A review by seak
Cassastar by Alex J. Cavanaugh
3.0
I'm really glad Alex J. Cavanaugh contacted me to review his book, CassaStar.
This was a fun tale of friendship and overcoming the odds that I flew through pretty fast. With this in mind, it wasn't a perfect book and that's why this review will be divided into The Good and The Bad. Very creative I know.
The Good
At first I was really annoyed with the main character, Byron and he, in turn, is annoyed at almost everyone he meets. Byron gives off a surly attitude mixed with a cockiness, which quickly becomes understandable (to my satisfaction) and even relatable as you come to learn about his motives and past.
Byron and all characters in CassaStar are from Cassa and Cassans have an innate ability for telepathy. Each person can not only read each others thoughts, but their emotions as well. Except that Byron has become adept at closing himself off, or putting up his shields, to others.
I couldn't help thinking how much this could help our own society if we could only read people's true intentions instead of being quick to get offended all the time, especially when offense is not intended. Benefit of the doubt anyone? I'm not always the best at that. Although that's perfectly fine on the internet. :)
The story itself is straightforward, which is a nice change of pace, and becomes a pleasant tale of friendship and even poignant towards the latter half of the book. I guess I was in a contemplative mood while reading this because I found myself wondering how closed off I am towards people when all they could use is a friend. I feel bad that it's not always the case that I reach out a hand to those in need and overcome my own comfort zones.
The Bad
While I enjoyed the story, there are a couple gripes I had that I just couldn't get over.
The main thing I had a problem with in CassaStar was the motivations for not only Byron, but the whole fleet against the alien race, the Vindicarns. Byron becomes a fighter pilot because he has nothing left, but that leaves the story a little stale. What does it matter if he doesn't move on to become a pilot in the fleet? It didn't seem like was more than Byron would be disappointed and have to do something else. To engage my emotions, I needed this to be more life and death if not xenocide.
When the fleet starts fighting the Vindicarns, I again found motivation lacking. What had this race done to the Cassans? It really wasn't anything more than they were attacking their ships and I needed more than this. Did they blow up your home planet? Did they kiss your girlfriend behind your back?
The last thing was the cookie-cutter ending. Things just fit nicely into a box and it was perfect for our protagonist to step in. Too perfect.
When Should You Read CassaStar?
CassaStar was a fun romp in space with fighting spaceships and aliens. It's straight-forward and easy to follow, which is a good thing to read when you're, for instance, in law school and all you do is read/analyze technical cases.
3 out of 5 Stars
This was a fun tale of friendship and overcoming the odds that I flew through pretty fast. With this in mind, it wasn't a perfect book and that's why this review will be divided into The Good and The Bad. Very creative I know.
The Good
At first I was really annoyed with the main character, Byron and he, in turn, is annoyed at almost everyone he meets. Byron gives off a surly attitude mixed with a cockiness, which quickly becomes understandable (to my satisfaction) and even relatable as you come to learn about his motives and past.
Byron and all characters in CassaStar are from Cassa and Cassans have an innate ability for telepathy. Each person can not only read each others thoughts, but their emotions as well. Except that Byron has become adept at closing himself off, or putting up his shields, to others.
I couldn't help thinking how much this could help our own society if we could only read people's true intentions instead of being quick to get offended all the time, especially when offense is not intended. Benefit of the doubt anyone? I'm not always the best at that. Although that's perfectly fine on the internet. :)
The story itself is straightforward, which is a nice change of pace, and becomes a pleasant tale of friendship and even poignant towards the latter half of the book. I guess I was in a contemplative mood while reading this because I found myself wondering how closed off I am towards people when all they could use is a friend. I feel bad that it's not always the case that I reach out a hand to those in need and overcome my own comfort zones.
The Bad
While I enjoyed the story, there are a couple gripes I had that I just couldn't get over.
The main thing I had a problem with in CassaStar was the motivations for not only Byron, but the whole fleet against the alien race, the Vindicarns. Byron becomes a fighter pilot because he has nothing left, but that leaves the story a little stale. What does it matter if he doesn't move on to become a pilot in the fleet? It didn't seem like was more than Byron would be disappointed and have to do something else. To engage my emotions, I needed this to be more life and death if not xenocide.
When the fleet starts fighting the Vindicarns, I again found motivation lacking. What had this race done to the Cassans? It really wasn't anything more than they were attacking their ships and I needed more than this. Did they blow up your home planet? Did they kiss your girlfriend behind your back?
The last thing was the cookie-cutter ending. Things just fit nicely into a box and it was perfect for our protagonist to step in. Too perfect.
When Should You Read CassaStar?
CassaStar was a fun romp in space with fighting spaceships and aliens. It's straight-forward and easy to follow, which is a good thing to read when you're, for instance, in law school and all you do is read/analyze technical cases.
3 out of 5 Stars