Of course, The Fool's Illusion isn't the only speculative fiction book that centres around the theme of deceit. Author Beth Revis's Across the Universe is set on a star ship that seems to run on lies and therefore illusions some of which are very literal. I recently finished reading this YA novel which was part of my summer reading. My review of it is below. Is it a book you would consider putting on your own reading list? Feel free to provide your answer in the box below.
Photo Credit: Razorbill/Penguin
Book's Title: Across the Universe
Author: Beth Revis
Series: Across the
Universe Trilogy
Volume: Book 1 (of 3)
Year of Publication: 2011
Publisher: Razorbill/Penguin
With young adult science fiction rising in popularity,
especially since The Hunger Games
craze, Beth Revis’s Across the Universe
carries on this trend. Part space opera, part murder mystery, it’s the first book
of a trilogy. Even so, it holds up good as its own story and so doesn’t leave
the reader hanging at the end. The book’s theme of deceit runs through not only
the villainous characters but all the major characters no matter how virtuous
and loving they’re made to be. And so this theme of lies is used realistically, making the characters and situations more life-like. However, as well written
this YA novel is, its setting and its characterization of the main
antagonist fall short of what they can be.
Synopsis
Teenager Amy Martin awakes from a cryogenic freese on the
spaceship Godspeed fifty years earlier
than she’s supposed to. She discovers that the reason for her early revival is that someone tried to kill her. With the help of her new friend, Elder who
is of the generation presently running the ship, she tries to track down her
would-be murderer before the killer can get other frozen passengers, especially
her parents.
Novel’s Structure
Across the Universe holds
up good in its structure. The chapters regularly alternate between the two main
characters’, Amy and Elder’s, point of views making it easy for the reader to
follow the story. At the same time, the organization of the sequence of events time
the suspense, foreshadowing and irony good which is a big accomplishment since the
author has to be careful not to reveal too much too soon through either character
who also serve as narrators.
Characterization
Both Amy and Elder’s characters are well developed. We can
sympathise with both but especially Amy’s who the novel centres around. We feel
her loneliness and anger as well as her love for her parents, especially her
father. We feel the struggles and fears she goes through while she's forced to adapt to a
new generation of passengers who, unlike her, have never seen either outer
space or the surface of any planet and so have lived on the Godspeed’s windowless farm deck their
whole lives. She wrestles with the homesickness for the Earth she leaves behind
and with her loneliness of not being able to communicate with her cryogenically
frozen parents. We sense Elder’s struggle with and rebellion against Eldest,
the ship’s administrator who raised him since birth and who Elder is to
succeed. We feel the anger and uncertainty of both Amy and Elder when they
discover more and more that they and the other passengers have been living off
of lies conspired by the administration.
In one aspect of the character interaction, the old
fashioned love triangle is used between Amy, Elder and Elder’s friend, Harley. Even
though such a literary device may typify the story a bit too much in certain respects, it's done convincingly here taking us into the emotions of the two male
characters showing the reader their jealousy and anxiety for Amy. Yet we also see these
two struggling to hang onto their friendship and so trying to rise above the
jealousy. So the way this love triangle is handled portrays clearly the extreme emotions
of adolescence.
The antagonist’s character, Eldest’s, could have been better
developed. He comes across as caring and friendly to his common subjects, a deceitful
method on his part to control the ship and its population. The only problem with this trait
of his is that it's more told than shown let alone not revealed to us until around
halfway through the book. So Eldest comes across too much as the typical fairy tale
villain, all evil and cruel, both in his ambitions and actions, including his
manner of speaking.
Setting
The Godspeed’s interior
is portrayed okay but takes a while to convey clearly in the reader’s head. This
is especially so with the farming level of the ship where much of the novel takes place. Even though there is a landscape in this vast part of the
ship, there is no simulated sky, only “the steel-grey metal of the walls that
curve over this level of the ship ” as Amy explains it (page 141). However, the
other major setting within the ship, the cryogenic freeze chamber, is described
really good giving the likeness to that of a mausoleum and so works perfectly
for a murder mystery/space opera cross-genre story such as Across the Universe.
While the science and technology are plausible enough overall,
there are some flaws for the distant future this book is set in. Today’s
technology seems to be more reflected at certain points in the novel. For example, there are doors on the
ship that have to be opened manually. Another example is a fake outer space that a
simulated window looks out on in which the stars are described as light bulbs. I wouldn't call that too futuristic of tech when so many of today's simulations are digital or VR.
The relatively simple structure of Across the Universe, the story’s tension and the realism of Amy and
Elder’s characters make Bevis’s YA novel worth reading. This isn’t only
so for the teen audience that the book targets, but for an adult one too. That
is, if adult readers can get past a too typical villain character and a few
devices that would be outdated in a far-future setting. Not to mention euphemisms for typical teenage cuss words,
probably used so school districts and libraries don’t get sued by certain
parents.
Until next time . . .
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