The Obsidian Blade by Pete Hautman Series: The Klaatu Diskos #1
Published by Candlewick Press (4.10.2012)
Genres: Science Fiction, Young Adult
Format: ARC, 320 pages
Source: ARCycling
Buy on Amazon
The first time his father disappeared, Tucker Feye had just turned thirteen. The Reverend Feye simply climbed on the roof to fix a shingle, let out a scream, and vanished — only to walk up the driveway an hour later, looking older and worn, with a strange girl named Lahlia in tow. In the months that followed, Tucker watched his father grow distant and his once loving mother slide into madness. But then both of his parents disappear. Now in the care of his wild Uncle Kosh, Tucker begins to suspect that the disks of shimmering air he keeps seeing — one right on top of the roof — hold the answer to restoring his family. And when he dares to step into one, he’s launched on a time-twisting journey
— from a small Midwestern town to a futuristic hospital run by digitally augmented healers, from the death of an ancient prophet to a forest at the end of time. Inevitably, Tucker’s actions alter the past and future, changing his world forever.
My thoughts
I’ve never read a book so pointless in my life. That’s 3 hours of my life I’m never getting back.
Even after finishing this book, I couldn’t tell you what it was about. It’s like someone ate a dictionary and vomited all over the pages. I took absolutely no meaning from this story. I didn’t see the point in anything I was reading, I didn’t understand the meaning of any of the made-up words being thrown at me, and I was confused regarding the world building. I had trouble picturing anything in my mind because I felt it was horribly explained. Medicants, Boggsians, Gnomon, Klaatu….what the hell does any of that mean? What are they? Where did they come from? WHY?! Ugh. I felt like I was wondering around in the dark with my hands tied behind my back. The crazy words that I was assaulted with weren’t explained in the beginning, and when they finally *attempted* to explain, it was a big giant info dump of verbal diarrhea that I still couldn’t decipher ass from elbow. I have no idea what the purpose of the story was, or what the plot was even supposed to be.
The characters were flat and I felt less than nothing for them. I didn’t give two craps about what happened to any of them, and I couldn’t connect to the story at all. Not to mention that toward the end it started getting a bit too religious for me.
Oh, and did I mention I was bored to tears, despite the fairly short length? A lobotomy would have been more fun. Nothing really happened til more than halfway through. 100 pages of pointless filler is a bit too much for me to handle. I’ll admit I skimmed through most of the last quarter of the book because I couldn’t take it anymore and I just wanted to get it over with.
All in all, the concept could have been interesting. But this book was a waste of my time.
Overall Assessment
Plot: 0.5/5
Writing style: 1/5
Originality: 4/5
Characters: 0.5/5
World-building: 0.5/5
Pace: 0.5/5
Cover: 4/5
Overall rating: 1/5
WOW. That sounded SO painful. And I remember getting this one on Amazon a long time ago. It’s probably sitting in the lonely recesses of my Kindle waiting to be read…but I don’t think so. Nuh-huh. It scares me know. Hehe. At least, I’m scared of wasting my time on it. But yay for you getting through it to tell me how terrible it was. Jah? ;) Hehe. I’m sorry you had to read a chopped-up-grammactically-improper-dictionary! We need to get you a better read. *hence magical package via Epic Letter* :D Anyway…..who ever comments rambly comments on DNF reviews? Random people bored out of their minds?
Now I’m stalling. Okay Bysies!!
<33333 yer inkyNATOR
It WAS painful baha! I could have been getting some teeth pulled instead ;p
I’M SO FREAKING STOKED FOR THE MAGICAL PACKAGE AND YOUR EPIC LETTER OF NATOR EPICNESS!!!!!!!
That does actually soun like a better option. :)
Oooh… That’s bad. THANK GOD i haven’t read a book like this (i mean boring and annoying and all kinds of stuff) in a long time… I hate when synopsis of books lie… They tell us all sorts of cool stories and things about the book, and it turns out to be something completely different.
I’m sorry you wasted your time with this book, you could’ve been reading something cool instead lol
Anyways, great review Jessi!
<33
RIGHT? So many times I read the synopsis and I’m all HELL YEAH MAN THIS BOOK SOUNDS AWESOME! then I end up getting disappointed. That should be false advertisement!
Oh man, and to think I almost requested this from NG when it was available last year. Yikes! I hate info-dump, and combine that with things the author probably just made up, and filler and I definitely won’t be looking into this one. So sorry you had to sit through it, Jessi!
Someone ate a dictionary and vomited all over the pages… I just laughed my butt off at that, so thank you! I was unsure about this one from the get go, but I think that your review cemented that this one is just not for me. I shall pass, thank you very much!