Westerfeld, Scott - Midnighters: Touching Darkness
Sun, Feb. 19th, 2006 05:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterSecond in a trilogy (I think) that involves five teenagers all born precisely at midnight. I read the first book a while back and didn't hate it, but also wasn't too impressed either.
This book thankfully isn't bogged down with necessary explanations of what everyone's powers and limitations are and why only they have said powers; nor is it as Jessica-centric as the first book. This made me happy, because Jessica and Jonathan were actually the two characters that bored me the most. I also liked it better because it started getting into midnighter backstory and past history, which lent a sense of overhanging tragedy. I am a total sucker for backstory, especially tragically ending backstory that must be righted by the current characters.
Dess and Melissa and Rex thankfully have more to do in this book. The first book was a little too standard-YA-teens-with-power for me, in which the kid who could be cool had she not Sekrit Powers gets sucked into a secret superhero team consisting largely of the outcasts of the school. The problem I still have is that I get a sense that Westerfeld doesn't like Melissa and Rex as much as the other characters because they're not as typically "cool." Rex also has the standard fearless leader characteristics that make most of the other people on the team take him less seriously.
But I really liked Dess' role and the combination of math and weaponry. I like her brain very much, and I like that she doesn't fall into the standard stereotype of strong but not too smart warrior. I also continue to like Melissa just because she's prickly and no one else likes her, and I'm glad she gets more to do as well. I even liked Rex better, thanks to a few revelations about him and what he has to go through in the book.
I'm more impressed with the series now, and would like to see where it's going.
Links:
-![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-syndicated.gif)
rilina's review
This book thankfully isn't bogged down with necessary explanations of what everyone's powers and limitations are and why only they have said powers; nor is it as Jessica-centric as the first book. This made me happy, because Jessica and Jonathan were actually the two characters that bored me the most. I also liked it better because it started getting into midnighter backstory and past history, which lent a sense of overhanging tragedy. I am a total sucker for backstory, especially tragically ending backstory that must be righted by the current characters.
Dess and Melissa and Rex thankfully have more to do in this book. The first book was a little too standard-YA-teens-with-power for me, in which the kid who could be cool had she not Sekrit Powers gets sucked into a secret superhero team consisting largely of the outcasts of the school. The problem I still have is that I get a sense that Westerfeld doesn't like Melissa and Rex as much as the other characters because they're not as typically "cool." Rex also has the standard fearless leader characteristics that make most of the other people on the team take him less seriously.
But I really liked Dess' role and the combination of math and weaponry. I like her brain very much, and I like that she doesn't fall into the standard stereotype of strong but not too smart warrior. I also continue to like Melissa just because she's prickly and no one else likes her, and I'm glad she gets more to do as well. I even liked Rex better, thanks to a few revelations about him and what he has to go through in the book.
I'm more impressed with the series now, and would like to see where it's going.
Links:
-
rilina's review