Goodreads Review
Seer of Mars by Cindy Borgne
The story was engaging enough to carry me about half way through the book, but not all the way. It reads like a standard Special discovers he's a baddy and atones by becoming a Special for the good guys plot. But the writing is muddy, spending too many words describing inconsequential actions, overdescribing--especially explaining character motivations, which even if this is a YA novel feels condescending--and dialogue that sounds like no human being ever spoke those words in that order before. It felt a bit like "The Lives and Loves of Doby Gillis" meets one of those WWII propaganda films. I imagined Ian and Nate as being portrayed by a young James Stewart and Cary Grant, and I think this made it more entertaining for me. It may be perfectly in character for being sixteen, but our protagonist is actively annoying. He whines. A lot. He has this single-concept tunnel vision where he can only keep one thing in his head at a time. And he's got his heart set on this tragic martyr idea of love, where the pain he suffers shows how much love he feels. If the trilogy is not already finished, I would strongly advise the author to hire a good copy editor and a good editor. There's a story in here somewhere, and I think they can dig it out.
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The story was engaging enough to carry me about half way through the book, but not all the way. It reads like a standard Special discovers he's a baddy and atones by becoming a Special for the good guys plot. But the writing is muddy, spending too many words describing inconsequential actions, overdescribing--especially explaining character motivations, which even if this is a YA novel feels condescending--and dialogue that sounds like no human being ever spoke those words in that order before. It felt a bit like "The Lives and Loves of Doby Gillis" meets one of those WWII propaganda films. I imagined Ian and Nate as being portrayed by a young James Stewart and Cary Grant, and I think this made it more entertaining for me. It may be perfectly in character for being sixteen, but our protagonist is actively annoying. He whines. A lot. He has this single-concept tunnel vision where he can only keep one thing in his head at a time. And he's got his heart set on this tragic martyr idea of love, where the pain he suffers shows how much love he feels. If the trilogy is not already finished, I would strongly advise the author to hire a good copy editor and a good editor. There's a story in here somewhere, and I think they can dig it out.
This entry was originally posted at https://cyrano.dreamwidth.org/1253842.html. Please comment there using OpenID or a Dreamwidth account or here if it please you. Comment! Comment comment comment. I looooooove comments.