Book #29 of 2015: Them (Remnants #3)
Oct. 2nd, 2015 08:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thistlechaserThem by K. A. Applegate
Rating: Liked (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)
I'm this close to knocking this series' score down from a Liked to an Okay, just because of how darned short these books are. While they're YA books, they're about half the length of an average YA book, for no reason I can see (other than to stretch it out and make more money off the series). That annoys me.
As usual, anything I write about the plot at this point will be a spoiler, so putting it behind the cut.
Book 1: The Earth was destroyed, the last 80 people, the Remnants of humanity, were sent off into space in hibernation/untested tech.
Book 2: They land on what they assume is a planet, though one side is a black and white photo by Ansel Adams, and the other side is a painting by some guy whose name I don't recall. The survivors are rightfully confused by how this is possible.
This book/3: They discover that they're on a ship, a ship called Mother by its alien residents (residents, not crew -- it's a huge ship). The ship's 'setting' (human art used to create the setting) changed to [artist whose name I don't recall]'s painting of hell. Demons, people being tortured, stereotypical Satan (red, horns, forked tail). Fun times! Most of the plot was about the survivors trying to survive hell.
One point I hadn't mentioned in my previous reviews: Being in hibernation for 500 years, in a ship that has had almost no testing (there was no time for scientists to test much, the Earth was about to be destroyed), had some major effects on the last humans. Humanity had never had a ship for deep space travel before, let alone one that would go on missions 500 years long, so all the remaining people got a good dose of radiation. In one case, the kid developed an odd power from that (he could sort of blend into the background, though not really a conscious ability).
The hibernation failed in one other way: In one case, the kid was just as almost-dead as the others (hibernation slows all your systems down until you're nearly dead), but unlike them, he was awake the whole time. 500 years of not being able to move, not being able to do anything but think. He went insane and maybe developed some special psychic powers (as he's not really sane, it's hard to tell for sure what exactly is real and not real with him).
I had thought those two things were just minor subplots, so I hadn't mentioned them in my review of book 2. But they were bigger and bigger issues in book 3, so I'm laying them out now. I suspect they're going to become the main plot moving forward
I'm a good way into book 4 already, I just hadn't had time to write about 3 until today.
Rating: Liked (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)
I'm this close to knocking this series' score down from a Liked to an Okay, just because of how darned short these books are. While they're YA books, they're about half the length of an average YA book, for no reason I can see (other than to stretch it out and make more money off the series). That annoys me.
As usual, anything I write about the plot at this point will be a spoiler, so putting it behind the cut.
Book 1: The Earth was destroyed, the last 80 people, the Remnants of humanity, were sent off into space in hibernation/untested tech.
Book 2: They land on what they assume is a planet, though one side is a black and white photo by Ansel Adams, and the other side is a painting by some guy whose name I don't recall. The survivors are rightfully confused by how this is possible.
This book/3: They discover that they're on a ship, a ship called Mother by its alien residents (residents, not crew -- it's a huge ship). The ship's 'setting' (human art used to create the setting) changed to [artist whose name I don't recall]'s painting of hell. Demons, people being tortured, stereotypical Satan (red, horns, forked tail). Fun times! Most of the plot was about the survivors trying to survive hell.
One point I hadn't mentioned in my previous reviews: Being in hibernation for 500 years, in a ship that has had almost no testing (there was no time for scientists to test much, the Earth was about to be destroyed), had some major effects on the last humans. Humanity had never had a ship for deep space travel before, let alone one that would go on missions 500 years long, so all the remaining people got a good dose of radiation. In one case, the kid developed an odd power from that (he could sort of blend into the background, though not really a conscious ability).
The hibernation failed in one other way: In one case, the kid was just as almost-dead as the others (hibernation slows all your systems down until you're nearly dead), but unlike them, he was awake the whole time. 500 years of not being able to move, not being able to do anything but think. He went insane and maybe developed some special psychic powers (as he's not really sane, it's hard to tell for sure what exactly is real and not real with him).
I had thought those two things were just minor subplots, so I hadn't mentioned them in my review of book 2. But they were bigger and bigger issues in book 3, so I'm laying them out now. I suspect they're going to become the main plot moving forward
I'm a good way into book 4 already, I just hadn't had time to write about 3 until today.
