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Neverland Transmissions #1
Second Star: The Neverland Transmissions, Book 1
"Sullivan builds tension and excitement in this space opera refashioning of Peter Pan." (Publisher's Weekly)
Wendy Darling worked her entire life to rise through the ranks of the prestigious Londonierre Brigade. Now as a Captain, she has everything she’s always wanted, including a ship and crew of her own. But when the Brigade receives a strange transmission from the legendary James Hooke, lost a hundred years earlier in uncharted space and presumed dead, Wendy is willing to risk it all to rescue her hero. She races to the planet known only as Neverland; her mission to find the long-lost crew and bring them home.
But there is more to Neverland than meets the eye, and more to Hooke than what was written in history books. When Wendy crash lands on the ominous planet, she quickly discovers Neverland’s dark secret; a malevolent being known as The Shadow that’s looking for a host body to escape its eternal prison. To fulfill her mission, Wendy must decide whether to trust the dashing Hooke or the mysterious Fleet mechanic who goes by the name of Pan - and she has to decide quickly.
Before the darkness consumes them all.
Wendy Darling worked her entire life to rise through the ranks of the prestigious Londonierre Brigade. Now as a Captain, she has everything she’s always wanted, including a ship and crew of her own. But when the Brigade receives a strange transmission from the legendary James Hooke, lost a hundred years earlier in uncharted space and presumed dead, Wendy is willing to risk it all to rescue her hero. She races to the planet known only as Neverland; her mission to find the long-lost crew and bring them home.
But there is more to Neverland than meets the eye, and more to Hooke than what was written in history books. When Wendy crash lands on the ominous planet, she quickly discovers Neverland’s dark secret; a malevolent being known as The Shadow that’s looking for a host body to escape its eternal prison. To fulfill her mission, Wendy must decide whether to trust the dashing Hooke or the mysterious Fleet mechanic who goes by the name of Pan - and she has to decide quickly.
Before the darkness consumes them all.
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First published March 5, 2019
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About the author
J.M. Sullivan
9 books146 followersTeacher by day, award-winning author by night, J.M. Sullivan is a fairy tale fanatic who loves taking classic stories and turning them on their head. Although known to dabble in adulting, J.M. is a big kid at heart who still believes in true love, magic, and most of all, the power of coffee.
If you would like to connect with J.M., you can find her on her website www.jmsullivanbooks.com, on social media at @jmsullivanbooks, or by joining the fun at #AuthorConfession--she’d love to hear from you.
If you would like to connect with J.M., you can find her on her website www.jmsullivanbooks.com, on social media at @jmsullivanbooks, or by joining the fun at #AuthorConfession--she’d love to hear from you.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 126 reviews
March 4, 2019
Second Star by J.M. Sullivan is the first book in the young adult science fiction fantasy Neverland Transmissions series. Yes folks, I have found myself yes another Peter Pan retelling with this series and no, I haven’t tired of them yet.
In this series Captain Hooke is captaining a space craft and Peter and the other lost boys are the crew when Peter sabotages the ship stranding them all on Neverland. Then the point of view changes over to Wendy who is nothing like the one we all know, instead tis version is training to captain her own crew and wants to be the one to rescue Hooke who had disappeared a hundred years ago.
I absolutely loved the idea of taking this classic into space and making a science fiction version of it. The author filled the pages with creative sci-fi twists to the story and the characters and only loosely following the original….think something along the lines of Cinder by Marissa Meyer. If you are like myself and love retellings I’d definitely suggest giving this one a try.
I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.
For more reviews please visit https://carriesbookreviews.com/
In this series Captain Hooke is captaining a space craft and Peter and the other lost boys are the crew when Peter sabotages the ship stranding them all on Neverland. Then the point of view changes over to Wendy who is nothing like the one we all know, instead tis version is training to captain her own crew and wants to be the one to rescue Hooke who had disappeared a hundred years ago.
I absolutely loved the idea of taking this classic into space and making a science fiction version of it. The author filled the pages with creative sci-fi twists to the story and the characters and only loosely following the original….think something along the lines of Cinder by Marissa Meyer. If you are like myself and love retellings I’d definitely suggest giving this one a try.
I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.
For more reviews please visit https://carriesbookreviews.com/
October 7, 2018
Read this book if you like: fairy tales, space adventures, pirates, girl power, childhood stories, deities and mermaids.
This book reminds me a bit of Lunar Chronicles— a fairy tale retelling, space adventure, , but apart from that, this is a good take on the adventures of Peter Pan.
I can't wait to read the next installment and I'm looking forward to reading more of the author's work.
A copy was provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. (Thank you!)
March 22, 2019
I love science fiction and I love Peter Pan, so I was eager to dive into this adventurous retelling! The story drives forward nicely from the beginning and despite the vast differences between this story and the original fairytale, Sullivan sneaks in an impressive amount of references and allusions to the original.
Peter was probably my favorite character. He's spunky, mischievous, and a bit selfish but still incredibly likable. He also feels most true to the original cast of characters, despite being a bit older and (understandably) a bit more serious. Tinc, the nanobot would have to be a close second, though. She really is one of the shining stars of this story. She rings exactly true to the original but fits so well in this world as well. I absolutely loved her and some of the ways Sullivan used her in the narration. (Note: Tootles was also adorable)
Wendy's an admirable character as well. She's tough, truly brave, puts her crew first, and is easy to like. The chemistry between her and Peter is palpable.
I will warn regular science fiction readers that this really reads as fantasy in space with a few technical terms. The science is rarely explained, nor does it always make sense. The focus is put on the characters, the adventure, and matching up this story with the main points of the original. There were a few moments when Sullivan captured the original magic of the story, but not as many as I would have liked.
Being a technical reader, I also picked up on the plot holes and inconsistencies.
If you are a fan of YA you will also appreciate Sullivan's use of popular tropes and Sullivan does an excellent job of pulling emotions out of the reader. Overall, very imaginative. While I did have to turn my critical brain off at several points, I still enjoyed the read overall.
Peter was probably my favorite character. He's spunky, mischievous, and a bit selfish but still incredibly likable. He also feels most true to the original cast of characters, despite being a bit older and (understandably) a bit more serious. Tinc, the nanobot would have to be a close second, though. She really is one of the shining stars of this story. She rings exactly true to the original but fits so well in this world as well. I absolutely loved her and some of the ways Sullivan used her in the narration. (Note: Tootles was also adorable)
Wendy's an admirable character as well. She's tough, truly brave, puts her crew first, and is easy to like. The chemistry between her and Peter is palpable.
I will warn regular science fiction readers that this really reads as fantasy in space with a few technical terms. The science is rarely explained, nor does it always make sense. The focus is put on the characters, the adventure, and matching up this story with the main points of the original. There were a few moments when Sullivan captured the original magic of the story, but not as many as I would have liked.
Being a technical reader, I also picked up on the plot holes and inconsistencies.
If you are a fan of YA you will also appreciate Sullivan's use of popular tropes and Sullivan does an excellent job of pulling emotions out of the reader. Overall, very imaginative. While I did have to turn my critical brain off at several points, I still enjoyed the read overall.
November 16, 2018
I would like to thank Bleeding Ink Publishing for allowing me to read Second Star in exchange for an honest review.
First of all I didn’t complete this book, in fact I decided to finish it at the 37% mark. This is the first book from Net Galley that I have classed under DNF - Unfortunately there are books that despite being well written and imaginative are just not everyone’s type of story. I love Sci-Fi novels and this is what pulled me to wanting to read this in the first place. The story is basically a Peter Pan retelling set in a very futuristic version of the world as we know it which I believed would be a very interesting twist on the original tale and that it had a lot of potential. Wendy is an only child who is enrolled in to the Londonieer Brigade’s and becomes a Captain because of her excellence in her field and ends up becoming the leader of a rescue mission to save Captain James Hooke who’s ship and crew went missing over 100 years ago. Part of that crew being Peter Pan who is and engineer and the lost boys.
I felt sometimes some of the dialogue was unnecessary like the word “Shyte.” Not only is the word spelt incorrectly I just felt there could of been other words used instead of the one chosen. I felt that not a lot had happened in the 88 pages that I had read and that it simply dragged on and my interest was somewhere else entirely when I want a book to pull me in until the end.
I think the concept behind this book was really good but unless you are an avid Peter Pan then this isn’t going to be right for everyone and that is why I simply couldn’t continue. I felt that only Wendy’s chapters were interesting and I didn’t really like reading about Peter and the lost boys, it became very technical and I felt it lacked a lot of things. I wanted to continue this story incase it picked up and became more interesting but I simply couldn’t push myself any further. I would still like to thank the publisher for presenting me with the opportunity to read this. But my review is honest and I have to share my thoughts on this book and unfortunately it isn’t as worthwhile as I thought it would be.
First of all I didn’t complete this book, in fact I decided to finish it at the 37% mark. This is the first book from Net Galley that I have classed under DNF - Unfortunately there are books that despite being well written and imaginative are just not everyone’s type of story. I love Sci-Fi novels and this is what pulled me to wanting to read this in the first place. The story is basically a Peter Pan retelling set in a very futuristic version of the world as we know it which I believed would be a very interesting twist on the original tale and that it had a lot of potential. Wendy is an only child who is enrolled in to the Londonieer Brigade’s and becomes a Captain because of her excellence in her field and ends up becoming the leader of a rescue mission to save Captain James Hooke who’s ship and crew went missing over 100 years ago. Part of that crew being Peter Pan who is and engineer and the lost boys.
I felt sometimes some of the dialogue was unnecessary like the word “Shyte.” Not only is the word spelt incorrectly I just felt there could of been other words used instead of the one chosen. I felt that not a lot had happened in the 88 pages that I had read and that it simply dragged on and my interest was somewhere else entirely when I want a book to pull me in until the end.
I think the concept behind this book was really good but unless you are an avid Peter Pan then this isn’t going to be right for everyone and that is why I simply couldn’t continue. I felt that only Wendy’s chapters were interesting and I didn’t really like reading about Peter and the lost boys, it became very technical and I felt it lacked a lot of things. I wanted to continue this story incase it picked up and became more interesting but I simply couldn’t push myself any further. I would still like to thank the publisher for presenting me with the opportunity to read this. But my review is honest and I have to share my thoughts on this book and unfortunately it isn’t as worthwhile as I thought it would be.
Want to read
November 6, 2018I adore Peter Pan and have such a quiet love for the live-action movie adaption, so I really hope this captures some of the original story's charm
February 27, 2020
3.5 stars!!
I quite enjoyed this one and will read on in the series at some point.
I liked the change of Peter Pan to space exploration, still using ships just of the space variety instead of water. Tink as a nanobot was a neat touch. I enjoyed Peter and his lost boys as well as Hooke and his pirates with their neat weapons. The thrill of power and immortality made Hooke to become appropriately insane, I would've liked more from his pov to see the change occur.
Wendy is a pretty great captain until she becomes a little too lovesick too quickly. It takes half the book for Wendy to arrive in Neverland but once she does the instalove is well instant and took control of both her and Peter's characters more than I would have liked. I actually would have liked more time with Wendy and Peter together on Neverland to build on the world, their relationship and the relationships of the other characters as well.
I wish we had gotten more about the culture of those originally on Neverland, as well as them being named differently. When you are doing a retelling you can change certain details and update them to the time period, but so be it.
All and all good retelling.
I quite enjoyed this one and will read on in the series at some point.
I liked the change of Peter Pan to space exploration, still using ships just of the space variety instead of water. Tink as a nanobot was a neat touch. I enjoyed Peter and his lost boys as well as Hooke and his pirates with their neat weapons. The thrill of power and immortality made Hooke to become appropriately insane, I would've liked more from his pov to see the change occur.
Wendy is a pretty great captain until she becomes a little too lovesick too quickly. It takes half the book for Wendy to arrive in Neverland but once she does the instalove is well instant and took control of both her and Peter's characters more than I would have liked. I actually would have liked more time with Wendy and Peter together on Neverland to build on the world, their relationship and the relationships of the other characters as well.
I wish we had gotten more about the culture of those originally on Neverland, as well as them being named differently. When you are doing a retelling you can change certain details and update them to the time period, but so be it.
All and all good retelling.
June 6, 2019
Find more bookish stuff from me on my blog: Lili's Blissful Pages
It was the cover that caught my interest and the first reason I requested this book on Netgalley. But then I read the description and I was immensely intrigued. A sci-fi retelling of Peter Pan set in space? I was completely sold with the idea.
But sadly, though the concept of this novel was really good, the execution wasn't.
This tells the story of Wendy and Peter and how they survived the SHADOW in a planet called Neverland. The description said about Wendy as a new captain of a space ship and was given a task to rescue the legendary Captain James Hooke and his crew. The Brigade received a transmission from Hooke's ship saying they found a planet when they followed the Second Star, and they call it, Neverland. Also James Hooke's ship had been missing for a hundred years, thankfully the transmission explained that Neverland's time isn't like of Earth even though it looks like Earth.
My main problem is, there is no effing mystery or suspense in the plot even though the description promised it. Seriously, read the description and you'll think oooohh, it's gonna be one mysterious, interesting journey Wendy would take but no. First of all, the story started with Peter, one of Hooke's crews, and before they crashed. And then when we get to Wendy, she's just starting in the Academy. Yeah, the story basically started from the very beginning. How boring is that? I mean it would've been better if we started with Wendy taking off, and through her struggles in space, we're given flashbacks on how hard it was for her in the Academy. Actually I didn't see hardship in the Academy because she's a genius. I didn't see her geniuseness as well. We're just told she's amazing.
And giving Wendy the job is PREPOSTEROUS!!! A transmission from a legendary captain who's been missing for a hundred years and you'll give it to a newbie like Wendy and she'd been promoted just so she gets the job. The only explanation was as the Admiral says, she made a mistake of not trusting someone before who deserves it and so she's not gonna make the same mistake again. Like what? It wasn't explained. The Brigade should have other captains more suited and experienced for the task. It was a very important and dangerous task, for God's sake.
And Wendy and Peter only met at 50% mark. And they fell in love in 55% mark. No fucking kidding. God!!!!!!! The romance was not really necessary, it can be hinted but making it as important as the main plot is just a bad idea. The thing is, the story followed the real story of Peter Pan so Strictly and when it came to Romance, the author should have followed the original. In real Peter Pan, the Romance is not a main theme. Some subplots are too cliché too.
And I know this is a retelling but like I said, the story followed the original too close, aside from the ships, AI and bots like TINC, Peter's nano-bot, there's no other differences in the plot which made the story predictable. It's also filled with eye-roll inducing scenes.
The writing is not really for me. I was expecting for a deep, more complex writing since it's sci-fi yet I found mediocre and juvenile. I get that maybe the author is trying to make her book more understandable unlike other sci-fi with words I usually don't understand but really, it's too ABC.
The dialogues are too cheesy and cliché like this one:
"Peter, can you hear me?"… "Say something."
"Wendy."… "You saved me."
"Saved you?"…."But I'm just a girl."
I know it's a reference but ugh! Theres' also dialogues like "I couldn't have done this without you guys, seriously."
Also I don't really feel emotion, any emotion, while reading. It's because the characterization of Wendy is so pretentious. I think she's being shown as badass, smart and who's someone that will think of her crew first before herself. What a pretentious ninny. I couldn't feel her. I couldn't feel her fear when she first came to the academy even though she has teary eyes when her parents left, I don't feel her crush for captain Hooke or later her love for Peter because hey, she just described their physical looks. Ugh! I hate this Wendy.
And there's one more thing, the use of the natives as the antagonists in the story. Don't even let me start with this aspect.
Obviously, I don't like this novel and my two stars are all for the main concept because a sci-fi retelling of Peter Pan set in space is really nice to think about. And the cover is pretty, for me
I was provided a copy by the publisher/author thru Netgalley. Thank you.
It was the cover that caught my interest and the first reason I requested this book on Netgalley. But then I read the description and I was immensely intrigued. A sci-fi retelling of Peter Pan set in space? I was completely sold with the idea.
But sadly, though the concept of this novel was really good, the execution wasn't.
This tells the story of Wendy and Peter and how they survived the SHADOW in a planet called Neverland. The description said about Wendy as a new captain of a space ship and was given a task to rescue the legendary Captain James Hooke and his crew. The Brigade received a transmission from Hooke's ship saying they found a planet when they followed the Second Star, and they call it, Neverland. Also James Hooke's ship had been missing for a hundred years, thankfully the transmission explained that Neverland's time isn't like of Earth even though it looks like Earth.
My main problem is, there is no effing mystery or suspense in the plot even though the description promised it. Seriously, read the description and you'll think oooohh, it's gonna be one mysterious, interesting journey Wendy would take but no. First of all, the story started with Peter, one of Hooke's crews, and before they crashed. And then when we get to Wendy, she's just starting in the Academy. Yeah, the story basically started from the very beginning. How boring is that? I mean it would've been better if we started with Wendy taking off, and through her struggles in space, we're given flashbacks on how hard it was for her in the Academy. Actually I didn't see hardship in the Academy because she's a genius. I didn't see her geniuseness as well. We're just told she's amazing.
And giving Wendy the job is PREPOSTEROUS!!! A transmission from a legendary captain who's been missing for a hundred years and you'll give it to a newbie like Wendy and she'd been promoted just so she gets the job. The only explanation was as the Admiral says, she made a mistake of not trusting someone before who deserves it and so she's not gonna make the same mistake again. Like what? It wasn't explained. The Brigade should have other captains more suited and experienced for the task. It was a very important and dangerous task, for God's sake.
And Wendy and Peter only met at 50% mark. And they fell in love in 55% mark. No fucking kidding. God!!!!!!! The romance was not really necessary, it can be hinted but making it as important as the main plot is just a bad idea. The thing is, the story followed the real story of Peter Pan so Strictly and when it came to Romance, the author should have followed the original. In real Peter Pan, the Romance is not a main theme. Some subplots are too cliché too.
And I know this is a retelling but like I said, the story followed the original too close, aside from the ships, AI and bots like TINC, Peter's nano-bot, there's no other differences in the plot which made the story predictable. It's also filled with eye-roll inducing scenes.
The writing is not really for me. I was expecting for a deep, more complex writing since it's sci-fi yet I found mediocre and juvenile. I get that maybe the author is trying to make her book more understandable unlike other sci-fi with words I usually don't understand but really, it's too ABC.
The dialogues are too cheesy and cliché like this one:
"Peter, can you hear me?"… "Say something."
"Wendy."… "You saved me."
"Saved you?"…."But I'm just a girl."
I know it's a reference but ugh! Theres' also dialogues like "I couldn't have done this without you guys, seriously."
Also I don't really feel emotion, any emotion, while reading. It's because the characterization of Wendy is so pretentious. I think she's being shown as badass, smart and who's someone that will think of her crew first before herself. What a pretentious ninny. I couldn't feel her. I couldn't feel her fear when she first came to the academy even though she has teary eyes when her parents left, I don't feel her crush for captain Hooke or later her love for Peter because hey, she just described their physical looks. Ugh! I hate this Wendy.
And there's one more thing, the use of the natives as the antagonists in the story. Don't even let me start with this aspect.
Obviously, I don't like this novel and my two stars are all for the main concept because a sci-fi retelling of Peter Pan set in space is really nice to think about. And the cover is pretty, for me
I was provided a copy by the publisher/author thru Netgalley. Thank you.
January 5, 2019
A brilliant retelling of Peter Pan!
I was not prepared to fall for this story as I did! Space and Peter Pan? Two of my least favorite topics and yet here I was falling head over heels in love with this retelling! Sullivan crafted a believable universe, with amazing characters who all possess a unique personality.
The overall plot was somewhat in line with the story we all know, but again Sullivan made this story her own and wove in lore that while might resemble the classic is wholly Second Star lore!
Each side character in the story has a purpose and adds rather than distracts from what is going on, and each character has faults or strengths, and speaking of strength I want to shout out the girl power in this book, too! Wendy grows by leaps and bounds in this novel which I absolutely adored, she is so strong and a perfect role model for girls!
Book Savvy Reviews
I was not prepared to fall for this story as I did! Space and Peter Pan? Two of my least favorite topics and yet here I was falling head over heels in love with this retelling! Sullivan crafted a believable universe, with amazing characters who all possess a unique personality.
The overall plot was somewhat in line with the story we all know, but again Sullivan made this story her own and wove in lore that while might resemble the classic is wholly Second Star lore!
Each side character in the story has a purpose and adds rather than distracts from what is going on, and each character has faults or strengths, and speaking of strength I want to shout out the girl power in this book, too! Wendy grows by leaps and bounds in this novel which I absolutely adored, she is so strong and a perfect role model for girls!
Book Savvy Reviews
December 30, 2019
This was such a fun retelling! In a futuristic London, soldiers are trained from a young age to be part of the Brigade. Wendy Darling was enrolled even younger as a child prodigy and worked her way through the various commanding officer titles. She's looked up to the legend Captain James Hooke who disappeared 100 years ago until they receive a mysterious transmission from him.
Peter Pan has had a complicated relationship with the man who rescued him from the streets. When he believes Hooke has gone rogue, he sabotages their ship and they crash on the planet Neverland. With his Lost Boys in tow, Pan is determined to make a safe haven for them on this alien planet, but the deity the indigenous people worship is stirring and nothing good can arise from The Shadow awakening.
I enjoyed this sci-fi retelling of Peter Pan. All of the technological nods to the original story were so fun and refreshing. The main thing that confused me was Pan and Hooke's relationship. I felt like I was missing key part interactions for how quickly their relationship seemed to fall apart. There was also a lot of telling rather than showing going on about these two which made their dynamic suffer.
There were also several typos and things that would've benefited from another round of editing. Wendy was an amazing character and I loved seeing her become Captain. The relationship she had and developed with her crew members was awesome. I loved seeing how they became a cohesive unit. Johns was such a troublemaker too and I loved him for it.
Overall, this was a very creative retelling with compelling characters. I really want to pick up the next one and see how their story ends!
Peter Pan has had a complicated relationship with the man who rescued him from the streets. When he believes Hooke has gone rogue, he sabotages their ship and they crash on the planet Neverland. With his Lost Boys in tow, Pan is determined to make a safe haven for them on this alien planet, but the deity the indigenous people worship is stirring and nothing good can arise from The Shadow awakening.
I enjoyed this sci-fi retelling of Peter Pan. All of the technological nods to the original story were so fun and refreshing. The main thing that confused me was Pan and Hooke's relationship. I felt like I was missing key part interactions for how quickly their relationship seemed to fall apart. There was also a lot of telling rather than showing going on about these two which made their dynamic suffer.
There were also several typos and things that would've benefited from another round of editing. Wendy was an amazing character and I loved seeing her become Captain. The relationship she had and developed with her crew members was awesome. I loved seeing how they became a cohesive unit. Johns was such a troublemaker too and I loved him for it.
Overall, this was a very creative retelling with compelling characters. I really want to pick up the next one and see how their story ends!
November 10, 2018
You can find this review and all of my others over at www.readbookrepeat.wordpress.com
I received a copy of this book from the publisher, Bleeding Ink Publishing, and the author, via netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.
Actual rating of 3.5
Second Star is a retelling of the fairy-tale Peter Pan. Set in the future, it is told from alternating points of view between Wendy and Peter. Peter is the mechanic on Captain Hooke's space ship, the Jolly Roger, when he realises that Hooke cannot be trusted and is in fact defecting from the Brigade's mission and purpose. Pan sabotages the Jolly Roger, but does so at the edge of a sector which causes them to be pulled in to an unknown planet by it's gravitational force. While Peter and the rest of the young boys onboard the Roger aim to get free from Hooke and his band of pirates, they find themselves also battling another force on this strange planet, it's native inhabitants. Fast forward 100 years, and we meet Wendy, who is a genius and has been accepted to the Academy so she can train to become a part of the Londonierre Brigade, hoping to one day, make it as a Captain. fast forward a few years, and Wendy is older now, and tasked with being part of a rescue mission out to the unknown sector, where a transmission has come through from none other than Captain Hooke. Wendy and the rest of her crew head out to bring back the crew of the Jolly Roger, though things aren't quite what they seem, secrets and lies, as well as an evil dark power abound in Neverland. Can they make it back home again?
Fairy-tale retellings, what's NOT to love about them, hey? I love seeing the different spins that author's put on them, while still keeping the core of the original story intact. I found it incredibly clever in this one as TINC is actually a nanobot that Peter has tweaked to his own specifications, TINC is actually short for Technological Interface Nano-Companion, as well as SMEE who is also robotic and Hooke's first mate, is short for Synthetic Maintenance Engineering Emissary, another piece of equipment is referred to as pix.E which is short for Personal Interface Cross-Electro Positron. I found this play on original characters and stuff from the story incredibly clever, and even got a little bit giddy when I first read it. I think that was my absolute FAVOURITE thing about this retelling. IT'S.JUST.SO.CLEVER. Other characters that we all remember are Michael who is now Michaels (last name) a tech genius, John who is now Johns (last name) and he is a brute and one of Wendy's best friend. Tiger Lily is also incorporated in a small part as the bride of the prince of the natives.
I loved the way that this fairy-tale was skyrocketed (literally) into the future, the way that Sullivan was able to incorporate all the important and most well known parts of the original into this retelling was done flawlessly and so well, and I think that's incredibly important if you are going to be retelling a well known story. You have to be able to do it justice, I believe Sullivan did. So why not a higher rating?
Well, this book, according to Goodreads, is only roughly meant to be about 350 pages, though it took me a long time to read it. I think this had a lot to do with the pacing, a lot of the time I felt like there wasn't really that much happening though there was. I understand that Sullivan had to set the world, characters and story up, and I feel that something would have been lost had it not been written the way it was, I just felt bored a lot of the time. The story was progressing but at a snail's pace in my eyes. Even wanting to see what happened to the characters wasn't enough to keep me glued to the pages, so this was a little disappointing for me. The last 20% of the book were action, action, action, I kinda wish that the rest of the book had this as well, I think it would've helped the pacing a lot had there been more going on.
I had no issues with the characters at all, I feel they were all written superbly. Wendy is strong, fearless and so driven, I loved it. Johns was the secondary flirty character and didn't disappoint in this role. Michaels is still the shy boy that I remember, and Pan? Pan was cocky, sure of himself, a fighter, and incredibly flirty and playful, just like Pan should be. The way that Hooke was written, as though having gone a little crazy was brilliantly done and he couldn't have been written better.
All in all, if you love a good 'ol fairy-tale retelling, give Second Star a go, you may enjoy it :)
I received a copy of this book from the publisher, Bleeding Ink Publishing, and the author, via netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.
Actual rating of 3.5
Second Star is a retelling of the fairy-tale Peter Pan. Set in the future, it is told from alternating points of view between Wendy and Peter. Peter is the mechanic on Captain Hooke's space ship, the Jolly Roger, when he realises that Hooke cannot be trusted and is in fact defecting from the Brigade's mission and purpose. Pan sabotages the Jolly Roger, but does so at the edge of a sector which causes them to be pulled in to an unknown planet by it's gravitational force. While Peter and the rest of the young boys onboard the Roger aim to get free from Hooke and his band of pirates, they find themselves also battling another force on this strange planet, it's native inhabitants. Fast forward 100 years, and we meet Wendy, who is a genius and has been accepted to the Academy so she can train to become a part of the Londonierre Brigade, hoping to one day, make it as a Captain. fast forward a few years, and Wendy is older now, and tasked with being part of a rescue mission out to the unknown sector, where a transmission has come through from none other than Captain Hooke. Wendy and the rest of her crew head out to bring back the crew of the Jolly Roger, though things aren't quite what they seem, secrets and lies, as well as an evil dark power abound in Neverland. Can they make it back home again?
Fairy-tale retellings, what's NOT to love about them, hey? I love seeing the different spins that author's put on them, while still keeping the core of the original story intact. I found it incredibly clever in this one as TINC is actually a nanobot that Peter has tweaked to his own specifications, TINC is actually short for Technological Interface Nano-Companion, as well as SMEE who is also robotic and Hooke's first mate, is short for Synthetic Maintenance Engineering Emissary, another piece of equipment is referred to as pix.E which is short for Personal Interface Cross-Electro Positron. I found this play on original characters and stuff from the story incredibly clever, and even got a little bit giddy when I first read it. I think that was my absolute FAVOURITE thing about this retelling. IT'S.JUST.SO.CLEVER. Other characters that we all remember are Michael who is now Michaels (last name) a tech genius, John who is now Johns (last name) and he is a brute and one of Wendy's best friend. Tiger Lily is also incorporated in a small part as the bride of the prince of the natives.
I loved the way that this fairy-tale was skyrocketed (literally) into the future, the way that Sullivan was able to incorporate all the important and most well known parts of the original into this retelling was done flawlessly and so well, and I think that's incredibly important if you are going to be retelling a well known story. You have to be able to do it justice, I believe Sullivan did. So why not a higher rating?
Well, this book, according to Goodreads, is only roughly meant to be about 350 pages, though it took me a long time to read it. I think this had a lot to do with the pacing, a lot of the time I felt like there wasn't really that much happening though there was. I understand that Sullivan had to set the world, characters and story up, and I feel that something would have been lost had it not been written the way it was, I just felt bored a lot of the time. The story was progressing but at a snail's pace in my eyes. Even wanting to see what happened to the characters wasn't enough to keep me glued to the pages, so this was a little disappointing for me. The last 20% of the book were action, action, action, I kinda wish that the rest of the book had this as well, I think it would've helped the pacing a lot had there been more going on.
I had no issues with the characters at all, I feel they were all written superbly. Wendy is strong, fearless and so driven, I loved it. Johns was the secondary flirty character and didn't disappoint in this role. Michaels is still the shy boy that I remember, and Pan? Pan was cocky, sure of himself, a fighter, and incredibly flirty and playful, just like Pan should be. The way that Hooke was written, as though having gone a little crazy was brilliantly done and he couldn't have been written better.
All in all, if you love a good 'ol fairy-tale retelling, give Second Star a go, you may enjoy it :)
March 3, 2019
“Follow the second star to the right, straight on ‘til morning.”
Second Star is a futuristic Peter Pan retelling with spaceships, intergalactic travel, and a nanobot Tinkerbell. This was a fun space adventure! J.M. Sullivan found a way to add in just enough of the original and time-honoured quotes from the original Peter Pan that we all love and mixed them together with her original, reimagined Neverland elements to create a story perfect for fans of Peter Pan, fairytale retellings, and science fiction.
“ Prepare for launch."
Suddenly, Wendy was a little girl in her room, playing captain. She sat in a cardboard box decorated with colored paper and markers. Captain Wendy Darling, reporting for duty! The memory faded, and she was in the present again, snug in her Captain’s chair, strapped in and at the helm.
Wendy Darling has her lifetime of hard work finally pay off when she gets promoted to Captain and receives her first mission: to find and rescue the legendary James Hooke, Wendy’s hero. What starts off with a crash landing turns into a wondrous adventure on this planet Neverland that will have Wendy wondering who to trust and how to keep her crew alive. Up against a malicious Shadow hellbent on escaping its prison, Wendy and Peter will need all the help they can get in order to return home.
Sullivan switches POV between Peter Pan and Wendy Darling throughout this book. While the story starts off a bit slow on Wendy’s end (setting up for the rest of the series), the transitions between narration were smooth and worked well with the action.
Ironically, by the end of this book I was in love with every character but the main protagonist, Wendy. I don’t know exactly why that happened, if I’m being honest with you. She seems like a... nice... character, but she fell flat compared to the others, including the supporting characters. I appreciated that she wasn’t a helpless, frilly character or a damsel who needed a hero. There were times where I’ll admit she kicked ass and selflessly protected her friends. However, I do not use the term Mary Sue very often, but Wendy seemed a bit too perfect, a bit too misunderstood, a bit too overlooked by her parents who were a bit too rich and shallow, looked down her nose a bit too much towards other girls, and a bit too liked by every guy around her. (Tootles and Michaels were by far my favorites and must be protected at all costs. Sullivan did such a great job with their characters that I wouldn’t mind if the second book in this series focussed solely on them. My little baby cinnamon rolls!)
This book was good, but just a few tweaks and it would move into “Undoubtedly Great” territory. A couple of the big ticket events in this story were not expanded on as much as they could be; these were important events and a little more spotlight on them would flesh out the story and characters significantly.
Second Star celebrates this awfully big adventure we call life and the deep bonds we forge with the families we choose for ourselves. This is a story about what we can achieve through friendship, hard work, and determination. I’d recommend this to anyone who was once a child pretending to fly off into space to explore the stars. Overall, Second Star is a solid first book in this series and I can’t wait to join this crew on their next stellar adventure!
Thank you to Bleeding Ink Publishing for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.
March 5, 2019
What I love about this Peter Pan retelling is how unique and captivating the story is. The original characters are there, but in fragments of who they were portrayed as in the Disney movie. And I loved that, because the author took a classic story and weaved it into something old and new. The author kept the characters but gave them new back stories and compelling attributes.
In this reimagining of Peter Pan, Pan is stuck in a place that quickly becomes called Neverland, with a wrecked spaceship and a Captain that’s out for his blood. And then there’s Wendy, a newly-appointed Captain of the ship dubbed Faith & Trust sent to rescue Captain Hooke and his crew from Neverland. She, and everyone else at the Academy, thought Captain Hook and his crew died many years ago, but when Wendy intercepts a transmission call, her and the Academy staff are in for an awakening. She sets out to rescue the crew, only for her ship to crash land on Neverland. Now she will have to work with Peter Pan to find Captain Hooke, find out the truth, and escape Neverland and go back home to London or risk being trapped in Neverland forever.
As the reader, I saw a lot of development in Wendy. The beginning chapters focus on her younger years and how she gets accepted into the Academy. Jump forward several years and she’s nineteen, about to lead a rescue team to Captain Hooke. She is the top of her class, which is one of the many reasons she is picked to rescue Captain Hooke. Wendy is a strong leader/individual and she wants to succeed at the Academy and finishing this mission would be a great start for her. She just never saw the dangers of Neverland coming; but those said dangers help her develop as a person and a Captain and that’s where Wendy really shines.
Peter Pan’s character is everything and he’s just as fun and enchanting as he was in Disney’s version. Him and his crew work to find a way to escape Neverland, while also dodging Captain Hooke and unfamiliar dangers. I enjoyed how much older he acted; he didn’t fully act like a kid and I really enjoyed that. He’s also caring when it comes to his crew and Wendy; he wants to protect them all, even if that means sacrificing his own life. And, of course, his relationship with Tinc is wonderful; I found myself chuckling at some of their interactions and it reminded me about my relationship with my best friend. Granted, Tinc is an advanced mini robot, but her personality and interactions with Pan were so much fun to see.
I really enjoyed the aspect of Peter Pan’s story involving space and a more technologically advanced world. The idea added to the world building and made the world fascinating to read about. I also liked how the romance came later into the story and didn’t overpower the plot and story line of the book. It was great to see the world developed first before introducing Wendy’s potential love interest.
Overall, Second Star is a great Peter Pan retelling and one I would recommend. I’m looking forward to reading the second book and seeing what is in store for the characters.
In this reimagining of Peter Pan, Pan is stuck in a place that quickly becomes called Neverland, with a wrecked spaceship and a Captain that’s out for his blood. And then there’s Wendy, a newly-appointed Captain of the ship dubbed Faith & Trust sent to rescue Captain Hooke and his crew from Neverland. She, and everyone else at the Academy, thought Captain Hook and his crew died many years ago, but when Wendy intercepts a transmission call, her and the Academy staff are in for an awakening. She sets out to rescue the crew, only for her ship to crash land on Neverland. Now she will have to work with Peter Pan to find Captain Hooke, find out the truth, and escape Neverland and go back home to London or risk being trapped in Neverland forever.
As the reader, I saw a lot of development in Wendy. The beginning chapters focus on her younger years and how she gets accepted into the Academy. Jump forward several years and she’s nineteen, about to lead a rescue team to Captain Hooke. She is the top of her class, which is one of the many reasons she is picked to rescue Captain Hooke. Wendy is a strong leader/individual and she wants to succeed at the Academy and finishing this mission would be a great start for her. She just never saw the dangers of Neverland coming; but those said dangers help her develop as a person and a Captain and that’s where Wendy really shines.
Peter Pan’s character is everything and he’s just as fun and enchanting as he was in Disney’s version. Him and his crew work to find a way to escape Neverland, while also dodging Captain Hooke and unfamiliar dangers. I enjoyed how much older he acted; he didn’t fully act like a kid and I really enjoyed that. He’s also caring when it comes to his crew and Wendy; he wants to protect them all, even if that means sacrificing his own life. And, of course, his relationship with Tinc is wonderful; I found myself chuckling at some of their interactions and it reminded me about my relationship with my best friend. Granted, Tinc is an advanced mini robot, but her personality and interactions with Pan were so much fun to see.
I really enjoyed the aspect of Peter Pan’s story involving space and a more technologically advanced world. The idea added to the world building and made the world fascinating to read about. I also liked how the romance came later into the story and didn’t overpower the plot and story line of the book. It was great to see the world developed first before introducing Wendy’s potential love interest.
Overall, Second Star is a great Peter Pan retelling and one I would recommend. I’m looking forward to reading the second book and seeing what is in store for the characters.
February 28, 2019
Check out this review and others at my blog Too Many Books!
A special thank you to Netgalley and Bleeding Ink Publishing for providing a free advance digital copy in exchange for an honest review.
JM Sullivan's Second Star is a Peter Pan retelling set in space. I love retellings, and this one does a great job bringing in the story of Peter Pan and changing it to fit into this future world. The characters and the major points are all there, but there were some subtle references to Peter Pan that while not the main focus of the plot, were still extremely well written. All of these little references were really cool to read and contributed to the rest of the story without getting too much in the way.
I typically don't enjoy science fiction and fantasy that gets too technical, but Sullivan explains the rules of this world gradually when they come up so that it does not get too overwhelming and everything still makes sense. The beauty of Neverland is well described which partially describes the own rules within this world. The descriptions allow for actual understanding about what this world looks like. The characters were really well described, especially how cool the non-human characters were. All of the characters had their own unique personality, many mimicking their character from Peter Pan but even the other characters were still well made and interesting.
The two point of views had unique voices that made it easy to read, even when the plot and descriptions did get a little too technical based on the expertise of the characters. While both characters do have experience in space, they were written differently enough that it made it easier to keep track of what was going on and the various characters. All of the side characters, even those on Captain Hook's ship with minor roles, are introduced well and easy to keep track of. Looking back, there were many characters but it was not hard to remember the specifics about an individual character and not get them mixed up in my mind.
I struggled with the pacing in the story. At some points, the plot moved way too slow and the end felt kind of rushed, like the author was trying to push everything else she wanted to be able to cover into only a few chapters. Some of the background at the beginning was interesting, but it did start to drag on and I would have preferred to move on to the action sooner.
Still, if the Neverland Transmission series continues with another book, I definitely would love to read it and continue in this amazing world created that reminisces on the Peter Pan world without taking too much from it. I thought some of the incorporations were really cool. Wendy and Peter are absolutely adorable together and I can't wait to know what happens after the ending. Peter Pan in space was a great novel concept and Sullivan did a great job with this initial idea.
A special thank you to Netgalley and Bleeding Ink Publishing for providing a free advance digital copy in exchange for an honest review.
JM Sullivan's Second Star is a Peter Pan retelling set in space. I love retellings, and this one does a great job bringing in the story of Peter Pan and changing it to fit into this future world. The characters and the major points are all there, but there were some subtle references to Peter Pan that while not the main focus of the plot, were still extremely well written. All of these little references were really cool to read and contributed to the rest of the story without getting too much in the way.
I typically don't enjoy science fiction and fantasy that gets too technical, but Sullivan explains the rules of this world gradually when they come up so that it does not get too overwhelming and everything still makes sense. The beauty of Neverland is well described which partially describes the own rules within this world. The descriptions allow for actual understanding about what this world looks like. The characters were really well described, especially how cool the non-human characters were. All of the characters had their own unique personality, many mimicking their character from Peter Pan but even the other characters were still well made and interesting.
The two point of views had unique voices that made it easy to read, even when the plot and descriptions did get a little too technical based on the expertise of the characters. While both characters do have experience in space, they were written differently enough that it made it easier to keep track of what was going on and the various characters. All of the side characters, even those on Captain Hook's ship with minor roles, are introduced well and easy to keep track of. Looking back, there were many characters but it was not hard to remember the specifics about an individual character and not get them mixed up in my mind.
I struggled with the pacing in the story. At some points, the plot moved way too slow and the end felt kind of rushed, like the author was trying to push everything else she wanted to be able to cover into only a few chapters. Some of the background at the beginning was interesting, but it did start to drag on and I would have preferred to move on to the action sooner.
Still, if the Neverland Transmission series continues with another book, I definitely would love to read it and continue in this amazing world created that reminisces on the Peter Pan world without taking too much from it. I thought some of the incorporations were really cool. Wendy and Peter are absolutely adorable together and I can't wait to know what happens after the ending. Peter Pan in space was a great novel concept and Sullivan did a great job with this initial idea.
February 9, 2019
Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the review copy in exchange for an honest review.
Trigger Warnings: Use of the word savage / Graphic cutting of hand
While I am not the biggest fan of the classic Peter Pan, the idea of a retelling of Peter Pan set in space was just too appealing to pass on. Unfortunately the book couldn’t quite deliver in the areas that I wanted it to.
This books seems fine at first glance , the writing is solid for instance, but once you start looking a little closer a lot of things fall apart for me. The world building for instance. We get the academy, some time on the space ships and the planet Neverland. But I have very little idea of our society so far as this is set in the future. The only glimpses we get is from Wendy’s parents who made me feel like this was more set in history than in the future. Her mother had a gathering at home when she called for instance and it was all about being prim and proper. I also don’t understand a world where cadets straight out of the academy get a captain role and have a first mission that is a rescue mission without ever having been on a real space ship, and with a skeleton crew at that. I know this is YA but come one. Can we be realistic?
There were some things I liked. Smee being an artificial intelligence. Tinkerbell being a nanobot. Wendy being the one in charge. Those elements were super interesting and if only the author had expended on those things further instead of grasping onto the basics of Peter Pan. The Disney Peter Pan if I might add. The plot consisted of Peter being stranded with Hook in Neverland, Wendy and her crew being stranded on Neverland. Someone of her crew being captures by the natives. Wendy being kidnapped by Hook. Peter coming to her rescue. Does that sound familiar? Because that is basically the sequence of events in the Disney Peter Pan if my memory serves me right. And it did not get dressed up right.
One thing that made me question a lot was the decision to make the natives green of skin color but keep al lot of the references to the Indians that the original and Disney Peter Pan had. It was a poor choice I think. She could have moved them way further away from that or could have at least moved away from the basic stereotype by deepening out the natives culture which barely happened. Also the lost boys were just fodder handing around Peter. The twins were only called the twins. Like how can you be with someone for a 100 years and not know their name?
And quite honestly there is more, but these things are what stand out to me the most. As said, at first glance this book seems quite solid so if you are looking for just a quick read you should totally go for this. But if you are looking for a bit more in your Peter Pan retelling, I don’t think this is going to be the book for you.
Trigger Warnings: Use of the word savage / Graphic cutting of hand
While I am not the biggest fan of the classic Peter Pan, the idea of a retelling of Peter Pan set in space was just too appealing to pass on. Unfortunately the book couldn’t quite deliver in the areas that I wanted it to.
This books seems fine at first glance , the writing is solid for instance, but once you start looking a little closer a lot of things fall apart for me. The world building for instance. We get the academy, some time on the space ships and the planet Neverland. But I have very little idea of our society so far as this is set in the future. The only glimpses we get is from Wendy’s parents who made me feel like this was more set in history than in the future. Her mother had a gathering at home when she called for instance and it was all about being prim and proper. I also don’t understand a world where cadets straight out of the academy get a captain role and have a first mission that is a rescue mission without ever having been on a real space ship, and with a skeleton crew at that. I know this is YA but come one. Can we be realistic?
There were some things I liked. Smee being an artificial intelligence. Tinkerbell being a nanobot. Wendy being the one in charge. Those elements were super interesting and if only the author had expended on those things further instead of grasping onto the basics of Peter Pan. The Disney Peter Pan if I might add. The plot consisted of Peter being stranded with Hook in Neverland, Wendy and her crew being stranded on Neverland. Someone of her crew being captures by the natives. Wendy being kidnapped by Hook. Peter coming to her rescue. Does that sound familiar? Because that is basically the sequence of events in the Disney Peter Pan if my memory serves me right. And it did not get dressed up right.
One thing that made me question a lot was the decision to make the natives green of skin color but keep al lot of the references to the Indians that the original and Disney Peter Pan had. It was a poor choice I think. She could have moved them way further away from that or could have at least moved away from the basic stereotype by deepening out the natives culture which barely happened. Also the lost boys were just fodder handing around Peter. The twins were only called the twins. Like how can you be with someone for a 100 years and not know their name?
And quite honestly there is more, but these things are what stand out to me the most. As said, at first glance this book seems quite solid so if you are looking for just a quick read you should totally go for this. But if you are looking for a bit more in your Peter Pan retelling, I don’t think this is going to be the book for you.
January 3, 2019
Okay, so I'm going to try to review this as I would in my writing group since it's my first one. The premise behind this book was amazing, being a hardcore Peter Pan buff and big sci-fi nerd, I thought this would be way up my alley. The writer got a little too caught up in her own cleverness by translating Peter Pan to sci-fi and while it was cute at first, it grew wearisome by Smee. Also, immersion was completely lost for me when someone was made the captain of a ship without ever serving on a vessel before on a vastly important mission. I also didn't need to be constantly reminded of the hotness of the characters every single time they walked into a room, we get it. A little research in even the simplest of areas would have gone a long way (Bob Marley did not ever sing "Don't Worry, Be Happy" that was Bobby McFerrin and that was seven years after Bob Marley died, so again, immersion breaking.) I know I'm not the demographic for this novel, but when the best lines of your retelling are coming from the original telling, it needs a second glance, I think. I hate sounding harsh for my first review, I love her idea, it's so fun, it just fell really flat for me. I forced myself to finish it because the publishers and netgalley were so kind to provide me with a copy for review, but it was really hard to finish. As an otome game? This would have been 10/10 the best otome game ever!! As a retelling? I'm going to give it 2/5 stars.
February 24, 2019
Review originally posted on A Keyboard and an Open Mind February 25, 2019:
Actual rating 2.5 stars.
"You are the most vexing and endearing box of contradictions I have ever seen. You fascinate me, Wendy."
I was totally on board with this book for probably the first half. I had a few quibbles up until then, but I was willing to overlook them. Unfortunately, the second half got confusing and frustrated me to the point where I was just waiting for the book to be over.
This is a Peter Pan re-telling set in the far future. I really enjoyed the little references to the original story. It was fun to spot them all.
But while the characters are jumping through hyperspace and hanging out on foreign planets, the language they used and the society established felt woefully outdated. Even the main insult several of the characters used – “codfish” – feels like something out of Dickens rather than Doctor Who. It actually felt like it could have been turned into a good steampunk quasi-historical story, but it didn’t go that way.
The characters also make Harry Potter references and one of them listens to Bob Marley… okay, maybe we will still be reading HP in 400 years and maybe Bob gets to stick around as a master of the classical music of this period… but it didn’t immerse me in the time period.
I also assumed that as the book went on, we would learn exactly why Hooke was the bad guy, rather than just having to take Peter’s word for it… and we did, technically, but it never rang true to me. This might be because some of the worldbuilding about the Second Star and the ultimate Big Bad actually left me feeling a bit flummoxed, so Hooke’s place in the overall plan didn’t feel fully fleshed out.
The line I used in the title of this post is something Peter says to Wendy, and it’s lovely and romantic… but he has literally known her an afternoon when he says it. Maybe a full day. Good ol’ instalove. Wendy is nearly ready to sacrifice other members of her crew for Peter after only knowing him a couple of days.
There are more books to come in this series but I don’t feel inclined to follow the story any further. The one instalment was enough for me.
(Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review)
Actual rating 2.5 stars.
"You are the most vexing and endearing box of contradictions I have ever seen. You fascinate me, Wendy."
I was totally on board with this book for probably the first half. I had a few quibbles up until then, but I was willing to overlook them. Unfortunately, the second half got confusing and frustrated me to the point where I was just waiting for the book to be over.
This is a Peter Pan re-telling set in the far future. I really enjoyed the little references to the original story. It was fun to spot them all.
But while the characters are jumping through hyperspace and hanging out on foreign planets, the language they used and the society established felt woefully outdated. Even the main insult several of the characters used – “codfish” – feels like something out of Dickens rather than Doctor Who. It actually felt like it could have been turned into a good steampunk quasi-historical story, but it didn’t go that way.
The characters also make Harry Potter references and one of them listens to Bob Marley… okay, maybe we will still be reading HP in 400 years and maybe Bob gets to stick around as a master of the classical music of this period… but it didn’t immerse me in the time period.
I also assumed that as the book went on, we would learn exactly why Hooke was the bad guy, rather than just having to take Peter’s word for it… and we did, technically, but it never rang true to me. This might be because some of the worldbuilding about the Second Star and the ultimate Big Bad actually left me feeling a bit flummoxed, so Hooke’s place in the overall plan didn’t feel fully fleshed out.
The line I used in the title of this post is something Peter says to Wendy, and it’s lovely and romantic… but he has literally known her an afternoon when he says it. Maybe a full day. Good ol’ instalove. Wendy is nearly ready to sacrifice other members of her crew for Peter after only knowing him a couple of days.
There are more books to come in this series but I don’t feel inclined to follow the story any further. The one instalment was enough for me.
(Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review)
October 28, 2018
This is my first fairytale retelling, and oh, have I been missing out. What’s not to love about having your childhood loves in new, fantastical, romantic situations? Especially when the situations are as amazingly imaginative as this, a melding of sci fi, romance, and the supernatural - which isn’t something I’ve seen much before.
Many times throughout SECOND STAR, I found myself thinking but... how did you come up with this? And this? And how did you tie all this stuff into the original story (nanobot Tinc, for one!) like a truckload of delicious Easter eggs?
Basically, I loved this book, read it in two days, and have decided that futuristic space-mechanic Peter is my new favourite male character. He’s daring, full of banter, and his instant connection with Captain Wendy is swoon-worthy. With a lot of books, there’s no chemistry, no chemistry, no chemistry.... KISS, whereas here, it’s there from the off. All of the character relationships here are fabulous, and not just because I can’t resist banter - Hooke is as dastardly as ever, and his scheming is so totally unexpected that I didn’t see it coming at all until it was revealed.
Every tiny detail, both in Neverland and on the ships, is so intricately imagined and visual that it would lend itself perfectly to the screen - and to a sequel. It’s a shame not to carry on in such a rich new world, right?
Many times throughout SECOND STAR, I found myself thinking but... how did you come up with this? And this? And how did you tie all this stuff into the original story (nanobot Tinc, for one!) like a truckload of delicious Easter eggs?
Basically, I loved this book, read it in two days, and have decided that futuristic space-mechanic Peter is my new favourite male character. He’s daring, full of banter, and his instant connection with Captain Wendy is swoon-worthy. With a lot of books, there’s no chemistry, no chemistry, no chemistry.... KISS, whereas here, it’s there from the off. All of the character relationships here are fabulous, and not just because I can’t resist banter - Hooke is as dastardly as ever, and his scheming is so totally unexpected that I didn’t see it coming at all until it was revealed.
Every tiny detail, both in Neverland and on the ships, is so intricately imagined and visual that it would lend itself perfectly to the screen - and to a sequel. It’s a shame not to carry on in such a rich new world, right?
April 29, 2019
3.5 stars.
February 10, 2019
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I feel so let down. What is there not to love about this premise? A sci-fi retelling of Peter Pan? Sign me up! Sounds amazing!
But once you read it... it's not that great. While the writing as a whole wasn’t bad, the text is juvenile - more for a middle-grade audience than for young adults. The novel sticks very close to the source material, making it incredibly predictable. The pacing was too slow at first, and then resolved everything in the last 20% of the book. All of that is annoying, but not unbearable.
The things that were unbearable, though... they can be summed up as two issues, but they are huge, and they completely break the story:
1) The insta-love: know each other for only a few days, yet by the time the crew goes back to Earth, they declare thesmselves in love. It’s obvious that they are not even through what the text itself shows: they find the other attractive, . Every aspect of their attraction is superficial.
Now, I would buy it if they were younger, if they were 15 year olds, but is almost 20! I’m not even sure how old ’s supposed to be, but he’s well past the age of declaring himself in love with the first girl who visits his planet. Absolutely none of that made me believe that ’s mature enough to lead a military mission of that caliber, nor that is a hardened street kid, so frankly it would’ve been far better if the romance was saved for the latter books. The addition of as another love interest to set up a love triangle that will probably haunt the sequels just makes matters worse.
2) The stjarnins: turning native americans into “wild” humanoid aliens was a bad idea when James Cameron did it in "Avatar", and it’s a bad idea when you’re retelling Peter Pan. The native people, while stripped of their humanity, still carry their stereotypes, unfortunately: they are savages, their faith is primal, they are not as intelligent as the white folk, and they are (I kid you not!) like “early (read: primal, uncivilized, brutal) humanity”. Hooke himself says so: “The Stjarnin are a savage people, much like early humanity. Even their faith is primal. They worship of a deity passed down from stories and drawings.” (from Chapter 24, “The Crew is Carried Off”). This isn't even presented as the sayings of the villain, no, this is what everyone seems to believe, because nobody ever says otherwise.
Oh, and they make human sacrifices. Yeah. Well, they sacrificed each other at first, but when they noticed they could kill others, they started to hunt British humans instead. Mmhmm.
Absolutely none of this needed to be part of the story. Anything could’ve been done to evade this racist narrative. These aliens could’ve been humans that had arrived to Neverland and gotten stranded before Hooke’s crew. There could have been aliens living with humans, and they could have been “civilized” (there was no reason, other than the racist notion that natives = savages, to make them like this).
That part of the story could’ve been left out entirely, and Tiger Lily could have been a girl on either crew. She could’ve been a “lost girl”. She could’ve stayed with Hooke. She could’ve gone with Wendy and gotten kidnapped by the pirates later. There were a thousand different ways to avoid this anti-native mess, and yet the story still went on this way.
That was my biggest disappointment, and that’s the primary reason why I’m giving Second Star such a low rating and why I won’t be picking up any further books in this series.
Wendy woke up feeling like she'd slept through a nightmare. When she saw she was in a makeshift bed with heavy tree roots dangling from the roof of a hole in the ground, she realized she hadn't dreamt it - she had survived it.
I feel so let down. What is there not to love about this premise? A sci-fi retelling of Peter Pan? Sign me up! Sounds amazing!
But once you read it... it's not that great. While the writing as a whole wasn’t bad, the text is juvenile - more for a middle-grade audience than for young adults. The novel sticks very close to the source material, making it incredibly predictable. The pacing was too slow at first, and then resolved everything in the last 20% of the book. All of that is annoying, but not unbearable.
The things that were unbearable, though... they can be summed up as two issues, but they are huge, and they completely break the story:
1) The insta-love: know each other for only a few days, yet by the time the crew goes back to Earth, they declare thesmselves in love. It’s obvious that they are not even through what the text itself shows: they find the other attractive, . Every aspect of their attraction is superficial.
Now, I would buy it if they were younger, if they were 15 year olds, but is almost 20! I’m not even sure how old ’s supposed to be, but he’s well past the age of declaring himself in love with the first girl who visits his planet. Absolutely none of that made me believe that ’s mature enough to lead a military mission of that caliber, nor that is a hardened street kid, so frankly it would’ve been far better if the romance was saved for the latter books. The addition of as another love interest to set up a love triangle that will probably haunt the sequels just makes matters worse.
2) The stjarnins: turning native americans into “wild” humanoid aliens was a bad idea when James Cameron did it in "Avatar", and it’s a bad idea when you’re retelling Peter Pan. The native people, while stripped of their humanity, still carry their stereotypes, unfortunately: they are savages, their faith is primal, they are not as intelligent as the white folk, and they are (I kid you not!) like “early (read: primal, uncivilized, brutal) humanity”. Hooke himself says so: “The Stjarnin are a savage people, much like early humanity. Even their faith is primal. They worship of a deity passed down from stories and drawings.” (from Chapter 24, “The Crew is Carried Off”). This isn't even presented as the sayings of the villain, no, this is what everyone seems to believe, because nobody ever says otherwise.
Oh, and they make human sacrifices. Yeah. Well, they sacrificed each other at first, but when they noticed they could kill others, they started to hunt British humans instead. Mmhmm.
Absolutely none of this needed to be part of the story. Anything could’ve been done to evade this racist narrative. These aliens could’ve been humans that had arrived to Neverland and gotten stranded before Hooke’s crew. There could have been aliens living with humans, and they could have been “civilized” (there was no reason, other than the racist notion that natives = savages, to make them like this).
That part of the story could’ve been left out entirely, and Tiger Lily could have been a girl on either crew. She could’ve been a “lost girl”. She could’ve stayed with Hooke. She could’ve gone with Wendy and gotten kidnapped by the pirates later. There were a thousand different ways to avoid this anti-native mess, and yet the story still went on this way.
That was my biggest disappointment, and that’s the primary reason why I’m giving Second Star such a low rating and why I won’t be picking up any further books in this series.
June 30, 2019
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.
I wanted so badly to like this book seeing as sci-fi is my favourite genre and Peter Pan was one of my favourite books as a child. So naturally a combination of the two would make for a winner, right? No. Unfortunately it didn't.
I think J.M. Sullivan relied to heavily of the source material rather than writing her own original ideas so it just felt like I was re-reading the same book from my childhood. I would have liked even just a little bit of more original content. I mean, she pulled from the original book by J.M. Barrie (obviously), but also that live action Peter Pan movie from 2003 and also the Peter Pan story arc from Once Upon a Time. Basically what I'm saying is that she changed the story just enough (and I mean bare minimum) not to get pegged for plagiarism.
If you want to hop on the Lunar Chronicles bandwagon, you best do a good job.
I took me pretty much an entire month to get through this because I was so bored. I think it was at the 42% mark that J. M. stopped gushing over how wonderful and amazing and invincible Wendy is, and finally put them into the bloody spaceship.
Also I think she forgot to mention why a hundred years have passed on earth but only a few had passed on Neverland. There's a black hole right on the cover... and it's never brought up. Usually the things that make it onto the cover play a central role in the plot. (For those of you who don't know, it is theorized that as you approach the event horizon of a black hole, time moves slower for you than it does for the rest of the universe. Basically you could watch the universe whip by in fast-forward. IDK I'm only an amateur astrophysicist so I recommend looking into Einstein... he actually knows how to explain what I just tried to.)
Anyway, this book was overall... disappointing.
I wanted so badly to like this book seeing as sci-fi is my favourite genre and Peter Pan was one of my favourite books as a child. So naturally a combination of the two would make for a winner, right? No. Unfortunately it didn't.
I think J.M. Sullivan relied to heavily of the source material rather than writing her own original ideas so it just felt like I was re-reading the same book from my childhood. I would have liked even just a little bit of more original content. I mean, she pulled from the original book by J.M. Barrie (obviously), but also that live action Peter Pan movie from 2003 and also the Peter Pan story arc from Once Upon a Time. Basically what I'm saying is that she changed the story just enough (and I mean bare minimum) not to get pegged for plagiarism.
If you want to hop on the Lunar Chronicles bandwagon, you best do a good job.
I took me pretty much an entire month to get through this because I was so bored. I think it was at the 42% mark that J. M. stopped gushing over how wonderful and amazing and invincible Wendy is, and finally put them into the bloody spaceship.
Also I think she forgot to mention why a hundred years have passed on earth but only a few had passed on Neverland. There's a black hole right on the cover... and it's never brought up. Usually the things that make it onto the cover play a central role in the plot. (For those of you who don't know, it is theorized that as you approach the event horizon of a black hole, time moves slower for you than it does for the rest of the universe. Basically you could watch the universe whip by in fast-forward. IDK I'm only an amateur astrophysicist so I recommend looking into Einstein... he actually knows how to explain what I just tried to.)
Anyway, this book was overall... disappointing.
December 13, 2018
4 Futuristic Stars!
Review by Nancy
Late Night Reviewer
Up All Night w/ Books Blog
A modern take on a very classic fairy tale, Second Star, by J.M. Sullivan, was pretty spectacular. As someone who absolutely loves classic fairy tales, I was a little afraid to dive into this one. I was worried that the author would not do Peter Pan justice, but I was pleasantly surprised.
This book is a futuristic version of the Peter Pan we know. Second Star starts with Wendy at a young age— a very brilliant girl studying at the Academy to one day make captain. Then, we jump ahead a few years, the story takes us into the future to an older Wendy who is sent on a rescue mission that leads her to Peter.
Peter and Wendy were magnetic. I found myself thoroughly enjoying the characters. Their connection was pretty instantaneous, it was one of my favorite parts of the book. All the characters portrayed similar characteristics to the original Peter Pan. But Peter was by far my favorite, he was hard not to fall in love with. Very sure of himself, a little cocky, and a lot confident. Wendy was intelligent, strong, and resilient. Together, they made for some very interesting banter that had me laughing and loving the story.
I wish the ending didn't feel so rushed. I wanted the author to have given us more time in Neverland and a little less time at the Academy. Regardless, this was a great read. I am excited to see what the author brings us next.
**ARC provided by the author for an honest review. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. **
Review by Nancy
Late Night Reviewer
Up All Night w/ Books Blog
A modern take on a very classic fairy tale, Second Star, by J.M. Sullivan, was pretty spectacular. As someone who absolutely loves classic fairy tales, I was a little afraid to dive into this one. I was worried that the author would not do Peter Pan justice, but I was pleasantly surprised.
This book is a futuristic version of the Peter Pan we know. Second Star starts with Wendy at a young age— a very brilliant girl studying at the Academy to one day make captain. Then, we jump ahead a few years, the story takes us into the future to an older Wendy who is sent on a rescue mission that leads her to Peter.
Peter and Wendy were magnetic. I found myself thoroughly enjoying the characters. Their connection was pretty instantaneous, it was one of my favorite parts of the book. All the characters portrayed similar characteristics to the original Peter Pan. But Peter was by far my favorite, he was hard not to fall in love with. Very sure of himself, a little cocky, and a lot confident. Wendy was intelligent, strong, and resilient. Together, they made for some very interesting banter that had me laughing and loving the story.
I wish the ending didn't feel so rushed. I wanted the author to have given us more time in Neverland and a little less time at the Academy. Regardless, this was a great read. I am excited to see what the author brings us next.
**ARC provided by the author for an honest review. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. **
March 16, 2020
This was an enjoyable and creative retelling of Peter Pan! It reminded me a bit of Cinder, in that it was a sci fi version of the well-known classic. Peter is a mechanic on a space ship called the Jolly Roger, captained by James Hooke. The "Lost Boys" are kids who became his indentured servants. Tinc is a nanobot Peter programmed himself. Wendy, meanwhile, is a captain in a fleet sent to rescue the vanished Jolly Roger and Captain Hooke, and her "brothers" are two of her fellow crew members and best friends, Johns and Michaels. This by itself was so clever that I was quickly hooked.
A few things I'd have changed, though: there was a lot of exposition. Peter and Wendy (and their respective crews) don't even meet until about halfway through the book, and the stories lagged a bit until then. When they do finally meet, at first the chemistry between them is amazing, but it quickly became too much. I could have done without about 2/3 of the blushing and heart skipping and longing gazes. I did like the fact that it was mutual, though: in the original Peter Pan, Wendy fell for him (though they were both clearly kids) and Peter seemed to feel the same but he was unaware of his own feelings. Then, toward the very end, there's a curveball love triangle all of a sudden that wasn't set up at ALL and seemed very out of character.
Those complaints could have been fixed with one more pass of editing, really. They took me out of the story a bit, but did not keep me from enjoying it overall. I'd definitely recommend!
A few things I'd have changed, though: there was a lot of exposition. Peter and Wendy (and their respective crews) don't even meet until about halfway through the book, and the stories lagged a bit until then. When they do finally meet, at first the chemistry between them is amazing, but it quickly became too much. I could have done without about 2/3 of the blushing and heart skipping and longing gazes. I did like the fact that it was mutual, though: in the original Peter Pan, Wendy fell for him (though they were both clearly kids) and Peter seemed to feel the same but he was unaware of his own feelings. Then, toward the very end, there's a curveball love triangle all of a sudden that wasn't set up at ALL and seemed very out of character.
Those complaints could have been fixed with one more pass of editing, really. They took me out of the story a bit, but did not keep me from enjoying it overall. I'd definitely recommend!
February 7, 2019
This book is a promising start but could use some improvements.
I'm a sucker for fairytale retellings, even if I haven't yet gotten through Cinder and the others. So when I saw this on Netgalley I knew that I had to give it a chance to see how the author had approached such a familiar and beloved tale.
There are some aspects of this book that I loved. The tech was one of them, though I'll fully admit from the start that I don't know enough about the science to question any of it. That I'll leave to other reviewers more skilled than I! Taking a traditional tale and setting it among technology and seeing an author's creativity go to work is one of the things that I love about reading, particularly retellings set in the future. It's amazing how natural it felt to see the characters in a futuristic setting, more so than you might expect.
Secondly, I really loved the take on Wendy in this. She's not simply the gentle sister that the original story introduced us to (though yes, I do know that she was in charge in more ways than one, and brave in her own right)! This book takes that to a new level, though, making her a cadet and then a Captain in her own right, which I adored. I loved being able to see a different side of this traditional character, and the different take on just how she and Peter meet.
So what didn't I like? To be honest, in some ways the book was just *too* similar to the original. There are quite a number of changes, most evidenced in the plot. I just wish that the author had felt brave enough to push that even further. A retelling doesn't have to be so closely based on the original, in fact sometimes that can be a distraction and I found that to be the case in this. I wish that the similarities had been more subtle, serving as less of a 'oh hey, do you remember that this is a Peter Pan retelling? No really, this is a Peter Pan retelling'. Towards the end of the book I found that it got better, but the existence of some of the original - and famous - lines kind of threw me back out.
While Wendy's perspective was rather well done, I found Peter's to be lacking a bit, though this was more towards the beginning of the book. The beginning also suffered from a writing style that seemed a bit stop and start - it seemed as though the author improved throughout the course of the book, which is fantastic, but I would have liked to see the beginning edited a little bit.
The romance also seemed a bit shoehorned in, in some respects. I have no objection to romance, but if the series continues I hope more depth is put into it as so far it seems mostly based on simple attraction.
All in all, I would say that this is an acceptable start to what seems to be a series, and I'd at least be willing to give any future books a shot to see how they go.
**This book was provided through Netgalley in return for an honest review.**
I'm a sucker for fairytale retellings, even if I haven't yet gotten through Cinder and the others. So when I saw this on Netgalley I knew that I had to give it a chance to see how the author had approached such a familiar and beloved tale.
There are some aspects of this book that I loved. The tech was one of them, though I'll fully admit from the start that I don't know enough about the science to question any of it. That I'll leave to other reviewers more skilled than I! Taking a traditional tale and setting it among technology and seeing an author's creativity go to work is one of the things that I love about reading, particularly retellings set in the future. It's amazing how natural it felt to see the characters in a futuristic setting, more so than you might expect.
Secondly, I really loved the take on Wendy in this. She's not simply the gentle sister that the original story introduced us to (though yes, I do know that she was in charge in more ways than one, and brave in her own right)! This book takes that to a new level, though, making her a cadet and then a Captain in her own right, which I adored. I loved being able to see a different side of this traditional character, and the different take on just how she and Peter meet.
So what didn't I like? To be honest, in some ways the book was just *too* similar to the original. There are quite a number of changes, most evidenced in the plot. I just wish that the author had felt brave enough to push that even further. A retelling doesn't have to be so closely based on the original, in fact sometimes that can be a distraction and I found that to be the case in this. I wish that the similarities had been more subtle, serving as less of a 'oh hey, do you remember that this is a Peter Pan retelling? No really, this is a Peter Pan retelling'. Towards the end of the book I found that it got better, but the existence of some of the original - and famous - lines kind of threw me back out.
While Wendy's perspective was rather well done, I found Peter's to be lacking a bit, though this was more towards the beginning of the book. The beginning also suffered from a writing style that seemed a bit stop and start - it seemed as though the author improved throughout the course of the book, which is fantastic, but I would have liked to see the beginning edited a little bit.
The romance also seemed a bit shoehorned in, in some respects. I have no objection to romance, but if the series continues I hope more depth is put into it as so far it seems mostly based on simple attraction.
All in all, I would say that this is an acceptable start to what seems to be a series, and I'd at least be willing to give any future books a shot to see how they go.
**This book was provided through Netgalley in return for an honest review.**
February 8, 2019
Space pirates and mermaids and deities Oh My! Welcome to a thoroughly entertaining space romp. Fair warning: I am a HUGE sucker for (good) Space Operas so this might be a bit biased.
This Peter Pan reimagining could have gone horribly wrong, especially due to how fundamentally different it is from the original, BUT thankfully it did not disappoint. This was one retelling that was solid on all fronts. The writing was well executed. So much so that I will definitely be looking for more of J.M. Sullivan's worlds to visit in the future. The characters, though not particularly deep, made up for their substance deficiency in spades with their entertainment value. To complete the trifecta of awesomeness that I believe is imperative to have when creating a truly successful read was its plot. It was fun to see how each character was revamped and even more fun guessing how my favorite parts from the original book would translate in a totally different environment. Every time I came across common threads that tied together the original and retold stories I was elated. There were common places and names and dialogue to boot. We even get to witness some crowing.
It wasn't just Peter's POV though. Multi POVs can easily make or break a books' flow but here it worked. It worked so well that I happened to fall in love with characters that I could not connect with in the original story. Three such characters were Wendy, Michael and John. This new and improved Wendy was a kick ass Captain that was extremely intelligent, more than physically capable and an all around female force to be reckoned with. She, John and Michael, who are not related in this re-envisioning, were a beautifully cohesive trio. Both John and Michael were reshaped into VERY clever/barely recognizable young men which rendered them instantly likeable. The tertiary characters were also alluring, even without full dimensionality. I loved Tinc as futuristic tech instead of an annoying fairy and even Smee got a technological upgrade.... SO fun!
What fell flat for me was the romantic element. It felt extraneous and disjointed. I hope this will be rectified in future installments because it really did come off as forced and an afterthought.
Overall: This book was a clever, unique, transportive space Gaunt that I enjoyed immensely. I am definitely looking forward to getting my hands on the next book in the series ASAP. I reccomend this to lovers of Futuristic Space Opera Retellings with Fantastical elements and pirates... SPACE PIRATES!! Sounds like a niche market but if you're a fan of any of those genres, you won't be disappointed.
~ Enjoy
*** I was given a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review ***
This Peter Pan reimagining could have gone horribly wrong, especially due to how fundamentally different it is from the original, BUT thankfully it did not disappoint. This was one retelling that was solid on all fronts. The writing was well executed. So much so that I will definitely be looking for more of J.M. Sullivan's worlds to visit in the future. The characters, though not particularly deep, made up for their substance deficiency in spades with their entertainment value. To complete the trifecta of awesomeness that I believe is imperative to have when creating a truly successful read was its plot. It was fun to see how each character was revamped and even more fun guessing how my favorite parts from the original book would translate in a totally different environment. Every time I came across common threads that tied together the original and retold stories I was elated. There were common places and names and dialogue to boot. We even get to witness some crowing.
It wasn't just Peter's POV though. Multi POVs can easily make or break a books' flow but here it worked. It worked so well that I happened to fall in love with characters that I could not connect with in the original story. Three such characters were Wendy, Michael and John. This new and improved Wendy was a kick ass Captain that was extremely intelligent, more than physically capable and an all around female force to be reckoned with. She, John and Michael, who are not related in this re-envisioning, were a beautifully cohesive trio. Both John and Michael were reshaped into VERY clever/barely recognizable young men which rendered them instantly likeable. The tertiary characters were also alluring, even without full dimensionality. I loved Tinc as futuristic tech instead of an annoying fairy and even Smee got a technological upgrade.... SO fun!
What fell flat for me was the romantic element. It felt extraneous and disjointed. I hope this will be rectified in future installments because it really did come off as forced and an afterthought.
Overall: This book was a clever, unique, transportive space Gaunt that I enjoyed immensely. I am definitely looking forward to getting my hands on the next book in the series ASAP. I reccomend this to lovers of Futuristic Space Opera Retellings with Fantastical elements and pirates... SPACE PIRATES!! Sounds like a niche market but if you're a fan of any of those genres, you won't be disappointed.
~ Enjoy
*** I was given a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review ***
April 25, 2020
| Reader Fox Blog |
Honestly, I'm a little baffled by the high rating that Second Star by J. M. Sullivan has thus far. While it is a novel with a very promising premise, that of a Peter Pan retelling set in space with a nanobot as Tinkerbell and Wendy as a space Captain, everything about it fell incredibly short of that potential, so much so that I can only recall wishing that someone with better writing skills and less problematic racism had written this book. I find it quite devastating that the premise left me incredibly excited for a book that simply did not live up to its potential. After all, Peter Pan in space sounds like something that could become an incredibly amazing novel. Unfortunately for Sullivan, Second Star was not amazing.
There are a number of places in this novel where the author failed to deliver, from character development to general plot the novel as a whole was poorly researched and poorly executed. There are a number of areas where the author would have benefitted greatly from doing just a little more research. It becomes immediately clear that Sullivan has very little concept of what space travel is like and seems to have merely gotten all of her information from various science fiction television shows she may have watched. A rudimentary understanding of technology is also incredibly obvious throughout the novel. For someone who is writing a Peter Pan retelling involving space travel and advanced technology, Sullivan does little to convince me that she has any understanding of these areas of knowledge. It's all surface level and barring TINC, the nanobot Tinkerbell substitute, none of the technology really feels cutting edge or advanced. All in all, the aspects I was most excited to read in this book were minimal and disappointing.
The time spent in space is also incredibly short, leaving me feeling somewhat mislead by the premise. Instead of fighting pirates in space, both spaceships are subjected to malfunctions and end up crash landing on a tropical island planet. To make matters worse, Sullivan relied on the dated and very racist animated Disney film to draw inspiration for her depiction of the native peoples, referred to as stjarnins, living on the island. Not only does she make them greened skinned, but she describes them as primitive, unintelligent, and uncivilized.
And though these descriptions, alongside the word "savage", are given by the villain of the story, Sullivan does nothing in her writing of these characters to refute the claims. The native people are written to sacrifice their own people to the shadow of the island, fearing it greatly enough to believe that keeping this shadow "full" will keep its wrath at bay. And, of course, once they realize others are on the island they take efforts to sacrifice them instead of their own people. Ironically, despite supposedly having been living on the island for more than a hundred years, this sacrificing of the newcomers only happens just before Wendy arrives.
And, of course, none of the characters have any real development. Whether it begins with their motivations, their decision making, or even just their relationships with the other characters around them I was left feeling as though I was reading personalities that were given only the barest thought when created. The purpose behind Hooke's betrayal was incredibly simplistic which therefore lead to Peter's actions becoming laughable, if only because it seemed that something was pulled from thin air in order to justify them. I never really felt as though I got to know the secondary characters and many were caricatures of their counterparts from the source material. What I did learn of them was incredibly minimal and resulted in me finding the relationships they had with each other unbelievable. The insta-love was beyond ridiculous, peppered with annoying focus on each others' appearances and the second love interest came out of nowhere, from a character so deeply unlikeable that I felt horribly disgusted during the entire scene.
As for general writing, there aren't any terrible or glaring moments where I felt it was severely lacking. Perhaps my biggest gripe with it all is the sheer number of eye-roll-inducing times Sullivan literally pulled quotes from Barrie's story. It became completely laughable the moment I came across the "never say goodbye" piece, a quote generally referenced as Barrie's from Peter Pan but was never actually something he had ever written. This is only further proof of how heavily Sullivan relied on the source material rather than actually researching and writing her own story. Overall, Sullivan's retelling is seriously lacking in fundamental, preliminary research, any form of real character or relationship development, and ultimately just seems to be a skeleton of what a well-written novel could be.
I was provided a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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Honestly, I'm a little baffled by the high rating that Second Star by J. M. Sullivan has thus far. While it is a novel with a very promising premise, that of a Peter Pan retelling set in space with a nanobot as Tinkerbell and Wendy as a space Captain, everything about it fell incredibly short of that potential, so much so that I can only recall wishing that someone with better writing skills and less problematic racism had written this book. I find it quite devastating that the premise left me incredibly excited for a book that simply did not live up to its potential. After all, Peter Pan in space sounds like something that could become an incredibly amazing novel. Unfortunately for Sullivan, Second Star was not amazing.
There are a number of places in this novel where the author failed to deliver, from character development to general plot the novel as a whole was poorly researched and poorly executed. There are a number of areas where the author would have benefitted greatly from doing just a little more research. It becomes immediately clear that Sullivan has very little concept of what space travel is like and seems to have merely gotten all of her information from various science fiction television shows she may have watched. A rudimentary understanding of technology is also incredibly obvious throughout the novel. For someone who is writing a Peter Pan retelling involving space travel and advanced technology, Sullivan does little to convince me that she has any understanding of these areas of knowledge. It's all surface level and barring TINC, the nanobot Tinkerbell substitute, none of the technology really feels cutting edge or advanced. All in all, the aspects I was most excited to read in this book were minimal and disappointing.
The time spent in space is also incredibly short, leaving me feeling somewhat mislead by the premise. Instead of fighting pirates in space, both spaceships are subjected to malfunctions and end up crash landing on a tropical island planet. To make matters worse, Sullivan relied on the dated and very racist animated Disney film to draw inspiration for her depiction of the native peoples, referred to as stjarnins, living on the island. Not only does she make them greened skinned, but she describes them as primitive, unintelligent, and uncivilized.
And though these descriptions, alongside the word "savage", are given by the villain of the story, Sullivan does nothing in her writing of these characters to refute the claims. The native people are written to sacrifice their own people to the shadow of the island, fearing it greatly enough to believe that keeping this shadow "full" will keep its wrath at bay. And, of course, once they realize others are on the island they take efforts to sacrifice them instead of their own people. Ironically, despite supposedly having been living on the island for more than a hundred years, this sacrificing of the newcomers only happens just before Wendy arrives.
And, of course, none of the characters have any real development. Whether it begins with their motivations, their decision making, or even just their relationships with the other characters around them I was left feeling as though I was reading personalities that were given only the barest thought when created. The purpose behind Hooke's betrayal was incredibly simplistic which therefore lead to Peter's actions becoming laughable, if only because it seemed that something was pulled from thin air in order to justify them. I never really felt as though I got to know the secondary characters and many were caricatures of their counterparts from the source material. What I did learn of them was incredibly minimal and resulted in me finding the relationships they had with each other unbelievable. The insta-love was beyond ridiculous, peppered with annoying focus on each others' appearances and the second love interest came out of nowhere, from a character so deeply unlikeable that I felt horribly disgusted during the entire scene.
As for general writing, there aren't any terrible or glaring moments where I felt it was severely lacking. Perhaps my biggest gripe with it all is the sheer number of eye-roll-inducing times Sullivan literally pulled quotes from Barrie's story. It became completely laughable the moment I came across the "never say goodbye" piece, a quote generally referenced as Barrie's from Peter Pan but was never actually something he had ever written. This is only further proof of how heavily Sullivan relied on the source material rather than actually researching and writing her own story. Overall, Sullivan's retelling is seriously lacking in fundamental, preliminary research, any form of real character or relationship development, and ultimately just seems to be a skeleton of what a well-written novel could be.
I was provided a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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March 1, 2019
I was provided an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
This was a retelling of Peter Pan told from both Peter's pov and Wendy's.
It's set in the future and Peter is actually a tech on Hook's spaceship while Wendy is training to be a spaceship captain herself.
I really liked this story. At first, I had some trouble focusing on Peter's pov but I really liked Wendy's from beginning to end. The characters were endearing and I got carried away by the plot. I loved how it was transposed to the future with a sci-fi twist, like Tinkerbell being a robot etc.
So basically, this was really fun but as much as I enjoyed it, I didn't connect with it like I sometimes do. Anyway, still a fun read.
This was a retelling of Peter Pan told from both Peter's pov and Wendy's.
It's set in the future and Peter is actually a tech on Hook's spaceship while Wendy is training to be a spaceship captain herself.
I really liked this story. At first, I had some trouble focusing on Peter's pov but I really liked Wendy's from beginning to end. The characters were endearing and I got carried away by the plot. I loved how it was transposed to the future with a sci-fi twist, like Tinkerbell being a robot etc.
So basically, this was really fun but as much as I enjoyed it, I didn't connect with it like I sometimes do. Anyway, still a fun read.
March 16, 2019
NOTE: I received a complimentary eARC of this book from Bleeding Ink Publishing through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
It’s taken me a long time to get to this review because I’m still not really sure how I feel about this book, hence the middle-of-the-road three star rating.
**WARNING - SPOILERS AHEAD**
The fact that it was a Peter Pan retelling was automatically a plus, I LOVED that Wendy was more badass than she was in the original, Tink being a bot was just so much fun, the multiple points of view from Wendy and Peter were really handy to be able to give more insight into the story, and the first two thirds of the book was really very interesting and I managed to get through that part very quickly because of that.
But on the other hand, I wish the story different more from the original so that it wasn’t as predictable, the multiple points of view sometimes changed TOO often for my liking, the cliched insta-love romance felt very forced, and I felt like the last third of the book was a little confusing and when I was finished I was so frustrated by it that I had to take time before writing this review to make sure I didn’t let that frustration outweigh the good stuff as well.
Even after writing this review I’m still very confused about whether I liked this one or not and can’t really say for sure if I’ll bother reading the next one in the series.
It’s taken me a long time to get to this review because I’m still not really sure how I feel about this book, hence the middle-of-the-road three star rating.
**WARNING - SPOILERS AHEAD**
The fact that it was a Peter Pan retelling was automatically a plus, I LOVED that Wendy was more badass than she was in the original, Tink being a bot was just so much fun, the multiple points of view from Wendy and Peter were really handy to be able to give more insight into the story, and the first two thirds of the book was really very interesting and I managed to get through that part very quickly because of that.
But on the other hand, I wish the story different more from the original so that it wasn’t as predictable, the multiple points of view sometimes changed TOO often for my liking, the cliched insta-love romance felt very forced, and I felt like the last third of the book was a little confusing and when I was finished I was so frustrated by it that I had to take time before writing this review to make sure I didn’t let that frustration outweigh the good stuff as well.
Even after writing this review I’m still very confused about whether I liked this one or not and can’t really say for sure if I’ll bother reading the next one in the series.
May 28, 2020
Peter pan in space! This is an exciting new take on this story. If you enjoy the story of Peter Pan and like sci fi then check this out.
June 29, 2020
I really enjoyed this interesting take on my favorite classic of all time ‘peter pan’. There were so many different elements woven together to take you on an amazing adventure! Highly recommend!
April 12, 2023
Ahhhhh - I am in love with this re-telling of Peter Pan!! It is Sci-Fi and while I am not usually a huge fan of this genre, this book makes that statement a liar out of me! If all of the Sci-Fi books were written like author J. M. Sullivan wrote this one then this would instantly become my favorite genre!
I love the fact that Wendy is the Captain and that she is a kick a$$ chick! I love that we get to have the story told to us from both Peter and Wendy's perspective and I love that the author uses the original story but amps it up and makes it something original and at the same time something unique but still true to the story that we have all heard growing up!
In case you didn't realize by now, I LOVED this book! What I didn't love was the ending....I NEED book 2 now, I need to know what is going to happen next, I want the rest of the story!! Just be aware that once you are finished reading that you are going to want to start this one again while you impatiently wait for the next book! You will zoom through the pages of this book so fast, that you will need to re-read it to see what you missed the first time (and trust me, you missed stuff).
My first and not at all my last book by author J. M. Sullivan! An amazing read from all aspects! A must add to your TBR list and move it to the top of that list!!!
I love the fact that Wendy is the Captain and that she is a kick a$$ chick! I love that we get to have the story told to us from both Peter and Wendy's perspective and I love that the author uses the original story but amps it up and makes it something original and at the same time something unique but still true to the story that we have all heard growing up!
In case you didn't realize by now, I LOVED this book! What I didn't love was the ending....I NEED book 2 now, I need to know what is going to happen next, I want the rest of the story!! Just be aware that once you are finished reading that you are going to want to start this one again while you impatiently wait for the next book! You will zoom through the pages of this book so fast, that you will need to re-read it to see what you missed the first time (and trust me, you missed stuff).
My first and not at all my last book by author J. M. Sullivan! An amazing read from all aspects! A must add to your TBR list and move it to the top of that list!!!
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