Disclaimer: I read an advanced reader's copy of this book. This book will be released on December 10, 2013 (according to amazon.com). It will inevitably have some changes made to it, but the advanced reader's copy is usually close to the finished product.
I'll begin with an amazon summary, "It's a night like any other on board the Icarus. Then, catastrophe strikes: the massive luxury spaceliner is yanked out of hyperspace and plummets into the nearest planet. Lilac LaRoux and Tarver Merendsen survive. And they seem to be alone.
Lilac is the daughter of the richest man in the universe. Tarver comes from nothing, a young war hero who learned long ago that girls like Lilac are more trouble than they're worth. But with only each other to rely on, Lilac and Tarver must work together, making a tortuous journey across the eerie, deserted terrain to seek help." AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE
They spend maybe...five chapters or so aboard the Icarus. This section basically bleats this about Lilac: 'LILAC IS REALLY RICH AND FAMOUS BUT HAS ALL OF THESE SOCIAL LIMITATIONS PLACED BY HER SUPREMELY WEALTHY FATHER *SNOOT SNOOT MURDER*' while it bleats this about Trevar: 'JUST A SMALL TOWN BOY, SUDDENLY MADE IT FAMOUS, WHEN HE TOOK A FEW MISSIONS INTO SPACEEEE' (imagine singing that to Journey-Don't Stop Believing (you're welcome)). Seriously. They have this like, 'ooo I might be attracted to you' moment but Lilac is like 'NO MY FATHER WILL MURDER HIM, MUST SNOOT HIM AWAY' and Traver's like 'WHOA, no amount of pretty is worth that crazy'. ...the beginning of the book.
Then everything gets out of whack, they get into a escape pod which Lilac manages to free them from the giant spaceship (Icarus) after their escape pod doesn't properly eject. So she's not too dumb to live, but she gets close too many times for comfort (more on that later). They crash on the planet with one primary goal: GET HOME (and live long enough to get home, but that's a sidenote right?). Enter survival mode.
For forever.
....honestly, this book dragged a bit to flesh out the character and relationship dynamic of Lilac LaRoux and Tarver Merendsen. I made it through the book because I had a friend tell me it was quite good, and the summary on the back of my copy of the book was much better than the amazon summary.
...still, I sigh a little at how much time they spent just foraging their way across the planet where they crashed because they wanted to get home. It reached a point where I started getting a bit sleepy every time they mentioned getting a distress signal through some weird way so they could GO HOME. I understand why the narration went through such lengths to portray the struggle of their journey, but it still aggravates me.
I kind of liked the style of the book as they effectively used the two first person narrations to their full effect. It's not often that authors can successfully do that. Not often. The writing itself was nice as the details were flawless in execution as such that I knew what the world looked like while not being bogged down by too much description at once. There weren't many tedious moments where it took a page to tell me they walked about ten feet, but I knew every inch of what they saw for no apparent reason other than DAMN THAT'S PRETTY.
Alright, we're going into obscure spoiler land. I'm going to outline the vein of the plot, but not give too many details.
SO SPOILER LAND. OBSCURE VERSION. GOOOO.
There's a mystery that starts to develop as an almost haunting begins to happen to Lilac; Trevar chocks it up to stress...but it could be something more.
I enjoyed how that mystery developed as it seemed like an underlying deal, but was pretty wicked. Sometimes it seemed eradicate in it's purpose and there are moments which I'm still puzzled about.
Yet, there were moments where it really wanted me to understand all of the science and space of the book. For the most of it, I dutifully nodded like a student, 'Uh-huh, yup, that makes sense, sureeeeee' in the hopes that the plot would just go. I don't know if all the science or space stuff was realistic, but it is a fiction book, but I still want a touch of 'this could potentially happen one dayyyy' sense to it. So...there's that. I need someone with more science/physics/space technology to read this and either get mad, ignore it, or agree. CHOOSE.
...anyways.
So I enjoyed the development of the characters when they actually started to...develop. I'm mostly annoyed by how long it took to get across the terraformed planet and SURVIVAL.
Happy reading!
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