Official Review: Station Alpha by Nicole Adrianne

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[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Station Alpha" by Nicole Adrianne.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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Station Alpha by Nicole Adrianne is an exciting science-fiction young-adult novel. I could not put the book down and read it in two sittings. Nicole does a remarkable job keeping the reader engaged, which renders you defenseless in any effort to pause your reading until the end. This book is a must-read for all science-fiction reading enthusiasts.

The story begins with a 17-year-old boy named Rowan, who is lamenting on the recent separation from his sister Amber. The social system of this future depiction of the earth has a unique testing system for students at the end of each school year. This system is the cause of Rowan's separation from Amber. These test results work as a placement system with students being placed in categories of basic, advanced, or enlightened—resulting in Ambers placement in an alternate location for basic students. Meantime Rowan embarks upon a journey to Station Alpha, a space-center for the enlightened students. Rowan's soon to be classmate Jada is the top percentile student of the school. She is an adventurous romantic, which compliments the soft-spoken and tenderhearted Rowan.

What I liked about this book was the plot. I found it very unique and fascinating to read. It is a tall task to come up with something new and exciting. Most stories of this genre are somewhat repetitive. However, Nicole was able to create a story-line that I have not encountered. The uniqueness made it a pure joy to read. Like I stated above, I read the book in two sittings!

There were two main aspects of this piece I did not like. First, there was a very confusing amount of punctuation used. At times there was a full paragraph that was one sentence only broken up by never-ending commas and colons. Second, each chapter is written from the first-person vantage point of two different main characters. However, there are no indications of the change of narrative at the beginning of the sections. I had to read the second chapter twice because I was so lost. You quickly pick up the pattern, though. There is one chapter written as Rowan, followed by one as Jada. This pattern stays consistent throughout the whole book.

In conclusion, I enjoyed this book and rate it 3 out of 4 stars. The reason I cannot give a higher rating is because of the confusion suffered in the beginning learning the pattern of chapter narratives. Also, for the fact that most of the text was run-on sentences broken up by a large number of commas. That being said, the book was edited well, as I did not note any spelling or grammatical errors. The long sentences were the author's choice and contained the proper punctuation. There is no use of vulgar language and no explicit scenes, which makes the content readable for all ages. I highly recommend reading this novel to anyone that enjoys science-fiction young-adult genres.

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Station Alpha
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[NetMassimo]

Probably I'm too old for this novel as it seems strongly targeted to teenagers / young adults with a story centered around a future school system. Thank you for your informative review!

[SunVixen]

"What I liked about this book was the plot. I found it very unique and fascinating to read. It is a tall task to come up with something new and exciting. Most stories of this genre are somewhat repetitive. However, Nicole was able to create a story-line that I have not encountered. The uniqueness made it a pure joy to read. Like I stated above, I read the book in two sittings!"

It is really tall task, to create something new and unique. Thank you for great review.

[naraj]

This education system is something I have hardly come upon in my science-fiction reads. It is indeed interesting. To challenge these things and create a new challengable thing is what science-fiction should be good at. Thank you for the great review!

[hasincla]

Wow, sounds like a unique take on a brutal future where young people are separated for the good of society. I'm encouraged by the fact that you read it so fast! And I'm glad to know about the narrative change you talked about so I don't get so confused. Thanks for your thorough review.