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July 2004
Reviews
I really enjoyed Grasp the Stars. It was witty and had a swift current of banter that I enjoyed.
The alien races, the Rofan and Phi-Nurian's, are quite interesting. I especially like the Rofan, they were fun.
They reminded me of little boys who can't wait to go outside on a summer's afternoon to find mischief. The
Phi-Nurian's just needed to get their asses kicked. Sorry, but we didn't need 'em, they needed us and plus,
they were gross. The human characters were great, I LOVED Rachel. She defines my ideal character: strong, heroic and
irreproachable. Wu, also was a kick, I loved his line:
'What doesn't kill you, will wake you up.'
Several authors try to give their character's catch phrases and fail. Jennifer Wingert, does a great job with that one. Though used consistently throughout the novel, it never got tired. As for the other characters:Tigre broke my heart.
Jhaska made me cry.
Concha annoyed me.
Bailey was stupid.
Meris. . . Huh?
As for Jardin and Rife, enough already.
For all the praise I do have a few gripes.
| Gripe #1: Plot | The plot was convuluted and many things happen at the speed of plot. i.e. Rachel stepping in the battery, then giving away her phone, then getting arrested. As much as I admire, strong, straight forward characters did she have to be the one to save EVERYBODY? |
| Gripe #2: Meris | Plus, what in the bloody, blue, blazes is up with Meris and the artifact? Why is it so darned important, if no one really knows what it says. Why did she try to kill herself? I know that there needs to be some sense of mystery for future books, but at least tie up the loose ends of the first one. |
| Gripe #3: Loose Ends | Does Rachel get nominated to the World Council or not? |
| Gripe #4: Love Circle | I don't mind homosexual or bi overtones, but can you make up your mind? At the end of what I gather was three, or four days, everyone is in love with everyone. A little confusing. Wu and Rachel make absolute sense, everyone else, not so much. And why in the hell did it take Wu twenty years to propose? |
| Gripe #5: Mom | Rachel's Mom? Why? |
All in all however, Grasp the Stars is good, and much, much better than others. A highly recommendable read.
I too shall miss hammocks in the rain and collie dogs.
This book is like a breath of fresh air after last month's Feature. It didn't require much thought to enjoy the
simple diction. That said, the reader does have to work to keep track of who's stabbing who's back throughout the story.
This book is filled with so much duplicity that it dripped from the pages. I even started to doubt MY intentions for
reading it.
Thankfully, the tide of tragedy and crises is held at bay with the simple usage of humor. I found myself laughing out loud at many of the conversations, not to mention the humorous interactions of the many alien races.
The viewpoint changes through a select group of characters and does well at conveying the story from each perspective. Each viewpoint character felt likable and believable but the writer may have gone too far at creating flawed personas. Each character had a past emotional trauma that they suffered from. At times their problems felt excessively dramatic and emphasized to a point that eclipsed the plot.
Here's my Gripes:
| Gripe #1: Adject Terror | The writer had a definite attack of the
"ly's".
The adding of "ly" adjectives to verbs. Most of the published authors that I have met or read all say that the "ly"
stands for LAZY! It also breaks the rule of "Show. Dont tell." I also violates the boundry set
by the viewpoint. Ex: She said, grimly - firmly - furiously - crisply - sarcasticly - derisively. If you want to understand my gripe better, get a group of five people and try speaking to them in each of the above emotions. After each one, have them write down what emotion each person thought you were trying to convey. After that, try it with Smiles and then Snorts. |
| Gripe #2: End the DAMN thing! | The story continued too far past the climax of the plot. If a book is worth anything, it can work the reader into a psuedo-adrenaline high at the climax. The resolution of the plot is to tie up loose ends and cushion the reader as they come down off the climax high. A good book plans the end for just before the reader returns to normal. The high is still fresh in their minds and they feel good about the book. But a writer that plans a poor ending continues past the return to normal and the reader crashes from the high with withdrawal symptoms. Now the reader is disliking the book. This author should have kept the Rachael and Wu parts at the end but scrapped or condensed the Tigre, Meris, and Bailey parts. |
Save your money. This book had a very loose plot, horrible dialogue (I’ve already sold the book or I’d quote some) and
took forever to read. Most of the characters were interesting, but the ending sucked and about 100 pages could have
been cut off the end. I also had a huge gripe with everyone falling in love with everyone within the span of about 4
days. This book was more like a daytime soap opera than a science fiction novel.