auora1484's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
novelheartbeat's review against another edition
2.0
I'm SO sad I didn't love this one like I did the first book. The shining star of the first is the relationship between Lionheart/Climbs Quickly and Stephanie, and I felt like it took a bit of a backseat in this one. It's still fairly prominent, and still utterly beautiful and endearing; but it's lessened from A Beautiful Friendship. We spent less time with Lionheart and that diminished my enjoyment a lot.
I really could have done without the romance, or almost-romance-whatever between Anders and Stephanie. It kind of ruined this book for me, to be honest. Their relationship took over the story, as well as the xenobiologist crew's story line and the fires (which I totally get that it's called Fire Season, but there was more focus on the technicalities and fire-fighting aspect than all of the characters being in danger. Read: it was not exciting). Oh, and I outright haaaated Anders' chapters. I did a lot of skimming because they were just so insufferably boring. His dad sucked too, and I could not give two shits about that whole crew and how they were stuck in the forest because Anders' dad is a moron.
There's also a lot of focus on teenage stuff, such as Stephanie's hormones and getting her license. She was overwhelmingly annoying in this one (I don't remember her being like that in the first book). I get that she's a teenager - yeah, we were all young and stupid once - but she's so smart about so many other things (almost unbelievably so) that some of her decisions came off too young, even for her, and it irritated the shit out of me. It felt extremely young compared to the first book to the point that it almost felt like Middle Grade.
I did love the addition of some new Treecat members! Right-Striped and Left-Striped (although their names were stupid AF, sorry), the Damp Ground clan, and the Treecat that bonded with Stephanie's friend, both of whom I cannot for the life of me remember the name of. I loved that there were more new bonds!
Overall, I was rather bored with the majority of this book and just wanted it to be over. It felt quite long for being such a short book. It did pick up and finally get exciting in the last 25% or so, which rekindled my enjoyment of the series. I'll read the 3rd book eventually.
This review was originally posted on Novel Heartbeat. To see a breakdown of my assessment, please visit the full review here.
mjfmjfmjf's review against another edition
3.0
It is a book like this one that reminds me how hard it apparently is to write good young adult sf. It's not that this book is exactly bad - it just doesn't have any meat to it. And it definitely feels like it is talking down. The setting of the story is fine - in the early interactions between Humans and Treecats - but really concentrating on Stephanie Harrington was probably a mistake - having her just barely on screen would have left a little flexibility.
elisenic's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
joylene45's review against another edition
3.0
The first book was way better. Too much teen angst to slog through. Hope the 3rd book goes back to xenobiology and telepathic cats.
betsychadwell's review
4.0
This was a good one, even if it was young adult and based on a short story that I'd already read. The characters were well drawn and fully fleshed, including flaws. The plot was suspenseful and fast paced.
I read this partly in Kindle format and partly audible format. It was convenient to be able to switch back and forth and have it coordinate my location in both formats.
The narrator did a pretty good job, although I occasionally got the feeling she forgot which voice to use for which character (or maybe I got confused). I almost wish narrators wouldn't try to do a different voice/accent for every speaking character. It becomes distracting.
I read this partly in Kindle format and partly audible format. It was convenient to be able to switch back and forth and have it coordinate my location in both formats.
The narrator did a pretty good job, although I occasionally got the feeling she forgot which voice to use for which character (or maybe I got confused). I almost wish narrators wouldn't try to do a different voice/accent for every speaking character. It becomes distracting.
pers's review
4.0
I really like Stephanie Harrington and Lionheart, her treecat. It's a shame Weber only wrote 3 books about her adventures.
glennisleblanc's review
3.0
The second in the YA spin off series covering the discovery of the treecats. This time a real honest to goodness official science group comes to study the cats. The leader of the group brings his son with him hoping to use him to get closer to Stephanie. He is the usual I know best science guy and most everyone else follows along with him. Poor decisions put the group in danger during forest fire season and Stephanie and her friends help rescue them. The voice in this one was a bit flatter and I don't know if that had something to do with it having two writers or honestly one story arc instead of two that the previous book had.
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