Book #91 of 2023: What Goes Up | DNF: Copycat, Storm Born

[thistlechaser]

What Goes Up by Katie Kennedy. I loved this book so much! Or at least the first 80% or so. Early on in the story I had that "Wow I'm so lucky to be reading this!" feeling. I finished the whole book in less than a day.

Set in the current US (or maybe near future), scientists have proven the Multiverse Theory is real (that there are an uncountable other number of dimensions, each with a slightly different Earth). And so a new branch of NASA is created to be ready to deal with arrivals from another dimension (assumedly some of the Earths are more advanced than ours).

Most of the book was getting to know the main characters and following them through the "first contact" training. I loved it so much! The characters were so interesting and the situation/worldbuilding was wonderful.

The last 20% or so of the book didn't work for me, though I'm probably the minority. The "worst case" happens and the main characters have to deal with arrivals from another Earth. It was all action/adventure, but unfortunately I didn't believe a lot of it. (For example, the main characters jumped from one airplane to another while they were in flight. Jump out the open door of one, into the open door of another. The wind would have whipped them away!)

Tiny other complaint: I don't think the title or the cover art fit the story. It was quite serious, but the book's cover makes it look silly.

Even though the ending didn't work for me, I still really loved this book. Unfortunately the author has only written one other thing, and as soon as I finished this one, I got a copy of it.

DNF #171: Copycat by Colin Dann. While reading this book, I thought it was extremely dated. The dialogue (cats talking) sounded like a 1930s black and white British movie. Eventually I had to flip to the copyright page to see when it had been published. 2014!

The book followed a pair of cats living in a London park. The humans of the city decided there were too many strays, so hired animal control people to round them up.

The cats didn't really act like cats (instead acted like a human nuclear family) and wow the dialogue couldn't sound less cat-like to me.

I'm pretty sure I tried to read something else by this author and had the same reaction to it. I think his style is just not for me.

DNF #172: Storm Born by Amy Braun. Even when a book seems like it's not a good match for me, I'm giving it more of a chance than usual since I'm reading so much more this year. I'm going to run out of books!

In this one, every 100 years a "Centennial Storm" hits the entire world. Rich people and people who win a lottery can go to underground shelters, but everyone else has to ride it out as best they can.

The worldbuilding was really, really unbelievable. The main character (Ava) was so uninteresting and hard to root for. Eventually I went to Goodreads to see what others think, and apparently it all gets a lot worse, including instant-love between Ava and a mysterious handsome man.

Comments

[jeane nevarez (from livejournal.com)]

Too bad about the cat one. The cover and premise would have at least made me pick it up. Now I know better . . .

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it seems like something we would have liked!