Steven R. Boyett
Författare till Ariel
Om författaren
Serier
Verk av Steven R. Boyett
Epiphany Beach 1 exemplar
Current Affairs 1 exemplar
The View from on High 1 exemplar
Emerald City Blues 1 exemplar
Like Pavlov's Dogs 1 exemplar
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Talking Back To The Moon 1 exemplar
The Answer Tree 1 exemplar
Associerade verk
Taggad
Allmänna fakta
- Vedertaget namn
- Boyett, Steven R.
- Födelsedag
- 1960
- Kön
- male
- Nationalitet
- USA
- Födelseort
- Atlanta, Georgia, USA
- Bostadsorter
- Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Tampa, Florida, USA
San Francisco, California, USA - Yrken
- writer
disc jockey - Kort biografi
- http://www.steveboy.com/bio.html
Medlemmar
Diskussioner
Found: 1980's/70's. Fantasy, all mechanical/electrical things on earth stopped working, unicorn i Name that Book (februari 2021)
Unicorn, flood, boy i Name that Book (februari 2019)
Recensioner
Listor
All Things Oz (1)
Priser
Du skulle kanske också gilla
Associerade författare
Statistik
- Verk
- 15
- Även av
- 8
- Medlemmar
- 1,397
- Popularitet
- #18,397
- Betyg
- 3.8
- Recensioner
- 57
- ISBN
- 39
- Favoritmärkt
- 1
However this time around, some of the setting became questionable: for example, when the power goes off on the day of The Change and most modern technology stops working, not only is this rather selective - guns don't work, or bicycles, but we later discover wristwatches do - but people start to behave very extremely,
The 'gold' in the story for me happens two years later, when Pete meets a unicorn. She can communicate in baby talk, and he is able to teach her English, but she doesn't tell him how she hurt her foreleg until much later. As a virgin, Pete becomes Ariel's close companion: they are each others' Familiar, in the terminology of the post-apocalypse world where other creatures such as dragons, rocs, manticores and griffins have appeared and are sometimes bonded with humans, as are normal animals such as hawks. Since Ariel learns English from Pete she becomes a wisecracking character who swears and is generally not how you'd expect a unicorn to be, and that is one of the strongest elements in the story.
Pete and Ariel continue their aimless wandering until
On the way to New York, they meet a small boy sent on a quest to kill a dragon by his foolish father, and that part of the story is fine; the boy is charming and the working out of the physics of how dragons can both fly and breathe fire is well done. There are similarities in this section, probably deliberate, with Don Quixote by Cervantes, which Pete is reading to Ariel while they travel. However, they also meet an odd young woman called Shaugnessey who becomes a kind of fem fatale. She latches onto them, ostensibly because she is fascinated by Ariel, but soon develops a rather pathetic mooning crush on Pete.
Apart from the rashness of the journey - how can they defeat the forces against them - the story derails severely when the inevitable happens.
There is a focus throughout, and especially in the last half, on Pete's struggle against his sexual awakening (only to be expected considering he is about twenty). He has some embarrassing interludes, and it is clear when they were still together that Ariel was troubled by Shaughnessey's presence. And when they are apart, Pete behaves horribly towards Shaughnessey, coming across as self absorbed and unattractive.
I believe the book has been reissued with an afterword that explains some of the inconsistencies, including the disappearance of most of the human population and the absence of disease, but I haven't seen it. Suffice to say they stand out on this re-reading. Despite the graphic violence and sex, the book is probably more suited to the higher end of the YA age spectrum than for adult readers, which is a shame. The slump after the loss of Ariel - lectures on hang-gliding etc and guided tours of historic buildings in Washington feature - is indicative of the story's structural problems. I had good memories of it, and when I heard there was a sequel was interested to read that too, but am now not sure I would enjoy it. Hence only a 3-star rating.… (mer)