Earth Girl by Janet Edwards
May. 25th, 2012 11:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
Meet me, Jarra. Earth girl.
It’s the year 2788, and the universe is divided into two different kinds of people: the Norms, who can portal between other planets, and people like me, the one in a thousand who are born with an immune system which doesn’t allow us to leave planet Earth.
Norms come back to Earth for one reason: to study human history. But only if they don’t have to interact with us ‘Neanderthals’ along the way. Well, I’ve got a plan to change all that.
Call me whatever you like, I’m every bit as good as they are.
And I’m going to prove it to them.
It’s 2788. Thanks to portal technology (essentially giant teleportation devices), man has been colonising the universe for centuries. But not everyone can go into space. Jarra’s a teenage girl and one of the minority of humans whose physiology means that if she leaves Earth, she’ll die.
Although the colonists sneer at Earth and its “handicapped” inhabitants, the planet remains the key to understanding humanity’s history after almost all its historical records were destroyed. Anyone who wants to study archaeology or history has to spend at least a year there.
Jarra’s a history nut who’s spent her vacations on archaeological digs. She decides to prove to the colonist students that she’s their equal by constructing a fake identity and enrolling on a colonial university’s Earth campus. There she soon surpasses her classmates but the longer she keeps up the pretence, the harder it is to come clean, especially now she’s made friends among the colonists she initially despised.
When a disaster results in Jarra’s class being ordered to portal off planet because a solar array is plummeting towards their site, she risks not only the discovery of her secret but also her very life …
Janet Edwards’ debut YA novel mixes solid science fiction with a love of history to an interesting if not wholly convincing effect.
I really enjoyed Jarra’s first person narration – particularly her cynicism and her passion for history. Edwards does a good job of having Jarra explain how her future works. The technological aspects were great, particularly the portals and the special suits and equipment used on digs. However the idea of each colony having specific character traits made for one-dimensional side characters and the TV shows of the future have a distinctly 60s SF vibe.
As a character-based book, there wasn’t quite enough plot here to fully hold my attention and I found that the details of how to do a 28th century archaeological dig got very repetitive. My big issue came in the final quarter though as I never believed a key event that happens to Jarra or her reaction to it. Similarly, I found the romance element to be underdeveloped mainly because the love interest doesn’t get a lot of page time.
There was a lot here that I enjoyed and it’s good to read proper YA SF rather than dystopia or love triangles in space. I’d definitely read Janet Edwards’s next book.
The Verdict:
Janet Edwards’ debut YA novel mixes solid science fiction with a love of history to an interesting if not wholly convincing effect. Although I loved Jarra’s first person voice and the way Edwards introduces the technological elements of her world building, the social elements (particularly the colonists and their homogenous characteristics) were less convincing. I was also completely unconvinced by a plot development in the final quarter, which did rather spoil my ultimate enjoyment although there was a lot here that was great and would ensure that I definitely read Janet Edwards’s next book.
EARTH GIRL will be released in the UK on 16th August 2012. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the ARC of this book.
It’s the year 2788, and the universe is divided into two different kinds of people: the Norms, who can portal between other planets, and people like me, the one in a thousand who are born with an immune system which doesn’t allow us to leave planet Earth.
Norms come back to Earth for one reason: to study human history. But only if they don’t have to interact with us ‘Neanderthals’ along the way. Well, I’ve got a plan to change all that.
Call me whatever you like, I’m every bit as good as they are.
And I’m going to prove it to them.
It’s 2788. Thanks to portal technology (essentially giant teleportation devices), man has been colonising the universe for centuries. But not everyone can go into space. Jarra’s a teenage girl and one of the minority of humans whose physiology means that if she leaves Earth, she’ll die.
Although the colonists sneer at Earth and its “handicapped” inhabitants, the planet remains the key to understanding humanity’s history after almost all its historical records were destroyed. Anyone who wants to study archaeology or history has to spend at least a year there.
Jarra’s a history nut who’s spent her vacations on archaeological digs. She decides to prove to the colonist students that she’s their equal by constructing a fake identity and enrolling on a colonial university’s Earth campus. There she soon surpasses her classmates but the longer she keeps up the pretence, the harder it is to come clean, especially now she’s made friends among the colonists she initially despised.
When a disaster results in Jarra’s class being ordered to portal off planet because a solar array is plummeting towards their site, she risks not only the discovery of her secret but also her very life …
Janet Edwards’ debut YA novel mixes solid science fiction with a love of history to an interesting if not wholly convincing effect.
I really enjoyed Jarra’s first person narration – particularly her cynicism and her passion for history. Edwards does a good job of having Jarra explain how her future works. The technological aspects were great, particularly the portals and the special suits and equipment used on digs. However the idea of each colony having specific character traits made for one-dimensional side characters and the TV shows of the future have a distinctly 60s SF vibe.
As a character-based book, there wasn’t quite enough plot here to fully hold my attention and I found that the details of how to do a 28th century archaeological dig got very repetitive. My big issue came in the final quarter though as I never believed a key event that happens to Jarra or her reaction to it. Similarly, I found the romance element to be underdeveloped mainly because the love interest doesn’t get a lot of page time.
There was a lot here that I enjoyed and it’s good to read proper YA SF rather than dystopia or love triangles in space. I’d definitely read Janet Edwards’s next book.
The Verdict:
Janet Edwards’ debut YA novel mixes solid science fiction with a love of history to an interesting if not wholly convincing effect. Although I loved Jarra’s first person voice and the way Edwards introduces the technological elements of her world building, the social elements (particularly the colonists and their homogenous characteristics) were less convincing. I was also completely unconvinced by a plot development in the final quarter, which did rather spoil my ultimate enjoyment although there was a lot here that was great and would ensure that I definitely read Janet Edwards’s next book.
EARTH GIRL will be released in the UK on 16th August 2012. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the ARC of this book.
