Official Review: A Once and Future Planet

Paliden · Post by **Paliden** » 08 Apr 2014, 21:34

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "A Once and Future Planet" by Kayla Anne Marie Nicholls.]

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This is my review of A Once and Future Planet. We start off with a lady named Piper who plays a central figure throughout the book. The world is dying and Piper will do anything to save her children. With that in mind, a super high-tech spaceship is built, secretly of course, with the sole purpose of saving certain individuals from the Earths inevitable demise. As often happens in these scenarios, things don’t go exactly as planned. From there, we follow two separate human colonies throughout a very long period of time. There are several key characters in this story but the main ones (in my opinion) are the twins (Ryder and Dawn), Gemma (a scientist), and David (another scientist). Their stories entwine in ways that are surprising to say the least. Be forewarned, this story ends in a serious cliffhanger!

There are several things that I didn’t enjoy about this book. To begin with, it jumps around through history way too much. I understand having big time gaps between all the major points but there wasn’t enough time spent in the beginning periods. Also, even though all the scientific explanations were very interesting in the beginning, it got monotonous quick. I was left feeling like we were repeating everything over and over.

And then there is the fact that we are introduced to several characters that at first seem to be important, only to fade off as the story goes on. We never really discover what their purpose was in the story. And what was with the little green eyed children? What happened to Thaddy? How is Piper still around after all this time? These are just a few of the questions I had after finishing “A Once and Future Planet”. The biggest letdown to me was the end. Personally, I’m not fond of cliffhangers.

As to what all I did enjoy, here are a few of them. I thoroughly enjoyed Ryder’s relationship with Dawn. It was very entertaining to watch them interact with each other. The concept of families being reunited after hundreds of years was a very emotional one. I thought that the Nothing was represented quite realistically while still holding on to the perfect edge of a dream. In the end, all we have is hope and hope will endure.

All in all, this book was slightly disappointing to me. I felt like the story line in and of itself was amazing but the book could use a lot of work. However, I’m sure that it will appeal to a certain audience.

I am rating this book 2 out of 4 stars.

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sighingsoftly · Post by **sighingsoftly** » 12 Apr 2014, 02:14

I am very grateful for your (this reviewers) opinion and you have given me a whole lot to think about, mostly, how to make it less sluggish and confusing, more clear and fluid.
Thank you for your time and honesty, and I shall definately take your opinion/advise into consideration in the future.
You have made my day!