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Well known phenomenon
Jul. 27th, 2006 11:51 amI liked Nick Sagan's first novel. It had a well constructed plot in a well developed genre environment and showed good character development. In the sequel, he ditched almost all of that except the character development. Without the structure of the other components, it was just not strong enough to be a satisfying experience at all.
I liked Karin Lowachee's first novel. It had a well constructed plot in a well developed genre environment and showed good character development. In the sequel, she ditched almost all of that except the character development. Without the structure of the other components, it was just not strong enough to be a satisfying experience at all.
The Lowachee book in question was Burndive, a sequel to Warchild. It didn't help that the character development in question was of the spoiled brat slowly becomes enlightened to his responsibilities type of thing. There is a horrible inevitability about such a storyline, not to mention the "I just want to give him a good slapping" response that makes the book too easy to put down. I have read a couple of books in the last couple of years that managed this type of character pretty well, but in both cases they had a strong story and environmental development to wrap around the character. Despite many "put it down" moments, I did at least finish the book which must say something for Lowachee's writing. In fact there was a small payoff because the last 50 pages or so contained more plot than the preceding 350 and were much better for it. I'm left with a niggling feeling of wasted potential here.
I liked Karin Lowachee's first novel. It had a well constructed plot in a well developed genre environment and showed good character development. In the sequel, she ditched almost all of that except the character development. Without the structure of the other components, it was just not strong enough to be a satisfying experience at all.
The Lowachee book in question was Burndive, a sequel to Warchild. It didn't help that the character development in question was of the spoiled brat slowly becomes enlightened to his responsibilities type of thing. There is a horrible inevitability about such a storyline, not to mention the "I just want to give him a good slapping" response that makes the book too easy to put down. I have read a couple of books in the last couple of years that managed this type of character pretty well, but in both cases they had a strong story and environmental development to wrap around the character. Despite many "put it down" moments, I did at least finish the book which must say something for Lowachee's writing. In fact there was a small payoff because the last 50 pages or so contained more plot than the preceding 350 and were much better for it. I'm left with a niggling feeling of wasted potential here.