Revis, Beth: Across the Universe
Across the Universe (2011)
Written by: Beth Revis
Genre: YA/Science Fiction
Pages: 398 (ARC)
Series: Book One of Three
Release Date: January 11, 2011
Disclaimer: ARC received from publisher via LibraryThing
As soon as I saw this cover, my desire for this book was immediate. Once I read the synopsis, I wanted it even MORE, so when LibraryThing offered this on its Early Reviewer's list, I requested my ARC immediately, feeling pretty confident that I'd get it. And get it I did! As for reading it now versus later, it's an ARC, and I'm trying to make sure I read ARCs (or author/publisher donated copies) as soon as I receive them, so that they don't get lost in the EVIL pile of TBRs. So let's get to it, shall we?
The premise: ganked from the backcover copy of the ARC: A story of love, murder, and madness aboard an enormous spaceship bound for the future.
Amy is a cryogenically frozen passenger aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed. She expects to wake up on a new planet, 300 years in the future. But fifty years before Godspeed's scheduled landing, Amy cryo chamber is unplugged, and she is nearly killed.
Now, Amy is caught inside an enclosed world where nothing makes sense. Godspeed's passengers have forfeited all control to Eldest, a tyrannical and frightening leader, and Elder, his rebellious and brilliant teenage heir.
Amy desperately wants to trust Elder. But can she? All she knows is that she must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets before whoever woke her tries to kill again.
Review style: There's quite a lot to talk about with this book: how it's not the traditional YA romance, yet still has shades of it; how it seems to be targeting both boys AND girls (and why that's a little jarring at times); we'll talk about Sleeping Beauty motifs, life aboard generation ships, and whether or not the teens in this book are believable/relatable or if I'm just getting too old to read these things. Some spoilers, so if you want to remain spoiler-free, just skip to "My Rating".
While reading, I found myself with a lot to say about this book, and I'm not wholly sure it's a good thing. I'm starting to worry that the YA genre has lost its appeal. It's not to say there aren't good stories out there, but I'm having a harder time getting into the stories I choose to read. So either I'm picking not-so-great stories, or maybe I'm just tired of the genre. Maybe both. This disclaimer isn't meant to say that this book isn't a good story, but rather to point out that I may not be in the most optimistic frame of mind for reviewing right now, especially YA books.
But let's talk about what I think the author is doing right. First and foremost: this is not a traditional YA romance. But what IS a traditional YA romance? The trend is triangles. One girl, two boys who are madly in love with her. In Across the Universe, we have one girl, one boy who's obsessed, but the other boy seems pretty content to be her friend. There's no romantic overtures on Harley's part, and I like that, even if we learn the reason later is that Amy reminded him very much of the girlfriend he lost to suicide. But that's okay: the point was, we never saw Harley competing for Amy's affections. Sure, Elder would see them together and have a moment of jealousy, but let's face it: romance wasn't the priority in this book (it's one of the reasons I typed up the back cover copy over the summaries found online -- those summaries try too hard to make this only a love story). There's maybe all of one kiss, and that's it. No, instead of romance driving Across the Universe, we have a mystery.
This book is oddly divided. I remember back in 2006 when I was told that alternating first person, present tense POVs just wouldn't work because audiences didn't like different, but since then, they've been popping up with more and more regularity. Sure, they aren't the norm, but first person present -- let alone ALTERNATING first person present -- is becoming more and more accepted. Across the Universe splits its time between two first person present POV characters: Amy and Elder. And while this is a POV technique I'm used to (I adored it in The Time Traveller's Wife), I found myself sometimes jarred. Not by the alternation, but by the awareness that I'm alternating between a teenaged girl and a teenaged boy. And Revis doesn't try to romanticize Elder. There are certain times in the book where he's definitely thinking with the wrong head (if you catch my meaning), and I'm just not used to seeing that in YA. I'm not saying that as a criticism either, so much as to point out how Revis is doing something we don't see often in the genre. The norm is that girl books and girl narrators. Boy books have boy narrators. There are some exceptions (first coming to mind is Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan, but that's alternating THIRD person), but that's the standard. Boys get a boy's thoughts and girls get a girl's thoughts. It's not to say that books targeting the opposite gender can't be enjoyed by the opposite gender either. Instead, it's to point out that we don't often see a YA novel tackling both POVs and both audiences in such a deliberate way.
It was sometimes jarring, but I got used to it. After all, I've seen and loved it in adult fiction, so YA shouldn't be so much of a leap. And really, it wasn't. I would've had a harder time if this book had chosen to focus more on the romantic, sexual natures of its characters, but instead the mystery became the focal point, and the mystery invites readers of all genders and ages to engage in what's going on.
Granted, what's going on is slightly predictable. I knew the truth of Orion right down to his DNA pretty darn early. Revis makes it a bit obvious as far as I'm concerned, which makes tagging along with the POV characters (mainly Elder) a bit frustrating. Because what's obvious to me isn't obvious to him, and it's a fine line between being frustrated with characters for not figuring out something you have and genuinely rooting for them to figure it out so you can feel satisfied. I leaned towards the former in this regard.
That said, I didn't have everything figured out. Like what's really happening on the ship? I didn't see that coming until it was time for me to see it coming.
And in the meantime, I could appreciate and frustrate over various elements of the book.
Appreciate: Seasons. Call me weird, but I liked seeing this put into play. It's a question I've pondered myself: animals have a mating season, so why is it that humans are fertile all year around, biologically speaking? Seeing this come true in a science fictional setting made me geek out a bit, and I had to give the author kudos for going that far, letting her characters see the unabashed mating happening all around them. It's a mature thing to do, instead of hiding behind closed doors and giggling, you know?
I also REALLY appreciated that there were adults on this ship. Okay, maybe they weren't adults you should admire, but they existed. So many teen-focused generation ship stories seem to be devoid of adult supervision, and there's also a moment where disbelief can't be suspended and the reader is left wondering if the author's being realistic. Here, there's adults. Elder's the youngest until Amy comes along, and then they're the same age. There's a generation ahead of Elder that seems to be in the later teens/early twenties (I guess early twenties? I'm forgetting my math), but they're young enough to feel young without feeling TOO young to be doing some of the things they do on the ship. And seeing how the elderly are treated on the ship is, while not original, pretty neat to see unfold -- in a morbid way, that is.
The Sleeping Beauty motif was kind of neat too. I don't want to get into details, but there's definitely that element to the story: Amy, stuck in cryogenic sleep; Elder, seeing her in the glass coffin and becoming completely smitten. No, it's not a kiss that wakes her, but it's not a stretch to say that this has its roots in the fairy tale.
And now, the things that irked me. Prepare yourself for nitpickery (yes, that's a word. I just made it up).
Opening chapter had me REALLY frustrated. I mean, I get that we're trying to make this as painful for Amy to witness and experience as possible, but I've personally seen and read too much SF to believe that any of this would happen while the character was awake. I mean, I just had surgery for the first time ever this year, and they sure as hell didn't stick anything down my throat until I was knocked out. So why on EARTH would cryogenic sleep preparation be any different? Would wouldn't the characters be mostly knocked out for the majority of the prep? I don't know, short of the author wanting to make it as gruesome as possible (and yes, I'll allow for the possibility that maybe this IS the way it'd have to work in the future, but for not, I'm not buying it).
Also at the start, we have Elder not making a very good impression. I'm no longer enamored of made-up profanity (despite frell and frak having its place in the lexicon), and frex just really didn't do anything for me. I know, I know. This is YA and the author can't use "fuck." And it's believable that the language would evolve beyond that word anyway, but still: it's overdone in fantasy and SF, and therefore, no longer clever and merely and eyesore.
But it wasn't just the made-up profanity that had me rolling my eyes at Elder. It was the attitude. Lines like It's time for me to be a real leader, whether Eldest likes it or not (page 15 ARC) really don't win me over into thinking the character is much of a hero. Then the pure melodramatic panic two pages later when he thinks he's opened the ceiling to the vacuum of space. It's not the panic that bothers me: it's the melodrama.
I'm going to die.
I'm going to be sucked out into space.
Implosion.
Death. (page 17 ARC)
Please keep in mind that most publishers don't like reviewers quoting from ARCs. There's a chance that the passages I'm quoting may be edited out of the final copy. But this is the copy I read and reviewed, and this is what irked me. It's fair to point it out. Also, I had trouble with the fact that Elder's sixteen and hasn't yet been prepped for emergency procedures (yeah, the reason why is part of the overall mystery, but still -- you're living on a spaceship! Act like it! Not like a teen who's never been on one before!
*coughs*
I know, I know. I'm being harsh. The author has to write a character that's relatable to the target audience, the teen reader. Not me, not the jaded adult reader who's got a pretty decent amount of fiction, film, and television under her belt.
But is it so much to ask for Elder to shout, "Doors, close!" ?
Is it?
Oh, fine!
Moving on, I really, really, really hope that the beginning of chapter 13, which is in Amy's POV, does not open with the diagonal through train of DOOM. It reminds me of bad student poetry rather than Jack Kerouac, and let's face it, the words, searing, pulling, freezing, ripping, bleeding, breaking, pain (page 77 ARC) definitely isn't doing what Kerouac is doing when he breaks up words, but then again, sometimes Kerouac's choice of text placement is also puzzling. So while the formatting (which I'm not repeating here) does give the sensation of breaking up the sentence quite effectively and dragging out the sensation, it still annoys my eyes to see the format on the page.
Maybe it won't be the same in the final copy. I'll have to check. :)
Also frustrating: "GAH!" I screech (page 100 ARC). I'm not going to say who says this or why. I just want to point out that this sort of dialogue and its attribute drive me bonkers no matter who writes it or where.
Amy frustrates me though, on so many levels. Her most admirable trait is her desire to protect her parents and her loyalty to stay with them, despite her not wanting to make this trip to begin with. But the way she acts on the ship is so frustrating. She's no where near scared enough. There's a certain sense of entitlement that comes through, despite the fact she's been asleep for a couple of centuries and knows nothing about how a spaceship runs. Even little domestic things bugged me, like her spazzing out of the thought of wearing clean underwear that might've belonged to someone else (okay, sure, that's realistic, but still if they look new and clean, sometimes it's best not to think certain things, yanno?), or like in chapter 69 where she can't make herself eat the ship's food, crying that she wants something real.
Seriously, kid. THIS IS REAL. And according to the book's time line so far, it's gonna be real for the rest of your life. What, do you think they're hiding the good stuff from you? Sheesh. What a brat. I don't care if she's out of her element and lonely and away from home. Her survival instinct is crap, and it's especially noticeable during Season, when she doesn't think twice about going into the garden on her own, despite the fact that everyone's humping themselves silly, despite the fact she's female and alone and has already had one character leering at her.
No. No survival instinct at all.
But for that matter, I'm not sure why Eldest and the Doctor didn't just lock her in her room to begin with. She'd obviously cause trouble for her sheer difference (oh, there's something I liked: the mono-ethnic culture of which Amy's pale skin and red hair was treated with suspicion), and it would've been reasonable for them to make her a prisoner in her own room. Then she would've had more of a reason to befriend Elder in order to get out, you know?
I also found myself questioning a lot of the practicality of running the ship. Usually you read about a generational ship OR a cryo ship. One or the other. This was both. Orion gives us a theory as it why it's both, but it's still perplexing for someone like me who's used to one or the other. Furthermore, I wonder why, if the situation was so dire, they didn't wake the sleepers early in order to find a solution? Of course, that may be the solution in later books (the author has confirmed this is a trilogy), but I would've hoped they would've thought of that option before now, since most of the sleepers are supposed to be the creme of the crop.
I will say this, despite my nitpicking, the ending left me with a nice feeling. It touched on the promise of romance without going overboard, and Amy makes a decision to commit herself to the here and now while Elder makes a decision that could cost him Amy. It's a nice ending. It really is.
My Rating
Buy the Paperback: It's a smooth read that keeps you turning the pages, there's no doubt. But I feel jaded. It's probably because I'm not Revis's target audience. I'm an adult reader, with enough SF under my belt to start poking holes in the story because I can, and that's never fun (well, for me it's not). Because the book does have a lot to offer: alternating first person POVs between Amy and Elder, between the female and male perspective, and the romance isn't the point of the story at all. Nor is there a love triangle! No, the focus of the story is the mystery of the ship and why its leader seems so intent on keeping secrets. Deciphering the mystery is fun, though part of it I figured out easily on my own, and I did enjoy some of Revis's world-building. The book also ended on a really nice note, which made me feel bad for nitpicking. The book isn't perfect, but it IS enjoyable, and it's great to see a non-dystopian SF novel hit the YA shelves, especially a title that so easily caters to the male and female point of view (even the cover is reversible!). Anyway, since I read the ARC, my rating isn't wholly accurate, because it's not like I'm basing it on what I bought. That said, I think the book is enjoyable, but worth waiting on if you're an adult reader. For teen readers, I can't say, other than to point out I think they'll have far more fun with it. :)
Of course, I should note that I read this book after finishing a Guy Gavriel Kay novel, and really, anything I read after the Kay was just going to pale in comparison, so . . .
Cover Commentary: I want to start collecting YA novels for the covers alone. I mean, seriously. There's so many lush, gorgeous covers out there that I want to buy them and put them in a display case. And when people ask, "Is the book any good?" I'll say, "You're not supposed to READ it, silly. You're supposed to admire the pretty."
Because isn't this just simply gorgeous? The colors are feminine without being girly, and I love the starscape used for the background. AND!!! The ARC informed me that the hardcover dust jackets are fully reversible, so if this cover's too girly for your intended reader, just flip it for a blue schematic of the ship. Click here for the reversible cover. I think it's great, because the covers, like the story itself, doesn't pigeon-hole itself as either a girl's book OR a boy's book, and the reversible cover lets you choose your fave!
Next up: The Giver by Lois Lowry