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Future Imperfect

Babette Gallard

8.0 (1 Ratings) Rate It

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IT’S A CHANGED WORLD, and the River Rhone has flooded the town of Arles in France. Helen and Isha...

David McK (3425 KP) rated I am Number Four (Lorien Legacies #1) in Books

Jan 28, 2019

I am Number Four (Lorien Legacies #1)

Pittacus Lore | 2011 | Fiction & Poetry, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Young Adult (YA)

7.6

(31 Ratings)

Book Rating

In the early-00s (well, 2001 - 2011), there was a TV show called 'Smallville' aka - and unofficially - also known as 'Superman: The Teenage Years', in which a large part of the early runs were to do with Clark Kent discovering his powers.

Now, take the same basic idea - that of an alien developing powers on Earth, and change it slightly so that there's nine of them, all teenagers growing up seperately, all refugees from a planet that has itself been invaded/destroyed by *other* aliens and most with their own flesh-and-blood protector with them, and you more or less have the plot for this.

I'd seen the movie a while back and, while it wasn't great, I still thought I would give the source material a shot.

It's not great either.

I don't know whether it the insipid romance between the central characters of John and Sarah, the clunky dialogue or the fact that the writer seems to follow a 'tell, don't show' method of writing (instead of the opposite), but this just did not do it for me at all :-(

Kudos

Phil Leader (619 KP) rated Just in Books

Nov 18, 2019

Just

Jenny Morton Potts | 2018 | Mystery, Romance, Thriller

6.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

This is a very difficult book to review, only because it covers a lot of ground. The story revolves around Scott Langbrook, a doctor who has volunteered with a charity to help refugees in North Africa. There he falls in love with his team leader but soon discovers that the world she inhabits is very different from his own.

The book delves deep into both their pasts as well as following their stories in the present day. As they get more desperate both their worlds start to unravel and there seems to be no way out.

Covering subjects involving terrorism and people trafficking this is a fairly grim read, and fairly slow at times too. The characters are written well and the plot does take the reader to unexpected places - both good and bad.

However for me the whole didn't quite equal the sum of its parts. Some of the storytelling seemed a little disjointed with jumping between different times without any clear idea of the sequence or timing of events. But that doesn't detract from an intriguing read