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| Image (c) Balzer & Bray |
Publication Date: January 21st, 2014
Format: Library Book
A ragtag group of teenage mercenaries who crew the spaceship Avalon stumble upon a conspiracy that could threaten the entire galaxy in this fascinating and fast-paced sci-fi adventure from author Mindee Arnett.
Of the various star systems that make up the Confederation, most lie thousands of light-years from First Earth-and out here, no one is free. The agencies that govern the Confederation are as corrupt as the crime bosses who patrol it, and power is held by anyone with enough greed and ruthlessness to claim it. That power is derived from one thing: metatech, the devices that allow people to travel great distances faster than the speed of light.
Jeth Seagrave and his crew of teenage mercenaries have survived in this world by stealing unsecured metatech, and they're damn good at it. Jeth doesn't care about the politics or the law; all he cares about is earning enough money to buy back his parents' ship, Avalon, from his crime-boss employer and getting himself and his sister, Lizzie, the heck out of Dodge. But when Jeth finds himself in possession of information that both the crime bosses and the government are willing to kill for, he is going to have to ask himself how far he'll go to get the freedom he's wanted for so long.
Avalon is the perfect fit for teens new to sci-fi as well as seasoned sci-fi readers looking for more books in the YA space-and a great match for fans of Joss Whedon's cult hit show Firefly.
In
all honesty, I can't remember where or how I found out about this book.
I think I recall seeing the book cover at the least. I also recall
seeing a review for it on Goodreads a while back. It was probably a
review that was made before the actual book was released. I can't
remember. I forgot about it a little while later until I finished the
actual book. Funny how it was the one thing that reminded me why I
didn't want to read it in the first place.
I
would add in a more specific synopsis at this point but if you watched
Firefly, well... you probably already have a good idea what happened
through most of the book.
This
was an interesting book although I wouldn't really compare it to
Firefly. Well- I certainly wouldn't call it a great match for fans of
Firefly at least. It's kind of more like... fanfiction but with only a
couple of changes. Kind of like how someone fell in love with the
original story but wanted to add in their own twist to the story and
instead decided to make the characters as teenagers. That's essentially
what this story felt like to me and that's what made the story fall flat
for me. It might be okay for some people but, for me, not as much.
I
did like the twist at the end though. That, admittingly, took me way
off guard but I did like the twist that was made I think somewhere maybe
after the halfway mark in the story. I don't want to spoil it though.
There are people who felt like it wasn't spoilers (I think a couple
people did mention it just because it did seem 'obvious' to them) but
because it caught me a bit off guard I'll keep it marked as spoilers. I
loved it. I will add, though, that it does involve two certain
characters...
I
didn't care much about the insta-love between Jeth and another certain
character. I'm a huge stickler when it comes to proper romance in a book
and this definitely wasn't a very good example in my opinion. I liked
Jeth before he met her. Afterwards he seemed more focused on her than
anything else in the story. I... know the reason, I guess, which is of
course spoilers, but still.
There
was also a sad lack of history with how the world came out to how it
was was in this book. There wasn't really much of an explanation as to
why everyone had to start living and traveling in space ships. I can see
that it could potentially be talked about in the second book but I
honestly don't feel like reading it. Maybe I'll check it out in some of
the reviews one day.
(Originally posted on A Court of Ink and Paper, previously known as Cosying Up With Books)
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