meganbmoore (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
meganbmoore) wrote2007-09-18 11:07 pm
meganbmoore) wrote2007-09-18 11:07 pm
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Moongazer by Maeianne Mancusi
Moongazer is part of Dorchester's new Shomi line of romance novels. I hadn't heard of the Shomi line until magicnoire posted on it last week, though I had seen the books in the bookstore...and shied far away, thinking from the covers that it was a YA action series or something(though if I'd looked at author names, I'd have note that one is by Liz Maverock and would have at least learned more, as I quite liked the one Maverick book I've read.) The Shomi line, as near as I can tell, is a line of romance novels with less emphasis on romance and more of adventure, scifi, fantasy, etc-whatever genre a particular book falls into. This is good in principle, but those books often end up books that I feel would fare better as scifi or fantasy novels. Moongazer isn't an exception to that opinion.
magicnoire posted on it last week, though I had seen the books in the bookstore...and shied far away, thinking from the covers that it was a YA action series or something(though if I'd looked at author names, I'd have note that one is by Liz Maverock and would have at least learned more, as I quite liked the one Maverick book I've read.) The Shomi line, as near as I can tell, is a line of romance novels with less emphasis on romance and more of adventure, scifi, fantasy, etc-whatever genre a particular book falls into. This is good in principle, but those books often end up books that I feel would fare better as scifi or fantasy novels. Moongazer isn't an exception to that opinion.Moongazer is about Skye Brown, a computer programmer who has strange dreams where she's being hunted. One night, her "dream" finds her in another world, where she's not Skye Brown, but Mariah Quinn, a revolutionary who turned her back on her elite background but recently disappeared. The world of Terra is a post apocalyptic world where war has made the surface uninhabitable and what's left of humanity lives underground. The ruling class-led by an organization called The Circle of Eight-works the lower class-the Dark Siders-like slaves, and many Dark Siders are sickly and mutated. Mariah Quinn was meant to become a member of the Co8, but turned her back on them to become a revolutionary.
However, when a new passtime called moongazing-a VR-like program that supposed allowed people to "visit" Earth, which is much like Terra was before the war-opened for the elite, Mariah investigated it, including moongazing herself until she suddenly disappeared the night the rebels were going to make their move. While most of Mariah's group, the Eclipsers, believe the Co8 got her, her boyfriend, Dawn (we will not dwell on a man named Dawn...it makes sense for the story and that is that) thinks that Mariah became addicted to moongazing and betrayed them for a chance to "migrate" to Earth permanently.
Even as she's being treated like a pariah by Dawn and a saint by the Dark Siders, a representative of the Co8, Duske, is reassuring her that she really is Skye and just an Earth woman and that Mariah "saw the light" and really did migrate to Earth permanently.
While the storyline and world are interesting, I have to admit that the constant fawning over Skye by the Dark Siders irritated me a lot. Mariah is talked about but never seen. Dawn's early representaton of Mariah and Duske's stories about her, combined with the near worshipping made me inclined to dislike her just out of irritation, and we didn't "see" enough of the real Mariah for me to know what was and wasn't called for...I don't know is Mariah herself deserved all the adoration she received, or if she just got the adoration that anyone who came along to help would have received. Sometimes I thought Dawn should have been meaner to her than he was at first just to compensate.
The book is very heavily influenced by The Matrix(which, despite only having seen the first movie, I can appreciate) and by gaming(which I'm largely clueless about.) To its credit, it's well aware of this, with Skye making many Matrix referrences, and, like The Matrix, Moongazer often makes Alice in Wonderland looking glass/rabbit hole referrences. However, as I said before, I think it would have fared better as a scifi noir book than a romance novel. There are, sadly, romance novel conventions that anything with "romance" on the spine must adhere too, and this story would have been better off without them. In particular, I can't help that Dawn, and interesting character, was watered down to make him fit as a romance novel hero. The hard, occassionally mean Dawn att he beginning of the book was much more interesting than the softer Dawn we got in the second half. In addition, more action and less romance would have suited the mood-and roots-of the book better. Both of these(and some other, smaller things) however, are essentially mandated by
Two things that stood out to me were that the book is written in first person, and usually in the present tense. While I prefer third person narration, I usually don't mind first person, except in romance novels, where it never quite feels "right" to me. More importantly, though, is the fact that most of the book is written in the present tense, with only Skye's time on Earth written in the past tense. While Mancussi does a very good job of maintaining the present tense(not an easy thing) and it works well in the context of the story, present tense makes me twitchy.
This is, all in all, a fun scifi noir book, I just wish it actually had been an edgier, scifi marketted book instead of a romance novel.
However, when a new passtime called moongazing-a VR-like program that supposed allowed people to "visit" Earth, which is much like Terra was before the war-opened for the elite, Mariah investigated it, including moongazing herself until she suddenly disappeared the night the rebels were going to make their move. While most of Mariah's group, the Eclipsers, believe the Co8 got her, her boyfriend, Dawn (we will not dwell on a man named Dawn...it makes sense for the story and that is that) thinks that Mariah became addicted to moongazing and betrayed them for a chance to "migrate" to Earth permanently.
Even as she's being treated like a pariah by Dawn and a saint by the Dark Siders, a representative of the Co8, Duske, is reassuring her that she really is Skye and just an Earth woman and that Mariah "saw the light" and really did migrate to Earth permanently.
While the storyline and world are interesting, I have to admit that the constant fawning over Skye by the Dark Siders irritated me a lot. Mariah is talked about but never seen. Dawn's early representaton of Mariah and Duske's stories about her, combined with the near worshipping made me inclined to dislike her just out of irritation, and we didn't "see" enough of the real Mariah for me to know what was and wasn't called for...I don't know is Mariah herself deserved all the adoration she received, or if she just got the adoration that anyone who came along to help would have received. Sometimes I thought Dawn should have been meaner to her than he was at first just to compensate.
The book is very heavily influenced by The Matrix(which, despite only having seen the first movie, I can appreciate) and by gaming(which I'm largely clueless about.) To its credit, it's well aware of this, with Skye making many Matrix referrences, and, like The Matrix, Moongazer often makes Alice in Wonderland looking glass/rabbit hole referrences. However, as I said before, I think it would have fared better as a scifi noir book than a romance novel. There are, sadly, romance novel conventions that anything with "romance" on the spine must adhere too, and this story would have been better off without them. In particular, I can't help that Dawn, and interesting character, was watered down to make him fit as a romance novel hero. The hard, occassionally mean Dawn att he beginning of the book was much more interesting than the softer Dawn we got in the second half. In addition, more action and less romance would have suited the mood-and roots-of the book better. Both of these(and some other, smaller things) however, are essentially mandated by
Two things that stood out to me were that the book is written in first person, and usually in the present tense. While I prefer third person narration, I usually don't mind first person, except in romance novels, where it never quite feels "right" to me. More importantly, though, is the fact that most of the book is written in the present tense, with only Skye's time on Earth written in the past tense. While Mancussi does a very good job of maintaining the present tense(not an easy thing) and it works well in the context of the story, present tense makes me twitchy.
This is, all in all, a fun scifi noir book, I just wish it actually had been an edgier, scifi marketted book instead of a romance novel.