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Indlæser... The Hidden Worldsaf Kristin Landon
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Bliv medlem af LibraryThing for at finde ud af, om du vil kunne lide denne bog. Der er ingen diskussionstråde på Snak om denne bog. There was nothing really wrong with this book, but we've seen it before and better. There are elite pilots who breed for pilots, there are hidden worlds. Our occassionally fiesty heroine, who changes her personality a bit from time to time, comes from a backwater fishing world where everything is falling apart. She sells herself into contract for 7 years to a pilot, who doesn't want her, but takes her because the contract was valid. And then mysteries which are pretty obvious and not so mysterious continue to unfold. Not especially well written, but not a wall banger either. It has a sequel that I don't think I'll bother with. A library loan that will soon be forgotten. (Amy) OK, so, remember when I said not everything needs to be original? Turns out some books could do with just a smidge more originality. Setting: Earth overrun by the Cold Minds (nano gone wild, or so it seems); humanity dispersed to the Hidden Worlds to rebuild and hide from them, connected only by the Pilot Masters, an elite class with the necessary (and inborn, it seems) skill to perform this universe's particular form of faster-than-light travel. Yawn. Oh, but it gets better! Our protagonist is from a religious, repressed world, all bound up in proprieties. And apparently the Pilot Masters are quite a depraved bunch, according to her teachers. So when she ends up having to indenture herself to a Pilot Master to support her family, she is sure she's bound for some horrid - and lurid! - fate. Anyway. Enough with mockery. It's actually an enjoyable book - well suited to reading on a plane, which is what I did. The story is entertaining and engaging, the plot is . . . not so predictable that it's impossible to pretend not to know what's coming, and the people only make you want to punch them for the first half or so of the book. Yikes. Talk about damning with faint praise. Still, though, the sequel comes out later this year, and I'm sure I'll buy and read it. These days, even competent-but-not-stellar books seem not so easy to find. Perhaps I'm becoming jaded, as I approach the beginning of my fourth decade... ( http://weblog.siliconcerebrate.com/zenos-library/2008/03/the-hidden-worlds-krist... ) (Alistair) Competent, is what I think I will say. Okay, maybe I've read so much SF I'm something of a demanding reader, overall, but as Amy said in her review, there are a lot of well-worn tropes being used: runaway AI/nanotech, fallen Earth, FTL travel controlled by a guild, etc., etc. I want something new. That said, they're competently assembled; the characters are well-drawn (in the case of most of the other inhabitants of one of the protagonists' - Linnea's - home world, which is... somewhat backward, enough so that I spent some notable time rooting for them and their attitude problems to be eaten by the runaway nano; harsh, ain't I?), the plot holds the interest, and so forth. It's an enjoyable, engaging read. I just can't honestly say that I'd go out of my way to seek it out, as is, given the above. That also said, this is the first novel by this author, and it has a sequel, which I'm sure I will also read in time. I think there's promise shown here, both for the rest of this series and for future books by this author, and we shall see what time has to tell. ( http://weblog.siliconcerebrate.com/cerebrate/2008/10/the_hidden_worlds_kristin_l... ) This is a good, political, romantic, SF-lite book. The review criticized that not all of Landon's settings received the same kind of treatment as those did on Santandru, but overall, the settings aren't as important as the story, the intrigue, and the characters, which Landon handles wonderfully. I think fans of Catherine Asaro's Skolian Empire series will enjoy this, if only as a quick read. I know I did. I'm looking forward to the sequel. For a full review, which may or may not include spoilers, just click here: http://calico-reaction.livejournal.com/40831.html ingen anmeldelser | tilføj en anmeldelse
Belongs to SeriesHidden Worlds (Book 1)
After the Earth was destroyed by ruthless machine intelligences, humanity was saved by a hereditary guild of jump pilots, who now control all travel and communication among the Hidden Worlds-and whose power nineteen-year-old Linnea may topple. No library descriptions found. |
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Linnea is a feisty heroine with a plan that may or may not be the stupidest idea she's ever had. Really depends on your viewpoint. She wants to save her planet at all costs--even that of her family ties and respect. Iain is rather the opposite--he'd give up his family pretty quickly all told (some of them are...disturbing to say the least.).
When I first read the book I didn't have any problems with how it was written--its more or less a two part story in one novel. The first part is Linnea's daring plan, making an ally of Iain and uncovering a lot she really shouldn't have. The second part is the consequences (for them both) of uncovering that terrible secret. On a second (or third I forget which this is) read through it felt a little more disparate.
Then also Landon has homosexual relationship between men as the norm for Iain's society--its almost as expected of a man to take a male lover as a female lover. Women are more or less ornaments in his world, used for breeding purposes to create better pilots. Unfortunately the Pilot-Master society is ruthless and it leads to the disturbing person that is Iain's cousin, Rafael who uses sexual abuse against both Linnea and Iain.
I don't think this is necessarily a novel for people who don't like a whole lot of dark in their reading--the end is...less than hopeful for a variety of reasons. The 'evil' of the series in general (The Cold Minds) turned my stomach a bit. Even still I recommend this to fans of suspenseful science fiction books. ( )