Paradise-1

The Book in 1 Sentence

A pervasive thought, an earworm, has found a way to control their life, and now they must find a way to beat it, or they will succumb to that thought.

Brief Review

This book is a little repetitive, but highly intriguing in the presentation of the world and the antagonist. There are times when the story tells too much of a backstory, or adds details that take you away from what is happening, but the pacing could not be better. The book could be.

Why I Read this book

It was on the front shelf of Barnes and Noble when my wife was looking for a new book and has a cool cover.

In-Depth Review (Favorite Quotes)

I book structure note. This book has 170 "Chapters." Basically if it changes perspective between characters, there is a new chapter. I detest this way of organization, especially when some chapters are about a page, but I understand it.

I am very happy with the plot for the most part. Likewise, I really like the idea of an alien that plants an earworm that forces the body to ignore basic instructions. For instance, the first version you get of this and see is the idea that the characters are hungry. So hungry that they cut off limbs, skin, and others to feed themselves. However, this group also introduces a major plot hole. They are believing they are hungry, but use yams as ammunition. It bothered me for 100+ pages it feels like. However, how do you combat that. In the book they come up with a way, but I wish we got more details about that and how it fixed the issue. It feels glossed over to me, but maybe I missed something.

The characters are alright. The main character, Petrova, is my least favorite. Dr. Zhang and Rapscallion (The ships AI Robot) are probably my favorite. They have a sense of straightforwardness that in life I appreciate. He also has a nice comedic element that is pretty typical these days for robots that are self-aware, but not over the top.

Rating

Like I said, for the most part I do enjoy the plot. There are some parts that are highly predictable, or go on too long. To be honest, the entire stage is too much to begin with. 1 vs. 115 ships. The odds are too great for them to the end they achieved. I also have some issues with stupid sign postings and lack of explanation for this that will be covered in the next book. Out of 700 pages, 500 of them were worthwhile. 200 of them could have been dropped, and the next book placed inside to get a complete story, then a new book could have been written. It is just too long with the same issues coming up over and over. I still enjoyed it. The concept was unique and I appreciate that. So I will say an 8 overall. Probably should be a 6 or 7, but the concept and the overall story was fun enough that I can ignore some glaring issues.

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