Talk:Across the Void/@comment-34175169-20190513234020

Well, now that I finished, I'd figured I'd give a review (spoilers ahead). To be honest, I've seen worse, but I've seen better.

Originally, I was really hyped that Choices was getting a sci fi setting. I know we had the different planet thing in Hero and Endless Summer, but an actual Sci Fi is what got me, a total nerd, really hyped. However, I got a bit disappointed here and there.

The setting is pretty good. Nothing I haven't seen in sci fi before, but I think they did a pretty good job establishing the main plot/setting of AtV. I particularly like the whole galactic civil war plot, but the thing is, it isn't heavily focused on. And the Void? We barely saw any of it 'till the last half. Instead, we got stuck as a cruise line captain.

To me, being a cruise line captain in this universe makes no sense. There's a mysterious group (the Void) with a giant warship out causing trouble and a war between a police state and a rebel group, but instead of focusing on that, the first half of the story is hauling self-entitled rich fat cats from point A to point B. I mean c'mon. The passengers themselves aren't even that interesting. I think personally, it'd be better if the main character (I called mine Arcturus) was a Vanguard Marshall or a Jura Soldier, or maybe even a mercenary, fighting in the civil war. It'd make a lot more sense and be a lot more interesting.

So, the first half of the book is not the greatest in my opinion. The second half is a bit more interesting as we're actually getting involved in the war, but everything is loosely connected and goes by so fast. You can tell that they planned to have more chapters and books planned, but they had to wrap everything up so fast. First, the capital is getting bombed, then we go to a galactic library, then we're saving a planet from the void, then we go the Void's homeworld to save our brother, then we go back to our homeworld to stop an invasion and destroy the Void's mother ship, which was introduced in the penultimate chapter...you get the point. It's goes by so fast, and they didn't really flush it out.

A break from the story, how are the characters? Well, I already said the passengers weren't interesting (I didn't even bother to save that one in Chapter 14), so what about love interests? Well, I'm not going into detail on each and every single one, but they're not that interesting in my opinion. I have a bit of a soft spot for Holmes and Oberon's pretty cool, but those are the only ones I really like. Most of the others are very cliché (all of them are) and haven't really been flushed out or anything like that. Lyra has too much going on, and on the other side of the spectrum, characters like Titania and Meridian have barely anything going on with them. I romanced my main character Arcturus with Sol as I wanted to do a male romance, and Zekei and Meridian weren't interesting for the reasons I mentioned above. Sol's fine. Nothing special, but he's alright. I personally get a bit of a Spock vibe from him. Moving onto main antagonists, Quandry and Barlow are a 50/50. I don't like how both of them were introduced in the last half of the book, but I appreciate how they were both introduced as dangerous, with Quandry being a trained killer and Barlow a telepath. I will say that the Barlow romance option is pretty redundant as you only get one scene with him, and he immediately wants to kill you regardless of your relationship with him (from what I can tell).

As for main characters, well, I'm not a big fan of (and this goes for almost every main character in Choices) the whole goodie two-shoes protagonist vibe. I think an antihero-type protagonist, like the one in The Heist, could really work well in this sort of setting, and c'mon, you're gonna have a WAR be a big part of the book and also make the protagonist squeamish about killing? Those are the only problems I have with the main character. Pax and Eos tho? Both of them are just obnoxious, with Eos being overly patriotic and Pax just irritating. This would be less of a problem with me if they were just side characters, but we play as them more times than we do with the main character. They're both cliché and uninteresting, and I personally never cared for what happened to them. There was a theory that one of them was gonna turn renegade, which would've been far more interesting, but instead, when it comes to choosing between Vanguard or Jura, they just run away? Yeah I don't care. See ya never.

Now, I know what some of you are thinking: Do I have anything positive to say about this book? Yes, but I think I dragged this review out further than it needs to, so if you want to question me on anything particular, you can reply down below. For now though, I'll just give my overall opinion. If I were to base this on a numeral scale, I'd give it a 6.5/10. Not great, not terrible, but it's alright. There was a lot of potential within this book, and it's not really impressive that it wasn't used. As a sucker for sci-fi, I hope we do get more sci-fi books in the future, even if they aren't continuing Across the Void. Pixelberry could use this book as a reference to improve and help them make better sci fi stories. Heck, they could even remake this book if they felt like it. I'm sure many, myself included, would want that. At the end of the day, tho, this is all just my opinion, and is not intended to offend anyone. If you love the book (I have a bit of a soft spot for it, too), that's great. You've found more enjoyment in something than I have, and no one can take that away from you.

P.S. I really like how Across the Void, Hero, and Endless Summer are all tied in with eachother. Anyone else think Pixelberry is teasing a future crossover, anyone?