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The Plagues of Kondar by Lynne Kositsky
(Book received free for review from Dundurn.)
Rating: 2/disliked (1-5/hated-loved)
About 25% into Plagues, I realized I was feeling like I had fallen for a bait-and-switch. The blurb had made this book sound scifi-ish and quite interesting:
Planet Kondar has a light side that faces the sun and a dark side in eternal night. Lightsiders have never met those on Darkside, known as Oscura. Arien lives in Kattannya on Lightside. When her parents fall through thin ice and drown, she is sold in the marketplace. The chief seer of Vor, Yaddair, purchases her.
Vor is very close to Edge, a grey wall of fog that divides Lightside from Oscura. The Oscurans are suffering from a deadly plague and some fly into Vor, bringing the disease with them. How will the Vorians cure it? And what will happen to Arien?
It was only at the 50% point of the book that the first hints of this plague appeared, by which point I was more than ready to give up on the book. Up until that point I could have been reading a story about a teenager in any generically poor area. While it did take place on another planet, some really basic details weren't consistent, which didn't help (in an early chapter the main character said their world only had two seasons (summer/winter), but a few chapters later there was spring season).
One of the biggest issues I had was the dialogue. The main character was 15, but when she spoke all I could picture was a stereotypical Strong Adult Woman. It's possible their harsh planet ages people quicker, but the book gave no indication of that (they couldn't marry before 17, for example). But then, the main character wasn't alone in this -- no character's dialogue felt natural. The mother spoke like a cliche Overprotective Mother and the father like a typical Loving But Distracted father.
I wanted to like this book, the summary made it sound really interesting, it just didn't work for me.
---
I had thought I hadn't left mid-book when I went to the hospital, but I was wrong. I had downloaded The Adventures of Tom Sawyer as part of last year's extra book challenge, but never got around to reading it. Thinking I really should read something from Mark Twain, I decided to give it a try this year. Unfortunately I just couldn't get into it, either before I went into the hospital or after I got out. The writing was just too dated and the story didn't hook me (I feel like I'm committing some kind of literary sin by saying that).
I reached the halfway point of Plagues, so that counts as book #3. I didn't for Tom Sawyer, so that one falls under the "Book #2" grouping.
(Book received free for review from Dundurn.)
Rating: 2/disliked (1-5/hated-loved)
About 25% into Plagues, I realized I was feeling like I had fallen for a bait-and-switch. The blurb had made this book sound scifi-ish and quite interesting:
Planet Kondar has a light side that faces the sun and a dark side in eternal night. Lightsiders have never met those on Darkside, known as Oscura. Arien lives in Kattannya on Lightside. When her parents fall through thin ice and drown, she is sold in the marketplace. The chief seer of Vor, Yaddair, purchases her.
Vor is very close to Edge, a grey wall of fog that divides Lightside from Oscura. The Oscurans are suffering from a deadly plague and some fly into Vor, bringing the disease with them. How will the Vorians cure it? And what will happen to Arien?
It was only at the 50% point of the book that the first hints of this plague appeared, by which point I was more than ready to give up on the book. Up until that point I could have been reading a story about a teenager in any generically poor area. While it did take place on another planet, some really basic details weren't consistent, which didn't help (in an early chapter the main character said their world only had two seasons (summer/winter), but a few chapters later there was spring season).
One of the biggest issues I had was the dialogue. The main character was 15, but when she spoke all I could picture was a stereotypical Strong Adult Woman. It's possible their harsh planet ages people quicker, but the book gave no indication of that (they couldn't marry before 17, for example). But then, the main character wasn't alone in this -- no character's dialogue felt natural. The mother spoke like a cliche Overprotective Mother and the father like a typical Loving But Distracted father.
I wanted to like this book, the summary made it sound really interesting, it just didn't work for me.
---
I had thought I hadn't left mid-book when I went to the hospital, but I was wrong. I had downloaded The Adventures of Tom Sawyer as part of last year's extra book challenge, but never got around to reading it. Thinking I really should read something from Mark Twain, I decided to give it a try this year. Unfortunately I just couldn't get into it, either before I went into the hospital or after I got out. The writing was just too dated and the story didn't hook me (I feel like I'm committing some kind of literary sin by saying that).
I reached the halfway point of Plagues, so that counts as book #3. I didn't for Tom Sawyer, so that one falls under the "Book #2" grouping.
