...but underneath that it's still a juvenile space adventure with evil aliens and power armour and whatnot.
It's basically a comic book story. Actually, comic books can be quite serious and dark. (Well, the Golden age and bronze age ones. The Silver age comics are the ones with lots of restrictions.)
For example, The Killing Joke comic has the Joker shoot the police commissioner's daughter in front of him, and attempt to drive the commissioner mad. However, in that, Batman refuses to kill the Joker because he doesn't want to kill. That story is quite short, only about 49 pages, but Batman still demonstrates more selflessness and restraint than Kira. Commissioner Gordon does, too, as he asks Batman to uphold the law and not kill the Joker.
(That's why I dislike many of the newer incarnations of Batman, where he's super trigger happy. In the older ones, he doesn't kill because he saw his parents being killed, and doesn't use a gun for that same reason.)
So, even though this has a lot of the weird comic book science elements, and the stereotype characters that were common in comic books, TSiaSoS still misses the mark in what makes a pulpy story great. It could be good in this juvenile incarnation. It could be what Paolini wants it to be. But it doesn't have the hero. The hero is what makes superhero stories great, and the same with the villain. Kira's a blank cypher, and the villains are generic aliens.
I'm going to remember Batman, Iron Man, and Wonder Woman. I'm going to remember the Joker, Thanos, and Killmonger. I'm not going to remember Kira, or Falconi, or the Jellies and nightmares.
no subject
...but underneath that it's still a juvenile space adventure with evil aliens and power armour and whatnot.
It's basically a comic book story. Actually, comic books can be quite serious and dark. (Well, the Golden age and bronze age ones. The Silver age comics are the ones with lots of restrictions.)
For example, The Killing Joke comic has the Joker shoot the police commissioner's daughter in front of him, and attempt to drive the commissioner mad. However, in that, Batman refuses to kill the Joker because he doesn't want to kill. That story is quite short, only about 49 pages, but Batman still demonstrates more selflessness and restraint than Kira. Commissioner Gordon does, too, as he asks Batman to uphold the law and not kill the Joker.
(That's why I dislike many of the newer incarnations of Batman, where he's super trigger happy. In the older ones, he doesn't kill because he saw his parents being killed, and doesn't use a gun for that same reason.)
So, even though this has a lot of the weird comic book science elements, and the stereotype characters that were common in comic books, TSiaSoS still misses the mark in what makes a pulpy story great. It could be good in this juvenile incarnation. It could be what Paolini wants it to be. But it doesn't have the hero. The hero is what makes superhero stories great, and the same with the villain. Kira's a blank cypher, and the villains are generic aliens.
I'm going to remember Batman, Iron Man, and Wonder Woman. I'm going to remember the Joker, Thanos, and Killmonger. I'm not going to remember Kira, or Falconi, or the Jellies and nightmares.
Sorry that this rant went a little overboard.