Random Reviews: Thieves, Lawyers, Journalists and Not-Very-Bright Superheroes

Artemis

By: Andy Weir

Grade: C

This was a highly anticipated read for me as I absolutely loved The Martian. I knew little about this one besides it was about a thief called Jazz who lived on the moon. Now I did read some lukewarm reviews before this so I knew it wasn’t going to be The Martian but even still.

My biggest problem with Artemis was the protagonist. I just didn’t like her. Rooting for someone to save everyone is a good thing yes. Rooting for them because everyone is in danger because of their horrible decision making skills in the first place. Oh gee, Jazz. Thanks for nothing. She also seemed to reveal in her mistakes and generally treated people around her like crap.

Which is fine I like the dark anti-heroes but she just bordered on spoiled and selfish to me. Even the humor seemed forced. They can’t all be Mark Watney I know and the book was generally well-written and I liked the moon world building but man. Did not like her.

Recommend: Eh. If you like a caper and unlikeable protagonist, maybe. Otherwise reread The Martian.

Renegades

By: Marissa Meyer

Grade: C-

In this world lots of people have super powers and they split into two factions. The Renegades who are the heroes and in control of the government and the anarchists who are generally in hiding and want to overthrow them. Nova is an anarchist who goes undercover and things happen that will generally surprise no one except for how stupid some of these people are.

Like the anarchists have all these big plans that could work except they can’t help themselves and screw them all up generally sacrificing even allies for what… I don’t know?  The Renegades are kind of dull except for this one kid but he’s kept in a glass prison. They all have secret identities and go back and forth between names so that it took me forever to get into this book.

Plus this book is way too long. Superheroes are hard these days because we’re pretty much inundated. I give Meyer credit for trying. But people are shades of grey is nothing new to the genre, you know?

Most interesting element of the book were murders that happened when the main characters were kids and don’t have any answers in this one. Not sure if I’m going to bother with the second.

Recommend: No. Rewatch X-Men. (All the Dark Phoenix news recently makes me want to!)

Bonfire

By: Krysten Ritter

Grade: B-

Abby is a hotshot lawyer returning home to her truly crummy hometown to investigate a possibly environment case against the big corporation that’s practically bought the place. She finds a deep conspiracy reaching back to her high school days and the disappearance of an old friend that has haunted her ever since.

This is Ritter’s debut. I love her on Jessica Jones and honestly I couldn’t help see her/Jessica Jones in the role of Abby for the whole book. It was a solid debut. I thought too many metaphors sometimes and while I didn’t see exactly where this was going it still felt like I had read/seen the story before. I can’t even quiet put my finger on what wasn’t working.

What a truly horrible town though.

Recommend: Eh. It’s fast and a reasonable mystery for a debut- read it like watching an episode of Jessica Jones.

Retribution Rails

By: Erin Bowman

Grade: A

Charlotte just wants to be a reporter in a time that’s not what women generally do. Her father’s recently died and she and her mother have some serious problems with an Uncle  that she’s trying to help take care of now. Nothing quiet goes her way when she crosses paths with a gang of infamous robbers and killers whose leader is looking to avenge the death of his brother.

This is a sequel to Vengeance Road a Western YA that I loved so it was going to be hard to live up to the original and I admit emotionally it kind of fell short. I thought it wrapped everything together very nicely and I still adored the characters from the first book who show up.

It’s just Vengeance Road felt more like an old school Western. This one felt a bit more like a normal YA set in a Western. Charlotte also paled in comparison to Kate. But I still wound up enjoying it. I liked the addition of the railroad tracks and how it changed everything. There’s a couple of train showdowns that were pretty cool and I did like the journalism angles. Something else that was changing everything during that time period.

Recommend: Yes. You don’t have to read Vengeance Road either… but you totally should! 🙂