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A review by serrendipity
A Wilderness of Stars by Shea Ernshaw
2.0
I...am so very mad about the time I spent reading this book which I'll never get back.
If I could do it again, I would read the chapter-prefaces before each chapter and the last chapter. And skip everything in between.
Because here's the thing: this book is about 6x as long as it needs to be. You take the "constellation" stories at the beginning of each chapter and the last chapter, and it's a tight, neat short story or novella, maybe with a little bit of connective tissue. With a really cool premise. (Which, BTW, is Sci-Fi -- which is FINE. I love sci-fi. But I was 100% convinced that this was a fantasy book. And Amazon classifies it as "YA Dark Fantasy," so...no.)
But everything else in between?
Not for me. And kinda unnecessary.
Warning -- spoilers abound below.
I read Ernshaw's take on Sally The Pumpkin Queen and enjoyed it. I didn't *love* the writing style, but that's a personal quirk, and as I mentioned in my review of that book, it largely worked for the story she was telling.
Now, there's a similar writing style here -- which I had previously understood was a departure from Ernshaw's style, but maybe not? It seems the 2 books were written/revised concurrently, so maybe they just bled into each other? -- with lots of clauses and lack-of-conjunctions and endless repetition.
(No, really: the entire book is basically Vega saying "I shouldn't do this!" then "But i have to do this! There's no one else who can do this!" On repeat.)
And what frustrated me more was that Ernshaw is deliberately withholding information from the reader -- as in, Vega makes it *very clear* that there is more going on, but she can't tell anyone because it's too dangerous! And it felt to me like the literary version of a tween (or small child) smugly saying "I've got a secret!" and then you say, "What is it?" And they taunt you going "Not gonna tell!" Which is endlessly frustrating, because that information only gets dumped on you in the last 50 or so pages of the book. So that's 340 pages of dragging the story out, with a repetitive plot cycle where nothing *really* happens, just to get an answer which is, IMHO, still unsatisfactory.
After all, the plot/conflict hinges on two things: (1) the love Vega has for Noah and (2) the conflict between Vega and the Theorists, namely Holt.
Now, frustrating thing #1: Holt is near death like 3 times. And like a cartoonish Wiley E. Coyote, he REFUSES TO DIE. He might be on death's door from "consumption," but dadgumit if he somehow doesn't bleed out after getting a knife through the ribs. It just feels...convenient. (Like, there are no other villains, so this one will have to do.)
But -- frustrating thing #2. At the end, we learn that this planet was settled by a group of colonists.
Fine. Cool.
There's no indication that the planet is otherwise inhabited -- the implication is that these super-smart Earth people left Earth to find a new planet and their ship crashed here. So we assume that *all* these people are former Earth residents who came on this one ship.
Now, the ship did crash and I'm guessing we're supposed to believe that they were scattered across the planet, and just started building towns and farms where they landed.
But -- if they're all people fleeing Earth, wouldn't they have known each other? Wouldn't they have tried to find each other to pool their skills and resources? Especially since Vega finds Noah in like 2 chapters? It doesn't seem hard.
And wouldn't those people, I don't know, have worked together? Especially if they were smart people like doctors and scientists?
The biggest flaw in this story is that there is no valid reason why the Astronomer needed to hide in the Valley and hoard the knowledge. It would have made much more sense for them to find each other, have a conversation, and then set up towns like where Maybelle's hotel is, a few days away from the sea & mountains, so that when the twin suns appeared, they could get someone to the Escape Pod. It would take 3-4 days instead of however-long-it-takes Vega to get there, and there'd be enough time to get back and rescue them.
Without that valid reason -- especially in light of the "answers" we get at the end -- the whole plot falls apart. Like, I'm not saying that everyone would be Good and Honest and that men like Holt wouldn't have existed -- but having an honest conversation with each other might have alleviated a lot of their problems.
And the trope of "a-conversation-would-have-solved-everything" has got to be my least favorite, because while it does seem realistic in some contexts (e.g., if a character is supposed to be stubborn and refuses to be honest), it feels like most of the time it just leads to plot holes and frustration.
Other things that annoyed me:
✖️ -- NOT a fan of Holt and his violent, predatory nature -- especially directed against a 17 y/o girl. I'm definitely over that in YA novels, and in all stories, really. I get it makes him eViL, but again, if he'd had rational answers and everyone had a plan to survive the next 100 years together he may have had actual hope, rather than rabid, fervent misguided rage.
✖️ -- The Insta-Love. I get that it's supposed to be a tragic love story, but Vega's lived her ENTIRE LIFE sheltered in a valley with just her mom. Yet she swoons over the first boy she meets? Who she's known for a month, tops? This story didn't need a romance to be compelling, and the romance distracted from the more interesting parts of it.
✖️ -- Also, this may be a personal pet peeve but when there's an impending deadline -- like, say, we have to get to the sea before the twin suns disappear -- you don't stop to have Date Night. Again, the romance distracted from the main storyline.
✖️ -- Really annoyed by how naive and unprepared Vega was. I feel like if you have 100 years to prepare, you'd have a go bag ready, you'd have gotten some horses to travel on. You wouldn't just burn your house down and walk away without food or a canteen.
✖️ -- OR A SCARF. Why, on earth, if Vega has a sweater and clothes, does she not have a SCARF?! Or cloth she winds around her neck? Or a turtleneck? This just seems practical and obvious.
Between that, and questions of how they're surviving a month with no food, or didn't get frostbite in the snow-covered mountains (where Vega LITERALLY COMPLAINED ABOUT NOT HAVING WATER -- IN THE SNOW) I just found myself getting increasingly irritated and frustrated as I read. The premise is really, really cool -- but it just wasn't executed.
If I could do it again, I would read the chapter-prefaces before each chapter and the last chapter. And skip everything in between.
Because here's the thing: this book is about 6x as long as it needs to be. You take the "constellation" stories at the beginning of each chapter and the last chapter, and it's a tight, neat short story or novella, maybe with a little bit of connective tissue. With a really cool premise. (Which, BTW, is Sci-Fi -- which is FINE. I love sci-fi. But I was 100% convinced that this was a fantasy book. And Amazon classifies it as "YA Dark Fantasy," so...no.)
But everything else in between?
Not for me. And kinda unnecessary.
Warning -- spoilers abound below.
I read Ernshaw's take on Sally The Pumpkin Queen and enjoyed it. I didn't *love* the writing style, but that's a personal quirk, and as I mentioned in my review of that book, it largely worked for the story she was telling.
Now, there's a similar writing style here -- which I had previously understood was a departure from Ernshaw's style, but maybe not? It seems the 2 books were written/revised concurrently, so maybe they just bled into each other? -- with lots of clauses and lack-of-conjunctions and endless repetition.
(No, really: the entire book is basically Vega saying "I shouldn't do this!" then "But i have to do this! There's no one else who can do this!" On repeat.)
And what frustrated me more was that Ernshaw is deliberately withholding information from the reader -- as in, Vega makes it *very clear* that there is more going on, but she can't tell anyone because it's too dangerous! And it felt to me like the literary version of a tween (or small child) smugly saying "I've got a secret!" and then you say, "What is it?" And they taunt you going "Not gonna tell!" Which is endlessly frustrating, because that information only gets dumped on you in the last 50 or so pages of the book. So that's 340 pages of dragging the story out, with a repetitive plot cycle where nothing *really* happens, just to get an answer which is, IMHO, still unsatisfactory.
After all, the plot/conflict hinges on two things: (1) the love Vega has for Noah and (2) the conflict between Vega and the Theorists, namely Holt.
Now, frustrating thing #1: Holt is near death like 3 times. And like a cartoonish Wiley E. Coyote, he REFUSES TO DIE. He might be on death's door from "consumption," but dadgumit if he somehow doesn't bleed out after getting a knife through the ribs. It just feels...convenient. (Like, there are no other villains, so this one will have to do.)
But -- frustrating thing #2. At the end, we learn that this planet was settled by a group of colonists.
Fine. Cool.
There's no indication that the planet is otherwise inhabited -- the implication is that these super-smart Earth people left Earth to find a new planet and their ship crashed here. So we assume that *all* these people are former Earth residents who came on this one ship.
Now, the ship did crash and I'm guessing we're supposed to believe that they were scattered across the planet, and just started building towns and farms where they landed.
But -- if they're all people fleeing Earth, wouldn't they have known each other? Wouldn't they have tried to find each other to pool their skills and resources? Especially since Vega finds Noah in like 2 chapters? It doesn't seem hard.
And wouldn't those people, I don't know, have worked together? Especially if they were smart people like doctors and scientists?
The biggest flaw in this story is that there is no valid reason why the Astronomer needed to hide in the Valley and hoard the knowledge. It would have made much more sense for them to find each other, have a conversation, and then set up towns like where Maybelle's hotel is, a few days away from the sea & mountains, so that when the twin suns appeared, they could get someone to the Escape Pod. It would take 3-4 days instead of however-long-it-takes Vega to get there, and there'd be enough time to get back and rescue them.
Without that valid reason -- especially in light of the "answers" we get at the end -- the whole plot falls apart. Like, I'm not saying that everyone would be Good and Honest and that men like Holt wouldn't have existed -- but having an honest conversation with each other might have alleviated a lot of their problems.
And the trope of "a-conversation-would-have-solved-everything" has got to be my least favorite, because while it does seem realistic in some contexts (e.g., if a character is supposed to be stubborn and refuses to be honest), it feels like most of the time it just leads to plot holes and frustration.
Other things that annoyed me:
✖️ -- NOT a fan of Holt and his violent, predatory nature -- especially directed against a 17 y/o girl. I'm definitely over that in YA novels, and in all stories, really. I get it makes him eViL, but again, if he'd had rational answers and everyone had a plan to survive the next 100 years together he may have had actual hope, rather than rabid, fervent misguided rage.
✖️ -- The Insta-Love. I get that it's supposed to be a tragic love story, but Vega's lived her ENTIRE LIFE sheltered in a valley with just her mom. Yet she swoons over the first boy she meets? Who she's known for a month, tops? This story didn't need a romance to be compelling, and the romance distracted from the more interesting parts of it.
✖️ -- Also, this may be a personal pet peeve but when there's an impending deadline -- like, say, we have to get to the sea before the twin suns disappear -- you don't stop to have Date Night. Again, the romance distracted from the main storyline.
✖️ -- Really annoyed by how naive and unprepared Vega was. I feel like if you have 100 years to prepare, you'd have a go bag ready, you'd have gotten some horses to travel on. You wouldn't just burn your house down and walk away without food or a canteen.
✖️ -- OR A SCARF. Why, on earth, if Vega has a sweater and clothes, does she not have a SCARF?! Or cloth she winds around her neck? Or a turtleneck? This just seems practical and obvious.
Between that, and questions of how they're surviving a month with no food, or didn't get frostbite in the snow-covered mountains (where Vega LITERALLY COMPLAINED ABOUT NOT HAVING WATER -- IN THE SNOW) I just found myself getting increasingly irritated and frustrated as I read. The premise is really, really cool -- but it just wasn't executed.