SuperSummary: Study Guide (2019, Independently Published)
English language
Published Oct. 4, 2019 by Independently Published.
I'm awaiting the next part of this series; love these characters! You will end up feeling the same...if you can put this one down, that is.
Amazing. Love it!
Wow. This is what I've been waiting for! I love the instant jump into the plot and focusing on it, it's a fresh take on this series' storytelling. Also, even though it was easy to figure out the best course of action on how she can solve the issue, the limitations were unexpected and fitting, great thinking there! (I don't want to spoil.)
Amazing. Love it
Amazing. Love it!
Wow. This is what I've been waiting for! I love the instant jump into the plot and focusing on it, it's a fresh take on this series' storytelling. Also, even though it was easy to figure out the best course of action on how she can solve the issue, the limitations were unexpected and fitting, great thinking there! (I don't want to spoil.)
Amazing. Love it
The story was good, but there are a lot of unanswered questions! The fact that a lot of things are left to the imagination or personal conclusions is a combination of great and unsettling. I like being able to keep a book that I have read going in my brain - to reach my own conclusions and decisions - but a lot of it seems unfinished and like there's more to that to be filled in. But I really did like the story!
I've loved Mark Lawrence's other books so much that I now have to read all of them.
That said, I liked his others more. It might be because this one takes place mostly in underground caves and things seem pretty hopeless. I'm not a cave guy.
Loved it.
Parallel Worlds Beneath Earth
At first it was like, "uh, what? Too confusing." But as the story developed and the multiverse started to make sense, it gets very interesting. This is a parallel world adventure unlike any other. Seekers find long lost treasures scattered or hidden throughout the worlds beneath Earth.
Yes, you read that right. Parallel worlds that are beneath Earth⦠literally. Earth is the central hub, travel between the parallel worlds must always pass through Earth. But it gets interesting that creatures and beings from there other worlds mostly stay away from Earth but Seekers loves to enter their worlds and bring back something.
This is the story of Mira Brand, a Seeker out to prove something, together with her unlikely friends, they set out to find treasures no one else have ever found⦠until now.
Parallel Worlds Beneath Earth
At first it was like, "uh, what? Too confusing." But as the story developed and the multiverse started to make sense, it gets very interesting. This is a parallel world adventure unlike any other. Seekers find long lost treasures scattered or hidden throughout the worlds beneath Earth.
Yes, you read that right. Parallel worlds that are beneath Earth⦠literally. Earth is the central hub, travel between the parallel worlds must always pass through Earth. But it gets interesting that creatures and beings from there other worlds mostly stay away from Earth but Seekers loves to enter their worlds and bring back something.
This is the story of Mira Brand, a Seeker out to prove something, together with her unlikely friends, they set out to find treasures no one else have ever found⦠until now.
The library wanted this book back before I could finish it. My rating/review is based on finishing about 75% of it.
I thought βghettosideβ was a play on βhomicideβ β death caused by living in a ghetto (yeah, OK, I got the suffix wrong, β-cideβ vs. β-sideβ). However, βghettosideβ is a place, as in βwestside.β
Keep in mind that I read this book amidst almost daily news reports about portray trigger-happy police officers. The author, Jill Leovy, seems to be trying very hard to show that most cops are not racist. She focuses on Detective Tennelle, "that rare officer who actually lived the philosophy so long advanced by LAPD critics: he had chosen to live in the city he policed out of valor and a sense of responsibility.β This is one reason why cultural-socio-economic inequality is so difficult to overcome:
βTo many officers, black residents of these ghettoside neighborhoods seemed β¦
The library wanted this book back before I could finish it. My rating/review is based on finishing about 75% of it.
I thought βghettosideβ was a play on βhomicideβ β death caused by living in a ghetto (yeah, OK, I got the suffix wrong, β-cideβ vs. β-sideβ). However, βghettosideβ is a place, as in βwestside.β
Keep in mind that I read this book amidst almost daily news reports about portray trigger-happy police officers. The author, Jill Leovy, seems to be trying very hard to show that most cops are not racist. She focuses on Detective Tennelle, "that rare officer who actually lived the philosophy so long advanced by LAPD critics: he had chosen to live in the city he policed out of valor and a sense of responsibility.β This is one reason why cultural-socio-economic inequality is so difficult to overcome:
βTo many officers, black residents of these ghettoside neighborhoods seemed so incomprehensibly perverse and hostile, so hell-bent on not making things better for themselves. And that same βcommunityβ bristled and postured in response. Yet beneath all this dysfunction, just as the cops yearned to be do-gooders who βhelped people,β the βcommunityβ yearned for their help.β
The potential for this to be a really good science fiction novel exists. Unfortunately, it's just potential. In order to achieve that, it would need:
1. Another round of editing. A few tense shifts, some head hopping, and some grammar mistakes need to be shaken out. The beginning of the book could use a little work, especially keeping in mind the old writer's saying "show, don't tell".
2. The book needs to decide what it wants to be. Mostly, it looks like a coming of age science fiction adventure novel. But then, out of nowhere, two characters start quipping about man salad (in the context of eating...ewww!). This does not belong in a young adult novel. Then we suddenly get a bunch of romantic angst that feels quite out of place. This could be a good young adult coming of age adventure, a good science fiction comedy, or a good β¦
The potential for this to be a really good science fiction novel exists. Unfortunately, it's just potential. In order to achieve that, it would need:
1. Another round of editing. A few tense shifts, some head hopping, and some grammar mistakes need to be shaken out. The beginning of the book could use a little work, especially keeping in mind the old writer's saying "show, don't tell".
2. The book needs to decide what it wants to be. Mostly, it looks like a coming of age science fiction adventure novel. But then, out of nowhere, two characters start quipping about man salad (in the context of eating...ewww!). This does not belong in a young adult novel. Then we suddenly get a bunch of romantic angst that feels quite out of place. This could be a good young adult coming of age adventure, a good science fiction comedy, or a good romantic hero story. But it can't be all three at once.
3. The setting needs more thought. It has futuristic technology. But it also has modern day things like Google, Snickers Bars, and new releases of modern video game series. It also apparently has events based on Roman history. A war is in progress, but who is fighting and why are never really covered. They're just generic rebels.
If those three things could be fixed, this would be at least 3 stars, probably 4. But alas, this e-book is already published.
Wow, wow, wow. Read this book in one day - it's that good.
Great portrayal of characters' voices and a compelling storyline kept me going.
Lots and lots of historical authenticity dulled by an unsophisticated writing style and overly simplistic plot.
I was very interested in learning about the Asian-American community in Seattle during the 1940's. Actually, in the context of this book, "Asian-American community" is a misnomer; the relationship between Chinese Henry and Japanese Keiko was unusual partly because the ethnic groups lived in such separate worlds.
My favorite character was Sheldon, the black musician who takes the father-figure role for Henry. My favorite scene took place in the jazz club, where Henry and Keiko manage to sneak in for a performance.
The book spent so much time with the pre-teen Henry that I started to think that this was a book written for young adults. Other contributing factors: short sentences, easy words, "flat" characters.
Perhaps this is me being overly sensitive (my father's family was in an internment camp), but I felt that β¦
Lots and lots of historical authenticity dulled by an unsophisticated writing style and overly simplistic plot.
I was very interested in learning about the Asian-American community in Seattle during the 1940's. Actually, in the context of this book, "Asian-American community" is a misnomer; the relationship between Chinese Henry and Japanese Keiko was unusual partly because the ethnic groups lived in such separate worlds.
My favorite character was Sheldon, the black musician who takes the father-figure role for Henry. My favorite scene took place in the jazz club, where Henry and Keiko manage to sneak in for a performance.
The book spent so much time with the pre-teen Henry that I started to think that this was a book written for young adults. Other contributing factors: short sentences, easy words, "flat" characters.
Perhaps this is me being overly sensitive (my father's family was in an internment camp), but I felt that the episodes focusing on Keiko's family in camp painted too-rosy a picture.
My final criticism is aimed at the publisher, and not the author: I read an Adobe Digital ebook edition that had far too many typos (punctuation errors).
I really should get credit for reading two separate books. One storyline involved the creation of a whiz-bang virtual reality "Cavern" by a well-funded lab in the Pacific Northwest. The other story focused on the kidnapping of an American in Lebanon.
I found the speechifying by the VR programmers to be unrealistic and rather dull.
The kidnapping saga generally held my interest but towards the end, I found myself skipping sections.
The two storylines do eventually come together, barely, in a science fictiony way that was an unconvincing jolt from the previous 400 realistic pages.
