Author: Sasha Alsberg & Lindsay Cummings
Genre: Young Adult, Sci-Fi, Romance
Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
Did Not Finish (DNF) @ 23%
For starters let's get this out of the way: I am not a follower of Sasha Alsberg or her 'crew' (I dislike video blogs). I do not know anything about the situation of publication or promotion first-hand and am choosing to just stay out of it.
The One Good Thing
I have struggled and spent time trying to determine more than one good thing about Zenith. In doing this I have only come up with one thing. Zenith proposes a very interesting space story (could be an opera) with the possibility for a large universe that has it's own culture, ethics, politics, etc.
Focus on that word 'proposes' as it's important below.
All of the Ugh
When I was a pre-teen the concept of 'Fan Fiction' did not exist and yet we still wrote stories that involved our favourite celebrities, fictional characters, or even people (like cute guy in class, etc.). They were written with code names in them and passed around amongst a group of 4-5 of us girls in Grade 7-9. I still have a few of them.
Unfortunately Zenith reminded me of that teenage, guilty pleasure writing. With no real substance, poorly scripted dialogue (stilted and boring), weak descriptions and over-the-top plot that had to have a romantic element (because it's not fan fiction without a romance of some sort).
Alsberg and Lindsay Cummings have written a story that is longer, has a much fancier cover, an idea of a larger universe and isn't written on foolscap (lined paper). Otherwise this story (or what I read of it) could have been pulled right from my keepsake box. It's just immature.
While I was reading it I was reminded of another book I felt was immature and just not quite to my standards; Eragon. Same kind of thing a good idea but the writer obviously didn't have the writing maturity (and I don't mean age), depth or style of those writers who are above them in their respective genre.
Overall
If you're looking for a struggling (love to hate) romance, an easy to read, not complex story then maybe you will enjoy Zenith. For me with all the books out there to be read I just couldn't be bothered to read Fan Fiction. If I really wanted (which I don't) I could do that for free online.
It, ironically, brings me to my disclaimer above where I say I don't want to talk about the publishing situation. I just couldn't help but think to myself, as I was reading the first 23%, that I was surprised anyone published Zenith as is. Maybe there is some truth to those rumours and stories people are circulating.
Either way, this is a poorly put together novel that has me wondering if I should submit some of my crappy pre-teen writing to a publisher... *wink*
1 comment:
Oooh, bad teenage fan fics, how well I remember those! Although I still remember some of the ideas I had back then, most of it was really, really bad. Sometimes I even enjoy reading something stuff like that, but I don't think I'll aktivly seek out a book when I know it won't be anything else...
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