "monstrous" rays? I thought of them as characters because they came into the novel a lot. You're supposed to get the sense that they're evil (even if it's them acting the way they'd normally act). Every time I read about the babies, I awwwwwed. Yes, even when they were ripping something apart and eating it. Maybe it's my twisted sense of cute talking, but I'm not sure the author would appreciate this.
Again, I wouldn't say the entire book fails. Although it's over three hundred pages, which would suggest it's somewhat serious reading, it's what I would consider "brain candy". It's not deep by any means, but sometimes you want something that's fun. I'd say it's a great beach read, but I don't think anyone's going to want to go anywhere near an ocean after reading this. Fun or not, I think anyone considering this book needs to know what some of the issues are so they can make an informed decision, especially since I haven't seen it in bookstores and had to buy used from an online bookseller.