Book Review: Avalon

Title: Avalon.
Author: Mindee Arnett.
Series: Yes, #1.
Pages: 418.
Source: Me My Shelf and I, for Review.
Publisher: Balzer & Bray.
Published Date: 1/21/14.
Links:
Book Depository
Goodreads

Summary:

"A ragtag group of teenage mercenaries who crew the spaceship Avalon stumble upon a conspiracy that could threaten the entire galaxy in this fascinating and fast-paced sci-fi adventure from author Mindee Arnett.

Of the various star systems that make up the Confederation, most lie thousands of light-years from First Earth-and out here, no one is free. The agencies that govern the Confederation are as corrupt as the crime bosses who patrol it, and power is held by anyone with enough greed and ruthlessness to claim it. That power is derived from one thing: metatech, the devices that allow people to travel great distances faster than the speed of light.

Jeth Seagrave and his crew of teenage mercenaries have survived in this world by stealing unsecured metatech, and they're damn good at it. Jeth doesn't care about the politics or the law; all he cares about is earning enough money to buy back his parents' ship, Avalon, from his crime-boss employer and getting himself and his sister, Lizzie, the heck out of Dodge. But when Jeth finds himself in possession of information that both the crime bosses and the government are willing to kill for, he is going to have to ask himself how far he'll go to get the freedom he's wanted for so long.

Avalon is the perfect fit for teens new to sci-fi as well as seasoned sci-fi readers looking for more books in the YA space-and a great match for fans of Joss Whedon's cult hit show Firefly."

My Thoughts:

Avalon by Mindee Arnett has been ALL over the blogosphere, and everyone has read it, is reading it, or has just picked it up and is about to start. And because of all this hype going on around Avalon, I couldn’t turn it down when Amber asked me to review it! Space? Spaceships? Teenage mercenaries? How could I resist?

If you don’t know, which I don’t know why you wouldn’t, Avalon revolves around Jeth and his crew of teenage thieves, who work for a very powerful man named Hammer. Jeth and his friends are on their most recent mission of going into Belgrave and finding a ship which contains a secret weapon, which Hammer desperately wants.

But Jeth is a bit worried of going into Belgrave; ships break down, and people go crazy there. Besides that, he has a special connection to Belgrave, his parents traveled through it, safely, all the time working and doing research. That is until they were caught deleting files, and keeping information, then executed as punishment.

Finding the ship didn’t take as long as Jeth and his crew assumed, but they couldn’t believe the monitors when it said that there were three people on the other ship. It’s been out for over a month, and its energy and supplies should have run out a long time ago. Three people being on the ship was impossible!

But from that moment on things only get crazier! Avalon, Jeth’s spaceship, is stolen, his sister is kidnapped, the secret weapon isn’t a weapon at all, and two of the most powerful men in space are tracking Jeth and his friends down!

After almost two weeks of trying my best to read, finish and enjoy Avalon, I just had SUCH a hard time getting through it. It wasn’t slow, or boring in anyway. Actually it was quite the opposite. Avalon had SO MUCH going on, that it was almost hard to keep. With the story passing by so quickly, I felt like there was just no struggle and that the most important scenes were sometimes just glossed over.

The main characters were sent into this weird part of space, were crazy and unexpected things happen, but yet, it only took this group of friends a few days to find the ship. They didn’t even find it, they just happen to realize it was on top of them one day…

If the ship broke down, or parts were missing, I just felt that Lizzie or Flynn always fixed is so easily, even when at first they claimed it to be almost impossible. I guess in a way, I wanted to see a struggle; I didn’t want everything to be easy or “work out” right away.

Overall, I LOVED the idea of the future and space, and this gang of teenagers doing these odd and difficult missions! I even enjoyed the characters, I thought Celeste was awesome from not being one of those jealous ex-girlfriends trying to steal the show, I liked that Jeth kept his focus (most of the time), I liked that Flynn and Shady added some humor, and I even liked Milton who reminded me of Jeth’s parents, and how they tied into all this!

By far the ending was my favorite! Again with all this stuff going on, I had no idea how Avalon was going to end! The story had twists and turns around every corner, and there was absolutely no telling what was going to happen next.

My final verdict for Avalon would have to be that I liked it. I was frustrated with how quickly situations flew by, and with how much was going on, but I did like it. Avalon is a duology, the second and last book being Polaris, and while I don’t have ANY idea what Mindee Arnett would include in this second installment, I am considering picking it up. I don’t think I’ll be in line the day it comes out, but I will consider it.