Review: A MILLION SUNS

  Stars: 4/5

 Format: Hardback 

 Read: February 9, 2012

I picked up ACROSS THE UNIVERSE at a Borders closing sale and thought 'Hey, why not? The cover is very pretty and it sounds like it's right up my alley.' I was fairly impressed, felt that it had a good premise but I wasn't in love. I bought its sequel and I really wasn't wowed anymore than the first time.

The characters are the same, no one of significance is added, so I had to rely on the first book to showcase the characters. I felt that this book was ABOUT the characters but the characters themselves were static and didn't move very much either in development or romance. I was indifferent to them, though I tried hard not to be. But fiery Amy felt dimmed and mischievous Elder, though he was supposed to evolve, really didn't. The story evolved without the characters, like a piece of tapestry caught on a sharp edge while the tapestry itself is yanked in the opposite direction. It was awkward, but didn't make the entire story crash down.

I highly enjoyed the mystery aspect of this book, how more of the ship is stumbled upon, a people without phydus, and a world more aware of Amy were dealt with by the people of Godspeed. There were enough pieces to keep me hooked despite the characters having trouble keeping up with the story.

Plus, the book is an entire crescendo and you want to ride the wave until the very end. Instead, it's more of a gentle wave pool than the crashing ocean. You bob to the top of a tiny wave expecting it to go somewhere and it slowly levels out again.

Despite the mystery I was very unimpressed by the cliff-hanger left for me. When I finish a book that I enjoyed more than average, generally I can see when the next one is coming out and get moderately excited to see where the author goes with this. Whether I adored it or not, I still want to see where these characters will end up. I got to the title of the last in this trilogy, SHADES OF EARTH (coming in 2013), and was neutral. I didn't much care either way whether or not I'd buy it, read it, or what could even happen with the story. I don't know if it's because the characters never connected with me or the pacing was strange or the fact that I never did have a connection with the story back in ACROSS THE UNIVERSE, I just didn't have any feelings evoked in me.

I decided on four stars because it was a good, consistent sequel to ACROSS THE UNIVERSE and because the author did a good job sequencing events with some thrill of puzzle mysteries amidst the action. It just continued to not click fully with me.