Review by shayreegs -- Solaris Seethes (Solaris Saga boo...
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shayreegs
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- Latest Review: Solaris Seethes (Solaris Saga book 1) by Janet McNulty
Review by shayreegs -- Solaris Seethes (Solaris Saga boo...
[Following is a volunteer review of "Solaris Seethes (Solaris Saga book 1)" by Janet McNulty.]
Solaris Seethes by Janet McNulty is an action-packed, science-fiction adventure about a young woman, Rynah, tasked with saving her planet from destruction.
Rynah grew up with her grandfather's tales of six magical crystals, capable of being joined together to create a deadly weapon. She always believed the stories to be primarily myth, but this changes when the crystal that powers her planet is stolen. Facing the possible destruction of her home, Rynah must join forces with four heroes and an AI-powered spaceship to locate the remaining crystals before her ex-fiancé; who intends to use them for his own nefarious purposes.
Although McNulty presents a compelling idea for a story, she fails to develop her characters or their world. Due to this and her ineloquent writing style, I found it near impossible to get invested in any part of Solaris Seethes.
Typically, a book begins with several chapters that introduce the reader to the world. McNulty completely bypasses this and chooses instead to start her story with 25 pages of action that includes a betrayal and more. Without any prior buildup or character development, this whole part falls completely flat, and a major event ends up feeling inconsequential.
Actually, my biggest issue overall with Solaris Seethes was McNulty’s complete inability to develop her characters. Although we receive detailed descriptions of their appearances and some of their backstories, she fails to imbue them with any emotions or personality. For example, in the first chapter, when Rynah loses everything she cherishes, which should be hugely traumatic, we are only told that she felt angry. Immediately proceeding this, we jump five days into the future and right into the main plotline, still having spent no time exploring Rynah’s feelings.
I wish I could say that the development came later in the story, but, sadly, that was not the case. In fact, all of the characters seemed to have the emotional span of a robot. For example, four of them get abducted into an alien world, and they barely even react. Personally, this made it impossible for me to be able to connect with anyone.
This issue was partly a result of McNulty’s heavy focus on the plot. She dives straight into the action without taking any time to portray the emotions of her characters. Additionally, her writing style did not help. One of the first rules of creative writing is show, don’t tell, but apparently, McNulty never learned this because all she ever does is tell. For example, instead of showing emotion, we are told that Rynah's emotions reeled within her, or her anger seethed within her. While, realistically, it is necessary to do some telling for the sake of momentum, the complete lack of showing made it difficult to get immersed in the story.
Another issue that I had with McNulty’s writing was her choppy prose and hard-to-read text, made significantly worse by her over usage of dashes and parenthesis. For example, on page 59, she wrote, “Once again, she had been forced to flee for her life from Jenny Sommers (the popular girl in her school who always had the latest clothes in fashion, dated the star football quarterback in a cliched high school romance, and had recently received a Lexus convertible for her birthday) and her friends, who were just as spoiled.” It feels as if she went back to do edits and decided she needed more descriptions, but instead of incorporating them into the story, she just threw them in parenthesis.
This book's readability was further damaged by her inconsistent and confusing use of perspectives. It does not seem like McNulty thought much about the narrative voice or perspective before she began writing. She would regularly jump heads multiple times in the same scene, and sometimes even in the same paragraph. The constant head-hopping was very disorientating since I had to re-evaluate the scene constantly.
Basically, this book was all plot and no depth. Even then, the plot was not always fully developed, with the characters almost too conveniently knowing some things but not others. For example, the AI can and does scan planets for life-forms, but she conveniently does not ever scan Rynah’s planet, making it possible for them to be surprised by an enemy while there.
Overall, due to all of the writing issues, I would rate this book 2 out of 4 stars. Honestly, there was not much that I enjoyed about Solaris Seethes, but since it is a decent story, a 10 to 13-year-old sci-fi fan could like it. Additionally, if it was well-edited, it could appeal to a larger young adult audience.
******
Solaris Seethes (Solaris Saga book 1)
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on iTunes | on Smashwords
Solaris Seethes by Janet McNulty is an action-packed, science-fiction adventure about a young woman, Rynah, tasked with saving her planet from destruction.
Rynah grew up with her grandfather's tales of six magical crystals, capable of being joined together to create a deadly weapon. She always believed the stories to be primarily myth, but this changes when the crystal that powers her planet is stolen. Facing the possible destruction of her home, Rynah must join forces with four heroes and an AI-powered spaceship to locate the remaining crystals before her ex-fiancé; who intends to use them for his own nefarious purposes.
Although McNulty presents a compelling idea for a story, she fails to develop her characters or their world. Due to this and her ineloquent writing style, I found it near impossible to get invested in any part of Solaris Seethes.
Typically, a book begins with several chapters that introduce the reader to the world. McNulty completely bypasses this and chooses instead to start her story with 25 pages of action that includes a betrayal and more. Without any prior buildup or character development, this whole part falls completely flat, and a major event ends up feeling inconsequential.
Actually, my biggest issue overall with Solaris Seethes was McNulty’s complete inability to develop her characters. Although we receive detailed descriptions of their appearances and some of their backstories, she fails to imbue them with any emotions or personality. For example, in the first chapter, when Rynah loses everything she cherishes, which should be hugely traumatic, we are only told that she felt angry. Immediately proceeding this, we jump five days into the future and right into the main plotline, still having spent no time exploring Rynah’s feelings.
I wish I could say that the development came later in the story, but, sadly, that was not the case. In fact, all of the characters seemed to have the emotional span of a robot. For example, four of them get abducted into an alien world, and they barely even react. Personally, this made it impossible for me to be able to connect with anyone.
This issue was partly a result of McNulty’s heavy focus on the plot. She dives straight into the action without taking any time to portray the emotions of her characters. Additionally, her writing style did not help. One of the first rules of creative writing is show, don’t tell, but apparently, McNulty never learned this because all she ever does is tell. For example, instead of showing emotion, we are told that Rynah's emotions reeled within her, or her anger seethed within her. While, realistically, it is necessary to do some telling for the sake of momentum, the complete lack of showing made it difficult to get immersed in the story.
Another issue that I had with McNulty’s writing was her choppy prose and hard-to-read text, made significantly worse by her over usage of dashes and parenthesis. For example, on page 59, she wrote, “Once again, she had been forced to flee for her life from Jenny Sommers (the popular girl in her school who always had the latest clothes in fashion, dated the star football quarterback in a cliched high school romance, and had recently received a Lexus convertible for her birthday) and her friends, who were just as spoiled.” It feels as if she went back to do edits and decided she needed more descriptions, but instead of incorporating them into the story, she just threw them in parenthesis.
This book's readability was further damaged by her inconsistent and confusing use of perspectives. It does not seem like McNulty thought much about the narrative voice or perspective before she began writing. She would regularly jump heads multiple times in the same scene, and sometimes even in the same paragraph. The constant head-hopping was very disorientating since I had to re-evaluate the scene constantly.
Basically, this book was all plot and no depth. Even then, the plot was not always fully developed, with the characters almost too conveniently knowing some things but not others. For example, the AI can and does scan planets for life-forms, but she conveniently does not ever scan Rynah’s planet, making it possible for them to be surprised by an enemy while there.
Overall, due to all of the writing issues, I would rate this book 2 out of 4 stars. Honestly, there was not much that I enjoyed about Solaris Seethes, but since it is a decent story, a 10 to 13-year-old sci-fi fan could like it. Additionally, if it was well-edited, it could appeal to a larger young adult audience.
******
Solaris Seethes (Solaris Saga book 1)
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on iTunes | on Smashwords
Latest Review: Solaris Seethes (Solaris Saga book 1) by Janet McNulty
