Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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66 of 67 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
running, running, runing, to where?, December 3, 2005
Sword Of Orion is the start of new series by Lee and Miller, written for a new publisher. This often means a complete departure from previous work, and that does seem to be the the case. One can pick out echoes of some of their other stories, especially in the basic plot, which consisted of the heroes being chased from planet to planet, never getting a chance to catch their breath. But the book lacks the depth of either plot or characterization that is found in the Liaden novels. And really nothing much was resolved at all -- the characters just run and run and run and then they meet a new character while one of the former ones is lost.
If they had ever stopped running long enough to start doing anything else, a few of the characters showed some potential to be interesting. The book is written in tight-focus third person, following the viewpoint of an orphaned teenage girl who is talented, somewhat street-wise, but still mostly innocent. She is also the only daughter of famous revolutionaries and possibly the key to resolving an interrupted revolution one way or another. But for all of that, she never seems to be more than an archetype. She's a role, not a person. A plot mechanism.
Her best friend and proto love interest (who happens to be the son of the leaders who the revolution was fighting against) is actually a more interesting person. We don't actually see much of his character, but he does have a "real" feeling to him that the central heroine is lacking.
Her (young) uncle is both a parent-figure and a sibling-replacement. He's also the most interesting character in the book, but since his neice doesn't understand him all that well, we don't get to do so either.
And the final member of their quartet is an alien, but one of those annoying aliens who is alien just for color, not because his alienness plays any role in the story (so far). Another reviewer mentioned Star Wars, and it does kind of have the feel of that movie, where it seemed that the only purpose of the aliens was to show off the abilities of the costume designers.
The book is smoothly written and it flows well. I picked it up while I was making dinner and didn't stop reading it until I had finished it early in the morning. And at the time I liked it a lot. But now, just a few hours later, it seems much less satisfying. Rather like eating a chocolate truffle -- very tasty but leaving you with a sense of transient fulfillment.
I can't shake the idea that this would have worked much better if it had been a third the length and only the introduction to a complete novel. As it is, it reminded me more of reading a comic book, where the characters have all sorts of wild adventures but by the end nothing much has actually happened.
Perhaps because of the age of the central figure this could be called adolescent fiction, but to excuse its lack of depth by saying it is written for teens is an insult to young readers. Instead, it feels to me more like Lee and Miller were concentrating so much on coming up with a new series that they forgot to make the first installment into an actual novel.
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good YA adventure., April 5, 2006
Take notice of the dedication page please. This is, IMO, a Hardy Boy's In Space 'young adult' adventure. It should have been labled such by the publisher. I wonder if they were trying to suck in Liaden fans. If so, it may backfire on Sharon and Steve by causing new readers to think the Liaden books are similar.
I've read all of their Liaden books, starting in 1988 with Conflict of Honors, one of the best. Take it from me, the Liaden books are in a class of their own. An exalted class.
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17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A bit of fluff..., March 24, 2006
This was my first book from these writers: I have no idea what all this "Liaden" stuff is. All I have is this too-slim volume to judge... and I wasn't all that impressed!
At first I struggled to get into the book. We've seen the rebellious teen angst heroine with a super-secret past thing before. The writing is strictly of the Trekno-babble "word replacement" variety (skate board == slide board, etc.). Then things got interesting. These writers *can* write...
Alas, the characters never really develop and things get bogged down again. The aliens aren't very alien, just there for color and the plot is pure Heinlein juvenile--think Podkayne--only it ain't Heinlein. There are echoes/borrowings (not really homage per se) from other great books or series of the past. For example, the castle bit in the middle is reminiscent to me of Zelazny's Amber series; and those books that share the rapid shifting of worlds amid constant peril theme.
Frankly (and when was the last time anyone said this about an SF book?!?) this book would have been better if it were twice as long. But there is talent on display here: its use in the service of this tired vehicle makes me sad. Perhaps the follow-on volumes will be better. In the meantime, wait for the regular paperback.
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