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Sep. 23rd, 2021 09:28 pmOur 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.
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.
