I found the treatment of sex and sexuality in the book oddly inconsistent, and an unfortunate step backward from Lifeboats. Lifeboats felt more like teenagers in that we had dick jokes, we had references to characters downloading porn, there was references to tentacle porn ... it felt like this was a story populated by adolescents in their mid to late teens. That said, it wasn't as downright explicit as apparently Nita's classmates are, which honestly is downright weird to me. Maybe things have changed a lot since I went through, or maybe it's because I'm not American, but any discussions that were that explicit would be considered to be downright strange and my year would have shunned the speaker. It's especially weird given that any talk of sexuality is treated in a very twee way. Lissa and her "Special One" talk, for example, made me want to roll my eyes into the sun, and I am ace.
(I am also weirded out by Matt referring to his boyfriend as "his mate", but I guess that's just because "mate" can be such a context specific term over here that I guess DD got it wrong. Still, felt weird for him to essentially no-homo himself!)
I was kind of disappointed at how Mehrnaz didn't tie into the climax overly much. It felt like she was really only there to justify Dairine being on the Moon to rescue Roshaun, and it made me sad. I felt like her plot with that was dropped by the wayside and left unexplored, and I expected more payoff to Dairine essentially flagging with Irina that Mehrnaz's family are abusing her. Given that Irina read the riot act to Kit and Penn for what was essentially a dick waving contest, why was "emotionally abusive family" not considered important enough to resolve in this book?
I did find that Mehrnaz and Penn were the most interesting characters introduced in a while though! I want to see more of them, and bouncing off various members of the current cast. While DD has suggested that Penn and Ronan would be interesting, I really want to see Carmela and Mehrnaz interact. I think that if anyone can have a positive effect on Mehrnaz, it's Carmela, given that Carmela is very good at reading people. And I am buzzed to find out what the hell the prophecies Nita was having earlier in the book meant, given that Dairine rescuing Roshaun has triggered one.
In any event, it was a fun way to spend two hours, but I can't say that it's anything like as good as Deep Wizardry.
no subject
(I am also weirded out by Matt referring to his boyfriend as "his mate", but I guess that's just because "mate" can be such a context specific term over here that I guess DD got it wrong. Still, felt weird for him to essentially no-homo himself!)
I was kind of disappointed at how Mehrnaz didn't tie into the climax overly much. It felt like she was really only there to justify Dairine being on the Moon to rescue Roshaun, and it made me sad. I felt like her plot with that was dropped by the wayside and left unexplored, and I expected more payoff to Dairine essentially flagging with Irina that Mehrnaz's family are abusing her. Given that Irina read the riot act to Kit and Penn for what was essentially a dick waving contest, why was "emotionally abusive family" not considered important enough to resolve in this book?
I did find that Mehrnaz and Penn were the most interesting characters introduced in a while though! I want to see more of them, and bouncing off various members of the current cast. While DD has suggested that Penn and Ronan would be interesting, I really want to see Carmela and Mehrnaz interact. I think that if anyone can have a positive effect on Mehrnaz, it's Carmela, given that Carmela is very good at reading people. And I am buzzed to find out what the hell the prophecies Nita was having earlier in the book meant, given that Dairine rescuing Roshaun has triggered one.
In any event, it was a fun way to spend two hours, but I can't say that it's anything like as good as Deep Wizardry.