You know that segment on SNL: Really?! Well, reading this book was kind of like that. I read the primary inversion and like it, even if I had some issues about it. So, I thought it might be good to read by chronological order. I know this book was published later than Primary Inversion, but time wise it’s first in the series. I wonder if it was written before, because it seemed undeveloped and very childlike and not in a good way. I don’t mean it was written with a childlike wonder which would have been great, but I mean it was written as if someone was telling a very simplistic story to a child (style, vocabulary, development). It was hard to believe it was the same author. I did not like the main characters. They were overkill. Like when often very young and emotionally immature writers do; make their characters beautiful, everything in gold and violet, rich, talented, flawless. In other words, the author tried to mound on as much perfection as possible just to force the reader to like her characters. For me personally it makes the characters robotic and unreachable. The conversations in the book were very flat; sometimes downright banal. I knew what the author was trying to convey (Rich girl that is really a good person that you just must love, misunderstood and portrayed as spoiled when actually she is driven by duty…blabla bullshit), buts it’s done like this: pretty, (gold waist long hair with perfect figure): check, talented and creative (ballerina dancer): check, smart (member of an assembly and foreign affairs councilor): check, rich (royalty): check, emotionally developed (empathy with a history of abuse): check, misunderstood (she tries to connect with people, but her tone is ice): check. At the end of a basically enumerated list that was all crammed in within like 25 pages, I was like: OH COME ON! REALY!? It’s not that the characteristics are bad (they are), but it’s also how they are conveyed to the reader. Here it’s crammed in and listed. It comes off as needy and in poor skill. Primary Inversion was just so much better. We got glimpses of the protagonist’s past and her behavior in the present required the reader to develop an opinion. It was not told to the reader, but inferred through events (well at least some of it was). The author gave me as a reader a choice to like or dislike the protagonist. She allowed me to connect with her imperfections and struggles. She did not list it, charred it and made me eat it. I also often heard that Asaro is similar to Lois Bujold McMaster. But, if the series is written like this book, she doesn’t hold a candle to Bujold because Bujold would have never did anything as simplistic as this. The only thing they have in common is the genre. Another problem is Asaro's idea at describing a primitive culture. She tries so hard to do it; she makes them look retarded not primitive. I mean, her idea of primitive is insulting to any primordial culture. There is also a plot that seams…how I put this…Really!? I just did not get why the protagonist ended up on Skyfall. I mean, I understand the causality of events, but the meaningfulness of those events is senseless. It felt like Asaro could come up with anything remotely plausible so she comes up with is cock a doodle story.Here are a few positives; so I am not a total evil witch. The only positive was Kurj; the disturbing, emotionally crippled giant with an Oedipus complex (I call it like I see it). He is actually the only character that has depth. He makes good and bad decisions. He’s unsettling and complex. You don’t know if he will choose good or evil. He is not a foreign affairs, gold statue ballerina, soon to become foreign affairs, gold statue ballerina and soccer mom (Yawn). The family complexities are not bad; the father who's the grandfather and brother. It would have been a Greek Tragedy if not for the fact that half the book took place in Magic Kingdom Resort and Casino and written like the script for a blend of My Little Pony, Jungle to Jungle and Princes Diaries.I also read the short story “My Glass Stained Heart’. If you havn’t read it, don’t bother. This is a delightfully boring story placed in (the very same) candy land featuring one of Roca’s children, written with pure idealism and packed with bullshit. What a waste of time. Honestly this story had nothing interesting to offer. It’s superficial and bland. At least in Romeo and Juliet someone dies at the end. How uninspiring is this.
It hadn't dawned on me, where else Asaro could jump/skip/leap in her universe to another non-linear storyline. Of course, go back in time just a tiny bit, rewind, and give a further backstory on some characters we'd met already.I think of all the hop/skip/jump changes in the Skolian universe, this one pleased me the most. Lyshriol has some idyllic, legendary qualities, and it was nice to get lost on that world for a while. Also, it's finally getting easier to keep track of who's who, especially since we know where some of these folks ends up in a generation or two. The romanticized nature of Lyshriol reminded me quite a bit of the earlier Pern books by Anne McCaffery.
What do You think about Skyfall (2004)?
I give up. I'm never going to finish this book, it's too twee. I let the spaceships trick me into thinking this was science fiction, but nooo. There may be a spaceship and evil alien empire somewhere in the background, but mostly it's telepathic ballerina senator princess mary sue and purple unicorns and vaguely elfin magic bard-king doing pointless things on top of a mountain in a Disneyland castle on a planet where everyone eats colored bubbles. Probably no spoiler to mention the magic pregnancy at this point. Hmm, on second thought, I'll upgrade from one to two stars since it does at least have a person of color on the cover, rare enough...
—Janne
