Tuesday, May 16, 2017

Review: Dove Arising


Title: Dove Arising
Author: Karen Bao
Genre: Science Fiction
Release Date: February 24, 2015
Goodreads

Living in a colony on the moon, Phaet knows her path- keep working in the greenhouse, do well in school, eventually get a job in biochemistry. She'll stay as quiet as she's been since her father's death and let her best friend keep filling in the blanks.

Then her mother is arrested, and, in order to keep her family safe, Phaet must join the militia. The plan is to rank high and make enough to fund her mother's release and keep her family fed and safe, but things rapidly start to spin out of control. 

Out of Ten: 5/10

Review at a Glance: A really interesting setting, but suffered from poorly fleshed out characters and a dependence on tired tropes.

Review: Okay. Here's the thing. I wanted to like this one, but I from the start was concerned that I wouldn't. I just wanted to say that from the start because I might have had a weird bias going in or something. Anyway, onto the review. I think I mostly didn't pick this up earlier because I'm a terrible cover-judge, but also because so much of the plot sounded like it was more of the same. I wish that hadn't held true, but it kind of did.

This book did prompt me to randomly start researching moonquakes, which I hadn't realised were a thing because conventional wisdom when I went through my childhood "learning about the moon phase" (what, people don't have those?) was that the moon was tectonically dead. (That is to say, has zero tectonic activity.) Apparently, like most conventional wisdom, this isn't totally true. For one thing the moon has thermal quakes whenever the sun warms it's surface. For another it also just randomly has quakes measuring 5.5 or higher (on the Richter scale, which isn't really used anymore). Here's details on moonquakes, if anyone's curious. Also apparently the moon is simultaneously shrinking and being pulled apart, so that's fun.

Unfortunately the research this book prompted me to do on lunar geology was the most interesting part of this book for me. It just didn't grab me. Part of it was how much there was in terms of telling rather than showing. It made the story lag. The story also wound up feeling kind of forced- the characters felt like they had abilities or skills specifically to move the story along, rather than as an organic part of their personalities and histories. Despite the fact that they were ostensibly different, they all had a very similar feeling, which, I think, came from how forced their construction felt.

Other than being set on the moon, this felt kind of like just any other dystopia- I don't think it's really the book's fault that I've experienced a lot of that particular kind of dystopia, but the writing and characters weren't really strong enough to carry a story with a plot as formulaic as this one was. In the end I kind of felt like I was dragging myself through the story.

In all, I really wish I'd like this book better, but it just didn't pan out for me. The plot felt too formula and the characters just didn't pull the story along. I don't think I'll be continuing the series, especially with the direction that I see the story going.

Tuesday, May 9, 2017

#AsianLitBingo: Update #1





I'm going to try to post about once a week with updates on how I'm doing with this reading challenge! So far I've finished two books and I'm about 2/3 of the way through a third. I'm going to try to get five in a row, but I'm likely to also just choose some randomly scattered ones too, just because.



To All The Boys I've Loved Before
Jenny Han

I enjoyed this, but it also felt like a lot of the reasons why my main strategy in high school one
of was non-engagement. All of the things that Laura Jean was experiencing and enjoying were things I very much didn't want to experience in high school. But, you know, Laura Jean and I are very different people, so to each their own, I suppose- it's more that it limited the degree to which I related to some of her experiences.

I did really enjoy the family aspect, though! Laura Jean's relationships with the members of her family are some of the most important ones she has, which was something I really appreciated, as well as how the girls made an effort to hold on to aspects of their Korean heritage.



The Ship Beyond Time

Heidi Heilig

I was kind of on the fence about picking this up. It wasn't that I hated The Girl from Everywhere or something, but I just... wasn't particularly drawn to continuing the story. In the end, I'm glad I picked this up, though, because I wound up quite enjoy this one! 

I really enjoying execution of the idea in The Ship Beyond Time- either because having read the first book I have fully wrapped my head around the concept, or just because if flowed better this time, I'm not sure. 

There were still a few things in the plot and execution that I didn't love, but I overall really enjoyed the story, and really appreciated Nix as a character this time around- she goes through an interesting arc and I enjoyed her journey! It's a very open-ended story, I do kind of feel like there could have been more...




Friday, May 5, 2017

#AsianLitBingo Sign-Up

Which I am making late because I am a terrible, terrible blogger.

This challenge, put together by a team of bloggers of Asian heritage, occurs over the month of May (which is Asian-American Heritage month in the States), focusing on reading books written by authors with Asian backgrounds starring Asian characters.

You can find the masterpost here.


AsianLitBingo


I'm planning to read at least five books for this, but I'll probably be aiming for more. I always need to push myself to diversify my reading, so this is a good opportunity to do that, and hopefully to discover some new favourite books!