I received this book free to review from Netgalley. It is a very poorly written YA dystopian novel. The idea is interesting and I was able to read the whole book, which is why I gave it a rating of 2 rather than 1, but the writing really is rather dreadful. In this book, nineteen year old Piri, who lives in a city in the sky connected to the earth by a very large column, is accidentally dropped to earth when a transport he is riding in is struck by lightening. He is rescued by a boy his age named Niko and taken to live with a group of the ground dwellers, who Piri did not even know existed. While Piri and the people who live in the city are small and pale skinned and blonde, Niko and the ground dwellers who call themselves "the Children" are darker skinned and speak the same English that the city dwellers speak, with a few Spanish words thrown in. The third group of people is the Scavs, large, and fierce and barbaric who paint themselves black with the "black stuff from the pits".
The world-building is incomplete partly because the writer does not name things. The city in the clouds is merely "the City", the flat round stone disks that make light are not named by the city people or the "Children", bees are not named but are referred to as "flying things with stingers" by the "Children" just to give a few examples. The grammar is poor and some words are misused - for instance the word "dramatic" was used where "traumatic" should have been used - twice.
In this book, religion is used to control and manipulate the poor, deluded "Children" and homosexuality is seen as normal and natural. I suspect that is why some people like the book - and why others will not like it. However, even if people are looking for that theme and really like it and want to read books that extol those concepts, it does not excuse the poor writing. The book ends with a possible cliffhanger and if the author intends to write any more books, I do hope that he takes some writing classes, gets an editor, and gives some thought to naming things in order to improve his stories.
I have two books published by the same publisher, so I received a free ebook version of this title. I think it takes a certain level of intelligence to appreciate this book, and you seemed to have missed a lot. For example, the story says that the people who live up in the city have the exact same skin color as those on the ground. And Bold Strokes Books has great editors, but anyone can miss things.
ReplyDeleteIf you don’t like the storyline or that gay people are accepted as normal, I understand. Most bad reviews of my books all mention the lesbian element. But this book does not have bad grammar or poor writing. I don’t know if you know this, but it is possible to give a book a bad review without attacking the author. I understand that anyone can pass themselves off as a reviewer, but perhaps you could spend a little time reading professional reviews to learn how to do it.
Actually, I have no problem at all with the homosexuality being accepted as normal in the book. I felt that the book was poorly written. I gave a few examples in the review such as the word "dramatic" being used instead of "traumatic" and things being described rather than given names. As I stated, the idea is interesting, but I think that the writing is simply not very good.
ReplyDeleteWow. Thanks for the email about this page – and the support. I’ve noticed that Bold Strokes Books authors really stick together. I had already read this review on Amazon.
ReplyDeleteThe thing is; I really tried to do someone way off the normal path here, and I found it wasn’t easy to write in first person, present tense. I think I concentrated so much on hidden messages, I wasn’t clear enough on the visible events.
My first novel, Reternity, was named to Kirkus Reviews Best of 2011, and has had awesome reviews. This book, however, has had several bad reviews, mostly on Goodreads, many that share the concerns of this reviewer. For example, others have come away thinking that the skin tones of the city dwellers and those on the surface are different. It’s either the cover image or I didn’t do a good job conveying the story.
But thanks for the defense and thanks also to the reviewer.