Fire Raiser
I finished Fire Raiser this morning.
Overall, I really liked it. I still really like the characters, the writing was good, it was funny but not superficial, and the for most of the heavy/serious bits, I didn't feel like I was being beaten over the head with a 2x4. Cam and Jamey were by far my favorite characters; I'd love to read more about them and hope they're significant in the next book. I liked that the changes in the characters felt natural and appropriate, and I really liked that Holly didn't get completely sucked into full-time mom-dom.
I was a little concerned at the beginning that we were going to have some kind of weird clone farm action going on, and I'm quite glad it didn't turn out that way. It'll be really interesting to see what happens as Holly and Evan realize that Poppy is really their child. I was a little surprised that they didn't make the connection between the CryoCache stuff in the Westmoreland lab and the CryoCache letter they got about the missing cord blood. Eh, well, sequel bait.
Oh, and I loved the scene at the beginning when Bella spellbound the stegasaurous and made him real - that was pretty neat.
The things I didn't like...
-Some of the rants from the characters felt appropriate and fine (and I really like the writing ones), but others started to feel like Melanie was just putting her words into her characters' mouths. Not that the views didn't mesh with the character, just that the book was offering a good opportunity to pontificate. Other authors do it more and worse (Terry Goodkind, I'm looking at you), and it wasn't bad, it just felt a like a little much by the end.
-A Blackberry does not use a stylus (at least, no model around when this was written), and they cannot hold the contents of a laptop. Also, you can't transfer anything without a USB cord. Though, maybe Jamey has one just hanging out in his pocket. Even if the laptop got submerged in pool water, the hard drive probably would've been fine, and as long as you salvaged it quickly and didn't let the plates rust, it would've been easy to retreive the files they wanted - certainly easier than transferring things to a Blackberry and hoping that wouldn't be ruined by the water. A minor peeve, though.
- Finally, the subplot with the Ayala's was a little weird. Maybe I missed something, but I didn't quite get where that was going.
I forgot to add - I so glad no one died!
Overall, I really enjoyed it. B+ from me. The way this story was written, I could see this becoming an ongoing series, not just a trilogy. However, as I am still eagerly awaiting CT, I'll be perfectly satisfied with 3 books. :)
Overall, I really liked it. I still really like the characters, the writing was good, it was funny but not superficial, and the for most of the heavy/serious bits, I didn't feel like I was being beaten over the head with a 2x4. Cam and Jamey were by far my favorite characters; I'd love to read more about them and hope they're significant in the next book. I liked that the changes in the characters felt natural and appropriate, and I really liked that Holly didn't get completely sucked into full-time mom-dom.
I was a little concerned at the beginning that we were going to have some kind of weird clone farm action going on, and I'm quite glad it didn't turn out that way. It'll be really interesting to see what happens as Holly and Evan realize that Poppy is really their child. I was a little surprised that they didn't make the connection between the CryoCache stuff in the Westmoreland lab and the CryoCache letter they got about the missing cord blood. Eh, well, sequel bait.
Oh, and I loved the scene at the beginning when Bella spellbound the stegasaurous and made him real - that was pretty neat.
The things I didn't like...
-Some of the rants from the characters felt appropriate and fine (and I really like the writing ones), but others started to feel like Melanie was just putting her words into her characters' mouths. Not that the views didn't mesh with the character, just that the book was offering a good opportunity to pontificate. Other authors do it more and worse (Terry Goodkind, I'm looking at you), and it wasn't bad, it just felt a like a little much by the end.
-A Blackberry does not use a stylus (at least, no model around when this was written), and they cannot hold the contents of a laptop. Also, you can't transfer anything without a USB cord. Though, maybe Jamey has one just hanging out in his pocket. Even if the laptop got submerged in pool water, the hard drive probably would've been fine, and as long as you salvaged it quickly and didn't let the plates rust, it would've been easy to retreive the files they wanted - certainly easier than transferring things to a Blackberry and hoping that wouldn't be ruined by the water. A minor peeve, though.
- Finally, the subplot with the Ayala's was a little weird. Maybe I missed something, but I didn't quite get where that was going.
I forgot to add - I so glad no one died!
Overall, I really enjoyed it. B+ from me. The way this story was written, I could see this becoming an ongoing series, not just a trilogy. However, as I am still eagerly awaiting CT, I'll be perfectly satisfied with 3 books. :)