Synopsis: The narrative is split between the two
protagonists; Amy who decided to follow the path of her parents and freeze her
body which would then be placed on the spaceship, Godspeed, which is to then travel for 300 years to another planet
similar to that of Earth. The second narrator is Elder who will succeed his
superior, Eldest, in the running and control of Godspeed. Basically one day Amy's body is mysteriously unfrozen,
she turns out to be the first of many and the hunt soon begins for the
perpetrator. Not only is the ship and its residents under absolute control, the
whole ship itself is a lie. Amy and Elder's relationship slowly blossoms
amongst mindless, horny rabbits, a corrupt leader and a Doctor who believes
throwing drugs at a problem will eliminate it.
SPOILERS
This was possibly the strangest book I have ever read. It is
based on the most abstract concept, read the synopsis above to find out exactly
what it is about but basically it does take a few chapters to get into it. Overall
I thought it was a really good read, the structure is really interesting and
adds to the suspense really well because often one chapter will end on a cliff-hanger
and you have to read through the next chapter before things are revealed by
which point another cliff-hanger has emerged!
I love the kind of detective-story aspect of this novel; I
was pulling my hair out at points trying desperately not to look to the back
page to just find out who was pulling out the ice tray things or whatever
they're called! All this suspense made me turn the pages so quickly I finished
the book in a matter of days (which is rare for me because normally I drag out
books I enjoy because I don't want them to end!). I won't give away who the
murderer is because if you're reading this and haven't read the books then
please go read it now and guess for yourself who you think it is. All I'll say
is the answer isn't as straightforward as you may think and I was so surprised
by all the twists at the end of this book.
The book took a really dark turn at one point, the bit where
Luthe and the feeders tried to rape Amy left me gaping in shock, this is definitely
a more mature Young Adult novel. The description of the period called 'the
Season' basically consisted of loads of couples having sex on any surface they
could find. It actually made me feel really uncomfortable reading it which is obviously
the effect but I;m not sure it was worth it! The Season could have been
described in another way if you ask me but that's just my opinion. Amy's feelings
after the rape were sort of glazed over, she didn't seem too upset about it but
at the same time I suppose I'm glad this event didn't pervade the narrative. Generally
though I don't think the rape added much to the storyline, Luthe's
characterisation wasn't developed, he wasn't mentioned again and Elder never
found out... was it really necessary?
My favourite character was probably Harley, at first I
thought it might turn into a love triangle between him, Amy and Elder but I was
relieved when the plot didn't head in this direction!
If I did have one more little criticism (little I swear!) it
would be that some things weren't explained. For example, we never really find
out what happened to Earth to make this mission even necessary or if anything
happened at all. At first I thought there was some kind of apocalypse but then
as the story went on I realised that might not have been the case. Also, we
never really find out why the ship left a year later than planned, something
that was revealed in Chapter 1. Hopefully these little details will be
explained in the next book but it was just something I was waiting to be
revealed throughout this first one.
All the numbers and terminology do get slightly icky sometimes and I'm not a big fan of Maths myself so calculating the number of years left or the number of years travelled made my brain hurt so I just sort of went with the flow which I recommend for a more relaxing read! The concept of the novel is abstract to say the least but after a while you find yourself so absorbed in the storyline you forget that the characters are actually floating in the middle of space with no escape.
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