Humans, Bow Down
by James Patterson, Emily Raymond
science fiction, subadult
copyright 2017
read in December 2018
rated 4/10: bad but could be read
Good grief. What a load of rubbish. A social message slathered on with a trowel. Thick but with no depth.
Take a bundle of stereotypes. A bunch of standard scenes. Drag them completely over the top. Provide a violent either-or solution: kill them all before they kill all of us. Then end with one person escaping and planning to create book two. Sheesh.
"Young adult" fiction aimed, perhaps, at the young adults who believe that wearing grunge clothes and joining a violent gang are the height of independent thinking.
Then there is the embarrassment of authors:
I've named two of them. Patterson is presumably there to sell the book, Raymond has the "young adult" writing experience. There's also, "with Jill Dembowski". Plus illustrations by Alexander Ovchinnikov… the illustrations are well suited to the moody, tough teen style of the book. Well suited to a target audience who would rather read a comic.
Yet the book is readable. Short, snappy chapters. No boring passages, all action. Like watching a train wreck, just wondering what will crush next.
At one point I did almost give up. I was wondering at the stupidity of two kids -- having never driven before -- stealing a car and leading a high speed chase through dangerous roads. No, that's not what nearly stopped me...
The stolen car is a two-seater, the heroine clearly states that there are no back seats. Several chapters later -- there are two people sitting in the back seats of that same car. That is rubbish. The rest of the book is just silly.
And yet... I read to the end. The story is embarrassing. I'm embarrassed. But it's readable.
Dr Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper
... Agamedes Consulting / Problems ? Solved
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"For every action there is an equal and opposite government program."
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