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manwithanagenda's review
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
*Attention! This is the second book published, but chronologically, 'Leather Wings' comes first because Alonzo's leg is healed, the group has learned about True's pet koba. Both haven't happened yet in 'Leather Wings' and are major parts of the plot.*
A solid but ultimately sterile tie-in successor to 'Earth 2'
I can understand how it would be hard to write one of these, because the book is supposed to fit in with the ongoing series but the author Sean Dalton née Deborah Chester is not going to be privy to every secret that's going to be revealed in the weeks/months between getting the assignment and delivering the book. So errors are inevitable and, because the author is not going to be authorized to make lasting changes to characters or their situation (i.e. deaths, new equipment, big revelations), the status quo will have to return by the end of the book. That's why these books are hardly ever satisfying. No one gets anywhere.
So how does one get around that? Dalton (Chester) forces the group to enter a taboo zone in order to get water, and once there they discover a hidden abandoned city in the canyon wall. When did the Terrians build this, when did they have the technology, why did they leave? Because the area is taboo they can't ask any questions once they leave without antagonizing the Terrians, the city and its secrets can be added to basic "the Terrians are more advanced than we suspect" revelations within the show and left at that.
Outside of the framing story, this novel shows what prudent thinkers these licensed-property genre writers are. Aside from the framing story, the entire situation of this novel could happen anywhere. The hidden city could just as easily have been found on Krynn or in the deserts of Earth or any alien planet. 'Earth 2's characters populate it but the puzzle of the title could come straight out of a roleplaying module. I bet the author has a stack of such situations waiting to be populated with characters from whatever franchise contacts them next.
Dalton does provide some attention to the Earth 2 characters but there's suspician that these too are cynically pre-thought inserts that could happen to any character: Bess almost loses something precious in the stampede, the growing almost-romance between Danziger and Devon, and Alonzo and Julia, etc., the kids find a secret treasure, Morgan the Incompetent Greedy Bastard acts accordingly. The only uniquely 'Earth 2' aspect that came through in this novel was this series' parallelism between the colonists on a new planet and the settlers of the New World. The big errors I've found are that Dalton forgets that there's a good-sized group of colonists/stranded crew-members aside from the main cast. At several points when only the main cast plus two are assembled, they're referred to as 'all' of them, but aside from that and confusion about the differences between Grendler/Terrians, it was OK. It's hard to get affronted at errors in a franchise that was dead-in-the-water less than a year after appearing.
Earth 2
Previous: 'Leather Wings'
A solid but ultimately sterile tie-in successor to 'Earth 2'
I can understand how it would be hard to write one of these, because the book is supposed to fit in with the ongoing series but the author Sean Dalton née Deborah Chester is not going to be privy to every secret that's going to be revealed in the weeks/months between getting the assignment and delivering the book. So errors are inevitable and, because the author is not going to be authorized to make lasting changes to characters or their situation (i.e. deaths, new equipment, big revelations), the status quo will have to return by the end of the book. That's why these books are hardly ever satisfying. No one gets anywhere.
So how does one get around that? Dalton (Chester) forces the group to enter a taboo zone in order to get water, and once there they discover a hidden abandoned city in the canyon wall. When did the Terrians build this, when did they have the technology, why did they leave? Because the area is taboo they can't ask any questions once they leave without antagonizing the Terrians, the city and its secrets can be added to basic "the Terrians are more advanced than we suspect" revelations within the show and left at that.
Outside of the framing story, this novel shows what prudent thinkers these licensed-property genre writers are. Aside from the framing story, the entire situation of this novel could happen anywhere. The hidden city could just as easily have been found on Krynn or in the deserts of Earth or any alien planet. 'Earth 2's characters populate it but the puzzle of the title could come straight out of a roleplaying module. I bet the author has a stack of such situations waiting to be populated with characters from whatever franchise contacts them next.
Dalton does provide some attention to the Earth 2 characters but there's suspician that these too are cynically pre-thought inserts that could happen to any character: Bess almost loses something precious in the stampede, the growing almost-romance between Danziger and Devon, and Alonzo and Julia, etc., the kids find a secret treasure, Morgan the Incompetent Greedy Bastard acts accordingly. The only uniquely 'Earth 2' aspect that came through in this novel was this series' parallelism between the colonists on a new planet and the settlers of the New World. The big errors I've found are that Dalton forgets that there's a good-sized group of colonists/stranded crew-members aside from the main cast. At several points when only the main cast plus two are assembled, they're referred to as 'all' of them, but aside from that and confusion about the differences between Grendler/Terrians, it was OK. It's hard to get affronted at errors in a franchise that was dead-in-the-water less than a year after appearing.
Earth 2
Previous: 'Leather Wings'
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