In Part Two of our discussion of Planet Urth, Brynn isn't convinced about this love interest, and has serious questions about a murder timetable. Ava gets overexcited about spiders and has a theory about oxygen concentrations. Also, an interrupting bird and cat.
We forgot to average our ratings, but we both gave it a 3/5 after rounding up.
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We forgot to average our ratings, but we both gave it a 3/5 after rounding up.
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From Amazon.com:
More than two hundred years into the future, human beings are an endangered species. The planet has been battered by war, its inhabitants plagued by disease and death. Few humans survived and remained unaffected. Most changed dramatically and evolved into something else entirely. Irrevocable alterations caused by chemical warfare have created a new species. North America is in ruins and has been overtaken. Humanity has fallen at the hands of mutants known as Urthmen.
Seventeen year-old Avery is alive and unchanged. But she has not been immune to the harshness of the new world. She has lived on the run for much of her life, in terror. After losing her father, Avery is the sole guardian of her eight-year-old sister, June. Avery is now charged with June’s safety as well as her own, a nearly impossible task.
Forced to hide deep in the forest and away from the cities overrun by Urthmen, Avery and her sister are constantly hunted. Danger awaits them at every turn. They fear they are the only human beings left, that they are the last of their kind.
But are they truly alone?
Ava: Um, so, what are your final thoughts about this one?
Brynn: I mean, it was an interesting concept. Um, a lot of the evolution stuff kind of irritated me.
A: [laughs]
B:
But, um, and the present tense irritated me. But, I mean, overall it
was a decent story, um, I don't like that it didn't really come to a
complete end. Like, it's okay to have a hook at the end of your story to
lead into the next one, but you need to have, like, a logical
progression where a – where you have a clear beginning and a clear
ending. And like you said, it should have ended like a chapter or two
before it did.
A: So, we were messaging about this and I said [pause] that this is a lot like [pause] His to Protect, it's more of a novella, I didn't check the word count on it [pause] cause there's not page numbers on this one, but um –
B: Yeah.
A:
It's kind – it's a novella. Um, and that's not a problem, because I
love novellas, but [pause] I wish that these authors would put the word
'novella' on there, so I just knew what I was getting, especially since
[pause] like you said, this is a good concept, and it would have been a
lot strong if [pause] the authors had dug deeper into their concept.
B: Yeah.
A: Um, and maybe they do in the next book, but I feel like it didn't quite live up to its potential, is what I'm saying.
B: Yeah.
A: I liked this book, but I think that it could have been awesome.
B: Exactly.
A: I'm gonna let Brynn take us into ratings, but first, we're gonna add a new rating, because on a few books, we've had problems with stuff in the text, like in the last one, uh, Neanderthal Meets Human, we added a creepiness rating because we thought one of the biggest problems of the book was Quinn being creepy. Um,
and then there were also some other things, like a white lady calling
her hair when it's messy and Afro, or her calling a Latino dude [pause] a
"caramel cutie," or, or like, the extreme fat hate in A Lonely Dog on Christmas. So it's like, we need someplace to put that.
B: Yeah.
A: To give fair warning about the book [laughs]. Um, so for now, we're just gonna call it "feels," I guess [laughs]. Um, and we'll do that one will be it had a bunch of garbage that you frickin hated in it, and five will be like, it was the most pleasant [laughs].
B: Yeah.
A: Nothing terrible like that, that you noticed [laughs].
B: So how'd you feel about editing?
A: Um, I gave it a three out of five on editing. I thought it was pretty standard for self-published books.
B:
Yeah, I also gave it a three, um, the – the present tense was really
awkward, and there was really awkward use of, like, adverbs, like you
said. Um, there was a few spelling errors here and there, but again, it
was probably self-edited, so [pause] not really gonna count that against it.
A: Average.
B: Average. Um, now for plot.
A:
I gave it a four out of five on plot, because I did think that – so, it
didn't have a ton of plot. There was really only one plot thread. Avery
did experience a small amount of emotional growth, um, but the plot
thread that existed, uh [pause] and sense, and it was interesting, so
four out of five. Above average.
B:
Yeah, I – I actually went with a three on that one, because I felt it
was kind of average, because the plot, I mean, it [pause] it didn't have
like a clear beginning, middle end.
A: Mm-hm.
B: It was – it – it kind of just ended, and that really brought it down for me a little bit. So, um, next is characterization.
A:
I gave it a two. Avery was [pause] her only setting was really [pause]
worried, which, I mean, is natural, but people have other personality
traits even when something bad is happening, you know? [laughs] I'm
still gonna make a bad pun when I'm having a bad time, you know? [laughs]
B: Yeah, I also gave it a two. Um, just because, like you said, nobody had any depth, you know?
A: Yeah, June was just alternately happy and scared, Avery was just a big ball of worry, and maybe some anger [laughs].
B: And Will was both hot and worried [laughs].
A: [laughs] he was like a very concerned-looking cardboard cutout [laughs].
B: Yes, basically. And – and the kids were just there.
A: Yeah, they, like, basically didn't exist [laughs].
B: [laughs] So, dialogue.
A: That's a two out of five, too, they had a severe case of the robots.
B: Yeah, I agree with that.
A: Yeah, it was real robotic, there's not much else to say about it [laughs].
B: Um, okay, so then, our new feels rating.
A: I gave it a three out of five, my feels on it were pretty neutral.
B: Yeah, I agree with that. There wasn't anything overly offensive about this story.
A:
Yeah, nothing outraged me, but there also wasn't anything, like, super
interesting or exciting about it [pause] in the feels department.
B: Yeah, I agree with that.
A: So, up next, uh, we're gonna do faves. What was your favorite?
B: I mean, um – I don't know [laughs].
A: [laughs]
B: Like, I was gonna
say, like, maybe the part where, like, they're escaping the village,
but even then, I remember complaining a lot about that part [laughs].
A: [laughs] So, we did both agree that [pause] the fight scenes were the best thing.
B: Yes, fight scenes! Let's go with that.
A: However, the most excitement I experienced was when I realized there was gonna be a giant spider [laughs].
B: [laughs]
A:
Um, which actually – all my notes got deleted, so I forgot about this.
Um, they ate regular-size bugs. And I know a spider's not a bug, cause
I complained about that earlier, but [pause] like, they – there were
regular-sized, like, bugs and birds and squirrels and bunnies and stuff,
so why was the spider big? Are there regular-size spiders in this
world? So many questions!
B: Like, may – maybe they're regular spiders, but they just grow more?
A: Oh...oh my God! I just thought of something!
B: What?
A:
So, the reason we don't have spiders that big is because the oxygen
concentration in our air is not high enough. Um, which is why there used to be huge bugs, like, back in dinosaur times. Because [pause] oxygen goes throughout their
body through their leg joints, which means that, at a certain point,
the leg joint is too small to sustain the size necessary to get all the
oxygen to the critter's – arthropod, I guess is the word – arthropod's
extremities, and therefore it just can't get any bigger than that.
B: Huh.
A: Maybe the oxygen content in the air is higher.
B: That makes sense, I guess.
A: [laughs] I really like learning about weird things. Anyway, what was your least favorite part about this story?
B:
Oh, probably [pause] I mean, I hope they'll go more in depth on the
next book; Will. I mean, he seems like he's an interesting character,
but, like, they're just trying too hard to make him a love interest, you
know?
A: Yeah.
B: And they can slowly go into that, instead.
A: Yeah, I fully agree with that [laughs].
B: Yeah.
A: Yeah, it's immediate, like, love. Or lust.
B: Yeah.
A: Which is real, but [pause] murders. Um, my least favorite –
B: Yeah, his parents died, and, you know.
A: [laughs] Uh, so my least favorite was the characterization, cause, you may have noticed –
B: There is none [laughs].
A: If – if characters and dialogue are really strong, none of that – all those questions don't matter, cause I'm so invested in the characters and their relationships with each other.
B: Right.
A:
So, I felt like they really tried, because in the end, Avery – she did
realize that she needed to tell her sister more things. She couldn't
walk around holding all of her worries, and –
B: Right.
A: – leaving poor June in the dark to be scared all the time. So, like, almost.
B: Mm-hm.
A:
But because the characters were so shallow, and the dialogue was so
stilted, it didn't connect. Thank you for listening to Amazon warriors.
You can find us on Twitter @thebookwarriors and at warriors (at) superfuntimes.net. Next episode we'll be discussing Dinosaur Lake by Kathryn Meyer Griffith.
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