Bridgeworld
Travis McBee
*I was offered an e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I was not paid for this review.*
Description: William Haynes was the type of guy that everyone wanted to be. He was an honor roll student and captain of his middle school football team. He was dating the most popular girl in the school and had dozens of friends. Yes, life was perfect for Will...that is until a strange man shows up and forces his parents to reveal a secret they have kept hidden since he was born. He is told that he has been given a scholarship to a prestigious private school that his parents attended, a private school that happens to be in space. Will must choose between a life many would die for and a life none could imagine. A life where he is no longer perfect, where he must make new friends, and where he must survive a school rivalry like no other.
I found Bridgeworld to be, unfortunately, an unmemorable read. The characters seemed very cliched. They each had a few distinctive personality traits, but they weren't unique enough for me to really care about or connect with them. I was able to relate a bit with the main character and his struggles, like adapting to life in a foreign environment, and having to make new friends (while being cut off from old friends too.)
The romance/love in this book was light, which made me happy. It was just over the border between believable and unbelievable; I couldn't take it seriously. This was fine with me, because the focus of the story wasn't the romance :)
In my opinion, the author used too many descriptives, at least throughout the first half of the book. Adjectives, adverbs, similes... they overwhelmed most sentences. It was very distracting, and it made focusing on the actual events or people being described pretty difficult. Because of this, I ended up skipping through many of the paragraphs. (...Never a good sign :| )
Another thing I found myself skipping over was the laughing. There were a bunch of times where characters would have an awkward moment, or tell a joke, and there would be a detailed description of them laughing. It made me mentally cringe, and I basically skipped any scene where laughing might be involved.
There were lots of grammar mistakes, but I've never used these as a reason to give a bad review. Distracting, yes, but these mistakes don't determine the quality of an overall story. I'm assuming that the physical copies of the book were properly edited.
The world building seemed strong to me. I was able to mentally picture many of the objects and places described. The author managed to take alien life, something we usually associate with either strange green blobs/ vicious insect warriors/insert your choice of alien stereotype, and turn it into something that the reader not only understands, but can imagine as "real." That takes skill, and Mr. McBee has it.
In the end, I struggled to finish this book, and I couldn't immerse myself into the story at any point. Whether it was because of characters, skipping over whole paragraphs, or maybe the story just wasn't for me, I did not enjoy reading this book. I might recommend the physical copy (if they have indeed been edited) to younger male readers, as in middle school age or lower.
My rating: Okay Read
