(no subject)

[skygiants]

Our most recent book club read was the first book in Charlie Jane Anders' new YA series, Victories Greater Than Death, which has a really fun space opera nonsense plot and is chock full with cool and engaging ideas aaaand unfortunately nonetheless fell fairly flat for me on the page.

The premise: Tina, the clone of a heroic but sadly deceased alien commander, was dropped off with her adopted Earth mom eighteen years ago as a disguised-as-human baby with a Big Destiny, and has spent her whole life champing at the bit for the people who hid her to come collect her for the promised world-saving. When the fateful day finally comes, Tina and her best human friend Rachel are ready head to space to help a heroic alien space corps fight a faction of genocidal fascist aliens; however, it turns out the heroic alien corps is stressed and understaffed, so they also semi-abduct another four brilliant teen humans from around the world to help them on their Mission. And then: Space Adventures! Clone Identity Issues! Teen Romance! Brilliant Teen Humans Somehow Being Better At Everything Than Any Adult Alien Ever, Sure, Whatever, It's A Little Annoying But All Part Of The Genre!

This is all fun fast-paced heroic-adventure-wish-fulfillment with some very neat worldbuilding elements that I think may well be very enjoyable for teens and could potentially have been really enjoyable for me -- I love a clone with identity issues! you all know how I feel about Jupiter Ascending! -- but alas I just could not click with the characters, each of whom has time in between plot motion to be possessed approximately two unique character traits beyond the generic pattern of 'brilliant, heroic, well-intentioned, kind, open-minded and respectful.' They're all Good Kids with Varyingly Tragic Backstories! Broadly speaking, they all adapt astonishingly well to being on an alien spaceship with no idea when they will reach home again! Everyone makes space for each other's interests, and always asks permission before going in for a hug, and never bickers or complains about anything petty whatsoever, which, unfortunately, as an occasionally petty person who does bicker and complain about things frequently, made it difficult for me to connect at all with these good but slightly cardboard children.

(Also, whenever Tina accessed the logs of her heroic clonegenitor, her voice sounded exactly as generically teenaged as Tina and her friends and it did drive me up a wall a little.)

So I probably will not be reading the rest of this series, but I'm a little sad I read this before reading any of Charlie Jane Anders' adult novels and I do think I would like to give one of those a try at some point; there have been several times that an author whose adult work I really like just does not click for me in YA or middle-grade because of the switch in prose style, especially since the current prevailing YA first-person present-tense style is something that can easily miss the mark for me unless someone goes above and beyond to put a LOT of personality into it.

Comments

[sovay]

however, it turns out the heroic alien corps is stressed and understaffed

Yeah, apparently I just want the novel about the stressed and understaffed heroic alien corps. Also, I have never been around teens who weren't petty. Even or especially brilliant ones.

(I loved Jupiter Ascending.)

[skygiants]

We all noticed that none of the aliens were ever allowed to provide a solution to a problem when a Brilliant and Heroic Teen was around to offer a brilliant snap innovation instead, which ... again, genre, but we did feel a little affronted on their behalf!

(I AM SO GLAD YOU LOVED JUPITER ASCENDING)

[glitteryv]

I think this author is one that writes really catchy/intriguing premises that make me !!! but then the books always leave me whelmed at best or annoyed at worst. So far, I've read All the Birds in the Sky (which I liked fine) and The City in the Middle of the Night (which was not for me.)

So, since I'm 0-2 for this author's books, I'm sitting this one out. It's not worth it to me when there are other books out there, you know. :-/

That said, I'm sure there are folks who love this author and are thrilled to read this book, so it's all good in the end?

[skygiants]

Right, I'm glad for Anders' success! I hope many kids enjoy this book series! doesn't have to be for me etc.

[starlady]

I enjoyed it, but definitely in the beginning there's a lot of telling rather than showing. And I would agree about the unreality of the teen characters--even Tina herself thinks about the other teens in a weird way that didn't really ring true to me. Which would fit with the clonegenitor thing, except she explicitly doesn't have most of her higher level memories. And I liked the alien galactic backstory, but I thought the nemesis died too easily. I probably won't seek out the next two.

[skygiants]

It really got to me when Rachel locks herself in her room for weeks, and the only person who can vouch that they've seen her is an alien who's just like 'oh sure she comes out for work I guess,' and EVERY SINGLE KID is just like "well, we miss her but I guess we should give her space if she needs it" and doesn't do anything about it. For WEEKS! like, every single one of them has so deeply internalized 'we must give people space when they wish for space' that they all react to this the exact same way (and they are all more or less correct about it).

[lizbee]

You're actually the second person I know who had these problems! Which is secretly a relief to me, because my MG manuscript has some superficial similarities -- I also love clone identity issues -- and I was afraid this would blow up and I'd look like a copycat.

(Which is nonsense, obviously I was copying Bujold.)

[skygiants]

I don't think you are in danger of that! love to lean into clone identity issues in their Infinite Potential And Variety

(are we not all, in some way or respect, copying Bujold >.>)