2006-05-18
Born to Run
Author: Mercedes Lackey & Larry Dixon
Lackey has produced some solid work before, so when I needed a new book I grabbed the ebook edition of Born to Run, the first book in the SERRAted Edge series. While it served its purpose of entertaining me, unfortunately it has not yet inspired me to shop for any sequels.
The novel has good ingredients. There's a girl on the run from her boring, upper-class family. There's a human mage talking to a ghost. There's a child porn/snuff film studio run by evil elves. And there are good elves that like stock car racing. Based on all that, I'm ready to read!
If only all of the above had come together more neatly. The girl's story is told in its entirety, and the human mage Tannim is a main character ... but even though the ghost Ross gets tied back into the story after going missing for half the book, why it was Tannim's "job" to find Ross in the first place isn't explained at all. The action is totally unterrifying because the bad elves are ridiculously vulnerable to Cold Iron, yet the good elves can build up a resistance. And I hope the back cover text was an error in the ebook production because it doesn't have a relation to the story whatsoever.
All told, the writing is at the level of a juvenile fantasy. There's nothing wrong with that, but half the story is about violent pornography and underage prostitutes. I'm wary of endorsing this for readers that might be exposed to such things for the first time this way. There's a narrow window where readers are old enough to see such topics but not old enough to simply read something a little more complicated. Maybe I'm old-fashioned -- the way the world is going, the age where kids are familiar with snuff films is going down and the age where they can read really good literature is rising towards infinity.
Born to Run is not a waste of time, but not recommended either. But you can't beat getting it free at the Baen Free Library.
Lackey has produced some solid work before, so when I needed a new book I grabbed the ebook edition of Born to Run, the first book in the SERRAted Edge series. While it served its purpose of entertaining me, unfortunately it has not yet inspired me to shop for any sequels.
The novel has good ingredients. There's a girl on the run from her boring, upper-class family. There's a human mage talking to a ghost. There's a child porn/snuff film studio run by evil elves. And there are good elves that like stock car racing. Based on all that, I'm ready to read!
If only all of the above had come together more neatly. The girl's story is told in its entirety, and the human mage Tannim is a main character ... but even though the ghost Ross gets tied back into the story after going missing for half the book, why it was Tannim's "job" to find Ross in the first place isn't explained at all. The action is totally unterrifying because the bad elves are ridiculously vulnerable to Cold Iron, yet the good elves can build up a resistance. And I hope the back cover text was an error in the ebook production because it doesn't have a relation to the story whatsoever.
All told, the writing is at the level of a juvenile fantasy. There's nothing wrong with that, but half the story is about violent pornography and underage prostitutes. I'm wary of endorsing this for readers that might be exposed to such things for the first time this way. There's a narrow window where readers are old enough to see such topics but not old enough to simply read something a little more complicated. Maybe I'm old-fashioned -- the way the world is going, the age where kids are familiar with snuff films is going down and the age where they can read really good literature is rising towards infinity.
Born to Run is not a waste of time, but not recommended either. But you can't beat getting it free at the Baen Free Library.
