Reviews

A major letdown after The Vela season 1. Writing is inconsistent (to be expected) but so is the plotting. Lots of telling, not much showing, and it feels like this is for the benefit of the other writers ("here, look at this, I want to develop this point") rather than for the story. The characters' personalities have been changed from Season 1, generally for the worse, and there is no consistency for character arcs across the season. The overarching plot is very contrived and guilty of a great deal of deus ex machina. Furthermore, rather than adding to the experience, the background sounds are so intermittent as to be distracting. In terms of disability rep, it took until episode 6 (of 12) before any of the writers even acknowledged that Asala has hearing implants. It was then mentioned a few times but it gave the impression that the writers only put it in when it was convenient. LGBT rep also felt like it was added only when convenient.

kara776's review

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DNF ~50%

antoniab's review

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Terrible sequel to the brilliant first book. Wooden characters with no sense of what motivates them.

ergative's review

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adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

As much as I was invested in the characters, this season couldn't compare to the standout qualities of the first season, and now that I see that the entire writing staff was different, that makes sense. The politics were trivial--no longer the sophisticated multiway allegory for climate politics on earth. No, instead we have evil mad scientist who wants to destroy a planet vs. good people who want their families that were left behind. The solution to the problem is a real deus-ex-machina: magic fungus can make everything ok again! And the believable constraints on interplanetary travel from the first book---must wait 17 years for the orbits to line up if you want to go to Hypatia---suddenly disappear: as long as Asala has a space ship she can seed the fungus on other planets in other solar systems. If it's that easy to go to other solar systems, then the whole constraint on evacuating the original solar system no longer exists, so why are we bothering with wormholes? Even a throwaway line from the fungus 'oh, yes, I can generate enough exotic matter for a mini temporary travel wormhole, no problem! Not enough for whole planets, but certainly enough for one tiny ship' would have solved that problem, but it's not even addressed. Boo.

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