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Remnants #10
Lost and Found
It’s been 90 days since the Remnants broke the Big Compromise, turning Mother from her course. Now they’ve arrived at the place they called home...500 years ago. But a lot can change in five centuries. Earth has been transformed into a wasteland of ash and debris. And if that isn’t bad enough, while the rest of the Remnants pull together to survive, Yago is slowly pulling away --- concocting a plan to rise to power. With only 13 Remnants remaining, failure could mean the end of the human race...
134 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
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K.A. Applegate
250 books497 followersalso published under the name Katherine Applegate
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
August 4, 2016
Two guesses where the Remnants have found themselves – not quite home sweet home, but it’s not not home either. That is definitely Violet on the cover, and the center guy should be D-Caf since he’s the same model from Isolation. If we were going by groups, that would mean the third guy should be Roger Dodger, but he looks too old to be him. Meaning that my next best guess is he is Jobs? Not Billy, not Yago, not Edward, doubtful it’s Anamull, can’t be Burroway, really doesn’t seem like Mo’Steel…so process of elimination leaves Jobs as the most likely candidate. Well, he did kind of get them all into this mess in the first place….
After the climax and solidity that was books #6 Breakdown and #7 Isolation, this book takes us back down to “Where is this going? And let’s switch viewpoints… a lot.” Which also meant that I felt a distinct disconnect from most all of the Remnants yet again, even after all we have watched them go through. Despite being told that the Remnants were in constant danger from Rider and Meanie attacks, I never felt they were actually in much danger, as we never saw much real action.
As for the deaths referenced at the beginning:
Basically, this was a rather lackluster entry to the series, one which seems to be setting up a lot (that ending!), but which is ultimately hollow because it is too busy setting up the frilly decorations.
Also of note: So far as I recall, without fail, the lines at the opening at each chapter of every single book were taken directly from that specific chapter. However, in this book, at least three of the title headers did not match up – either they appeared in a different chapter, or they were not a direct quote and were rather a succinct summary of events in that chapter. Specifically:
Chapter 5 It hadn’t felt the way she’d thought it would feel. – page 24 – This line appears in the next chapter, not this one
Chapter 8 What would happen would happen. – page 42 – This line does not appear in this chapter at all, though it does nicely summarize the events/thoughts presented in this chapter
Chapter16 Jobs was leaving the ship. – page 96 – This is not actually said or thought in this chapter, though that is what happens.
Specific examples of the hollowness/lack of depth/accuracy/interest in this installment, and one quote which I simply enjoyed – okay, loved - from the Troika:
After the climax and solidity that was books #6 Breakdown and #7 Isolation, this book takes us back down to “Where is this going? And let’s switch viewpoints… a lot.” Which also meant that I felt a distinct disconnect from most all of the Remnants yet again, even after all we have watched them go through. Despite being told that the Remnants were in constant danger from Rider and Meanie attacks, I never felt they were actually in much danger, as we never saw much real action.
As for the deaths referenced at the beginning:
Basically, this was a rather lackluster entry to the series, one which seems to be setting up a lot (that ending!), but which is ultimately hollow because it is too busy setting up the frilly decorations.
Also of note: So far as I recall, without fail, the lines at the opening at each chapter of every single book were taken directly from that specific chapter. However, in this book, at least three of the title headers did not match up – either they appeared in a different chapter, or they were not a direct quote and were rather a succinct summary of events in that chapter. Specifically:
Chapter 5 It hadn’t felt the way she’d thought it would feel. – page 24 – This line appears in the next chapter, not this one
Chapter 8 What would happen would happen. – page 42 – This line does not appear in this chapter at all, though it does nicely summarize the events/thoughts presented in this chapter
Chapter16 Jobs was leaving the ship. – page 96 – This is not actually said or thought in this chapter, though that is what happens.
Specific examples of the hollowness/lack of depth/accuracy/interest in this installment, and one quote which I simply enjoyed – okay, loved - from the Troika:
February 20, 2026
I had two books on hold through Libby which both said they would be “available soon”, but when I finished the book I was then reading neither had yet come available. Desiring a quick read to tide me over until one of my holds became available, and feeling the pang of obligation at having to finish this 14-part series, I decided to give the tenth ‘Remnants’ book a go. In brief, though I started the series with high hopes and have been occasionally impressed, the last several entries have felt like a slog. I’ve realized I don’t care about the characters, the settings are badly drawn, and the plot is largely just running in place. I declared in my review for the last book that when I began reading it, “the primary emotion I felt was despair that I am still so far from finishing this 14-part series. I am ready to be done with it.” Although I didn’t feel that same sense of despair starting LOST & FOUND, I certainly had low expectations.
Perhaps that explains why my response to the book was initially more positive than some of the top Goodreads reviews, many of which describe this as possibly the worst of the series. I don’t feel that way, but reading others’ reviews I did realize there was more to be critical of than I at first realized. My initial thought was to award this 3 stars, but I got talked down to 2 by reading the other reviews.
When I began the book, I felt lost at first. Granted, it’s been several months since I last dipped my toes in this series, but there was talk about a person named Charlie who double-crossed the Remnants and who “had mutated into a hideous, lethal porcupinelike [sic] creature”, killing Kubrick. I had no recollection of any of this occurring; it made me seriously wonder if I had picked up the wrong book, but I checked the spine and it was correct. I even went so far as to rifle through the pages of the previous book to refresh my memory. As it turns out, there was a whole thing with this Charlie character spiking Kubrick with porcupine-like quills—huh. I had zero recollection of that. That book did not make it clear that Kubrick had died, though, and other top reviews her express similar confusion on that point, at least. Then in the second chapter, a group of the Remnants come running up to Violet carrying Tamara, the soldier who was possessed by her eyeless Shipwright baby (don’t ask) for much of the series but was recently freed. They’re yelling something about an attack and the Blue Meanies (or is it the Riders?) putting a note in her hand, and… again, I wondered if I had walked in on something already in progress that I was oblivious to. As it turns out, nope: this incident is entirely contained to this book. Violet tries to save Tamara by using worms in her body that can bring people back to life, but she is unsuccessful. Thus, Tamara, a seemingly important character, is unceremoniously dispatched at the beginning of the book.
Another of the adult characters, Burroway, gets offed later, too. Though these deaths were abrupt and the remaining characters seemed to show no particular emotional response to them, my feeling while reading the book was gladness that the author(s) are thinning the cast. Perhaps this will give the remaining characters a chance to breathe, though it’s awfully far into the series to be anticipating any major character growth. And of course, at the same time they did this, they’ve inserted a whole new “Troika” of baddies (Amelia, Charlie, and Duncan Choate), so actually I guess we’re right back where we started.
The previous book, THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME, had a cover image of a character looking out a spaceship window at the Earth but the characters do not in fact reach the Earth in that book. In this one, they do. That’s a change-up! I’m always a sucker for any change in a series because I convince myself it means that the next installment(s) are going to go in a new direction even if it didn’t in the book with the change. I felt that was here, too: excited just because they were actually in a new environment. Unfortunately, the messed-up Earth the Remnants returned to is colorless. It is described as perpetually dark and icy on one side, perpetually scorched and dry on the other, with just a thin strip of potentially arable land in the middle, though there are questions about whether the land can in fact support life given that there is no evidence of any and the “land” is covered in ashes from the burnt side. There’s not a lot of further description about the state of the Earth beyond this. The cover of this book shows a trio wearing all black (likely the Troika) standing on a landscape of cracked dirt, with a broken bridge behind them and an abandoned city in the far distance. I feel like the cover image offers more detail about what Earth looks like now than the writing in the book does. (Also, not that it matters, but the Troika do not, so far as I know, exit the spaceship in this book, so that’s a mark against it. Oh, and it looks like Amelia was originally photographed illustrated facing forward but they decided she should be turned to the right, so her feet have both been photoshopped into her right pant leg. Weird.)
The seeming uninhabitability of Earth is primary focus of this book, with the characters exploring, finding that the planet has steaming geysers that can apparently shoot out of the ground randomly, and discussing whether they should just forgo the experiment and return to destination-less space-faring. A lot of the narrative is about Jobs’ guilt at having brought them here and insistence that he can make the Earth livable. There’s also a little bit about Violet feeling bad about her worm-power, 2Face like Carrigan Crittenden wanting to die so she can get the worms too, and Tate (wait, who? I recognize the name, but... who is she?) discovering she has the power to morph into a werewolf-type creature and worrying that she can’t control it. The remainder of the characters pretty much fall by the wayside, which is fine. I’d like more of them to fall by the wayside. Maybe take Mo’Steel’s mom next, as she has no character and serves no purpose. In fact, pare it down to just Jobs, Mo’Steel, Billy and 2Face. None of the others matter. Edward has chameleon powers, but he’s literally been nothing but background through the entire series. Kill him off. Yago was the primary antagonist for a while, but 2Face serves that role better and is a more rounded character. Get rid of him. Violet has her worm-power, but otherwise no characterization besides being a placeholder love interest for Jobs to kiss at the end of the series—unnecessary. Olga and Tate, I already mentioned, completely useless. Anamull? No. Rodger Dodger? No. Who even else is there? Oh yeah, Noyze. Why was she introduced at all, just to read lips for one book? Is that it? My god, I thought it was like 18 characters. Nevertheless, 10 is still too many.
Other than the tentative explorations of the Earth, it’s probably true that not a lot actually occurs in this book. I guess I prefer simmering over running in circles, though. Yago teams up with the Troika and they trick Jobs into thinking that a basil plant is growing on Earth’s surface. He calls everybody out to look at it, at which point the Troika abscond with Mother, sending Billy back into a catatonic state and stranding all of the Remnants but Tate on the dead planet. I found myself wondering where the Troika got this basil plant, or where they got a “sleep agent” they put into everybody’s food earlier in the series. Doesn’t Billy (connected with Mother) have to create these things? Incidentally, the fact that Billy is on Earth rather than in the ship is terribly contrived. He’s apparently bullied into it by 2Face, but why goes unexplained. She wasn’t in on Yago’s plot. WHY was it so important for her that he leave the ship? It only makes sense as a way to sever him from Mother to propel the finale into being.
Then, spoiler, there’s a final one-page chapter where it turns out there’s some other persons or creatures (Echo & the Alpha Colony) hiding on Earth watching the Remnants. The final-page twist ending is something I don’t really care for either. If you’ve got something you want to say, then say it! Otherwise, save it for the next one. Jeez.
I dunno. I’m still say that overall I’m not a fan of the series. ANIMORPHS is stellar, EVERWORLD is pretty strong but falters. REMNANTS is a distant third. Nevertheless, despite this entry still not being great, I felt a little less repulsed by it. Maybe I���m feeling a little more forgiving because I do feel as if I’m in the home stretch now (but there’s still 4 books to go, so maybe I should temper my excitement). Maybe when you tell yourself something is going to be awful any glimmer of quality sticks out more. I’m not saying that this was a good book – I still ended up giving it the 2-star treatment, after all. But I could take it more easily than I could the last one. I might return to book #11 sooner than later now that my disdain for the series has softened somewhat. We’ll see.
Perhaps that explains why my response to the book was initially more positive than some of the top Goodreads reviews, many of which describe this as possibly the worst of the series. I don’t feel that way, but reading others’ reviews I did realize there was more to be critical of than I at first realized. My initial thought was to award this 3 stars, but I got talked down to 2 by reading the other reviews.
When I began the book, I felt lost at first. Granted, it’s been several months since I last dipped my toes in this series, but there was talk about a person named Charlie who double-crossed the Remnants and who “had mutated into a hideous, lethal porcupinelike [sic] creature”, killing Kubrick. I had no recollection of any of this occurring; it made me seriously wonder if I had picked up the wrong book, but I checked the spine and it was correct. I even went so far as to rifle through the pages of the previous book to refresh my memory. As it turns out, there was a whole thing with this Charlie character spiking Kubrick with porcupine-like quills—huh. I had zero recollection of that. That book did not make it clear that Kubrick had died, though, and other top reviews her express similar confusion on that point, at least. Then in the second chapter, a group of the Remnants come running up to Violet carrying Tamara, the soldier who was possessed by her eyeless Shipwright baby (don’t ask) for much of the series but was recently freed. They’re yelling something about an attack and the Blue Meanies (or is it the Riders?) putting a note in her hand, and… again, I wondered if I had walked in on something already in progress that I was oblivious to. As it turns out, nope: this incident is entirely contained to this book. Violet tries to save Tamara by using worms in her body that can bring people back to life, but she is unsuccessful. Thus, Tamara, a seemingly important character, is unceremoniously dispatched at the beginning of the book.
Another of the adult characters, Burroway, gets offed later, too. Though these deaths were abrupt and the remaining characters seemed to show no particular emotional response to them, my feeling while reading the book was gladness that the author(s) are thinning the cast. Perhaps this will give the remaining characters a chance to breathe, though it’s awfully far into the series to be anticipating any major character growth. And of course, at the same time they did this, they’ve inserted a whole new “Troika” of baddies (Amelia, Charlie, and Duncan Choate), so actually I guess we’re right back where we started.
The previous book, THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME, had a cover image of a character looking out a spaceship window at the Earth but the characters do not in fact reach the Earth in that book. In this one, they do. That’s a change-up! I’m always a sucker for any change in a series because I convince myself it means that the next installment(s) are going to go in a new direction even if it didn’t in the book with the change. I felt that was here, too: excited just because they were actually in a new environment. Unfortunately, the messed-up Earth the Remnants returned to is colorless. It is described as perpetually dark and icy on one side, perpetually scorched and dry on the other, with just a thin strip of potentially arable land in the middle, though there are questions about whether the land can in fact support life given that there is no evidence of any and the “land” is covered in ashes from the burnt side. There’s not a lot of further description about the state of the Earth beyond this. The cover of this book shows a trio wearing all black (likely the Troika) standing on a landscape of cracked dirt, with a broken bridge behind them and an abandoned city in the far distance. I feel like the cover image offers more detail about what Earth looks like now than the writing in the book does. (Also, not that it matters, but the Troika do not, so far as I know, exit the spaceship in this book, so that’s a mark against it. Oh, and it looks like Amelia was originally photographed illustrated facing forward but they decided she should be turned to the right, so her feet have both been photoshopped into her right pant leg. Weird.)
The seeming uninhabitability of Earth is primary focus of this book, with the characters exploring, finding that the planet has steaming geysers that can apparently shoot out of the ground randomly, and discussing whether they should just forgo the experiment and return to destination-less space-faring. A lot of the narrative is about Jobs’ guilt at having brought them here and insistence that he can make the Earth livable. There’s also a little bit about Violet feeling bad about her worm-power, 2Face like Carrigan Crittenden wanting to die so she can get the worms too, and Tate (wait, who? I recognize the name, but... who is she?) discovering she has the power to morph into a werewolf-type creature and worrying that she can’t control it. The remainder of the characters pretty much fall by the wayside, which is fine. I’d like more of them to fall by the wayside. Maybe take Mo’Steel’s mom next, as she has no character and serves no purpose. In fact, pare it down to just Jobs, Mo’Steel, Billy and 2Face. None of the others matter. Edward has chameleon powers, but he’s literally been nothing but background through the entire series. Kill him off. Yago was the primary antagonist for a while, but 2Face serves that role better and is a more rounded character. Get rid of him. Violet has her worm-power, but otherwise no characterization besides being a placeholder love interest for Jobs to kiss at the end of the series—unnecessary. Olga and Tate, I already mentioned, completely useless. Anamull? No. Rodger Dodger? No. Who even else is there? Oh yeah, Noyze. Why was she introduced at all, just to read lips for one book? Is that it? My god, I thought it was like 18 characters. Nevertheless, 10 is still too many.
Other than the tentative explorations of the Earth, it’s probably true that not a lot actually occurs in this book. I guess I prefer simmering over running in circles, though. Yago teams up with the Troika and they trick Jobs into thinking that a basil plant is growing on Earth’s surface. He calls everybody out to look at it, at which point the Troika abscond with Mother, sending Billy back into a catatonic state and stranding all of the Remnants but Tate on the dead planet. I found myself wondering where the Troika got this basil plant, or where they got a “sleep agent” they put into everybody’s food earlier in the series. Doesn’t Billy (connected with Mother) have to create these things? Incidentally, the fact that Billy is on Earth rather than in the ship is terribly contrived. He’s apparently bullied into it by 2Face, but why goes unexplained. She wasn’t in on Yago’s plot. WHY was it so important for her that he leave the ship? It only makes sense as a way to sever him from Mother to propel the finale into being.
Then, spoiler, there’s a final one-page chapter where it turns out there’s some other persons or creatures (Echo & the Alpha Colony) hiding on Earth watching the Remnants. The final-page twist ending is something I don’t really care for either. If you’ve got something you want to say, then say it! Otherwise, save it for the next one. Jeez.
I dunno. I’m still say that overall I’m not a fan of the series. ANIMORPHS is stellar, EVERWORLD is pretty strong but falters. REMNANTS is a distant third. Nevertheless, despite this entry still not being great, I felt a little less repulsed by it. Maybe I���m feeling a little more forgiving because I do feel as if I’m in the home stretch now (but there’s still 4 books to go, so maybe I should temper my excitement). Maybe when you tell yourself something is going to be awful any glimmer of quality sticks out more. I’m not saying that this was a good book – I still ended up giving it the 2-star treatment, after all. But I could take it more easily than I could the last one. I might return to book #11 sooner than later now that my disdain for the series has softened somewhat. We’ll see.
August 5, 2016
Hm! Man, how do I even compile my thoughts? My rating is so low for this one because it feels like another stepping-stone book -- another prelude to real things happening, a hint of things to come, but not actually developing the plot overly-much itself, despite the fact that we've finally reached itself.
Here follows a series of disjointed thoughts, SPOILERS marked in spoiler text (but I know they don't always work on mobile):
-- It's a sign of how quickly & frantically I read #9 that I... didn't fully realise that both were dead??? Oh my god. I am retroactively really bummed about it.
-- It's definitely the Troika on the cover, who intrigue me, and the reveal of the last set of powers is really flipping gross.
-- I don't understand why the hell they don't keep better track of Yago, and why they let him have such free rein of the area. No one seems at all concerned enough about his blissed-out, freaky state; with such an obvious lunatic around, I wouldn't trust him at all to wander off unsupervised??? It obviously bites them in the ass later.
-- The death of :(((((((((((((( It's ignoble and off-screen and quick. Which you could probably say is for shock value, that not everyone can get an epic death, but considering how little time we've gotten to spend with , I really wished she'd stuck around longer. This series really does do some of the most unexpected deaths I've ever experienced, though. But still, this one really did deserve more time and attention, I think.
-- The 'death', also, of Jobs & Violet's relationship is interesting! I like it. I like that the standard/stereotypical YA romance gets shafted, due to bad choices and serious disagreements between them.
-- Like Stephanie, I'm also starting to get concerned that, like April/Senna's beef in Everworld, we're literally never going to find out what 2Face's deal is with the fire -- or that once we do get it, it's going to be vastly underwhelming because of all this long buildup to it. It's been 10 books! There are only 4 left! When are we going to hear about the fire?? Also, who even cares about a 500-year-old fire any more??? The perfect time to reveal it should have been the earlier book where Billy revealed that he knew her secret.
----
In general, the pacing in this one just feels really off and scattershot, just limping its way to the next development. There was a lot of telling vs. showing when it comes to characters' internal feelings and motivations, which was super clumsy, and important events like the reveal of Tate's power was really vague and ill-defined (). In fact, it was so sloppy that it made me wonder if this one was ghostwritten... which then led me to research Remnants + ghostwriting in general, and apparently only the first four books of Remnants were written by KAA, while the remaining ten were ghostwritten? If so, I'm impressed, because whoever the writers were, it meant I didn't catch on for 5 books!
I'm excited about the next one though, considering the vast development that has just struck all of the Remnants.
Here follows a series of disjointed thoughts, SPOILERS marked in spoiler text (but I know they don't always work on mobile):
-- It's a sign of how quickly & frantically I read #9 that I... didn't fully realise that both were dead??? Oh my god. I am retroactively really bummed about it.
-- It's definitely the Troika on the cover, who intrigue me, and the reveal of the last set of powers is really flipping gross.
-- I don't understand why the hell they don't keep better track of Yago, and why they let him have such free rein of the area. No one seems at all concerned enough about his blissed-out, freaky state; with such an obvious lunatic around, I wouldn't trust him at all to wander off unsupervised??? It obviously bites them in the ass later.
-- The death of :(((((((((((((( It's ignoble and off-screen and quick. Which you could probably say is for shock value, that not everyone can get an epic death, but considering how little time we've gotten to spend with , I really wished she'd stuck around longer. This series really does do some of the most unexpected deaths I've ever experienced, though. But still, this one really did deserve more time and attention, I think.
-- The 'death', also, of Jobs & Violet's relationship is interesting! I like it. I like that the standard/stereotypical YA romance gets shafted, due to bad choices and serious disagreements between them.
-- Like Stephanie, I'm also starting to get concerned that, like April/Senna's beef in Everworld, we're literally never going to find out what 2Face's deal is with the fire -- or that once we do get it, it's going to be vastly underwhelming because of all this long buildup to it. It's been 10 books! There are only 4 left! When are we going to hear about the fire?? Also, who even cares about a 500-year-old fire any more??? The perfect time to reveal it should have been the earlier book where Billy revealed that he knew her secret.
----
In general, the pacing in this one just feels really off and scattershot, just limping its way to the next development. There was a lot of telling vs. showing when it comes to characters' internal feelings and motivations, which was super clumsy, and important events like the reveal of Tate's power was really vague and ill-defined (). In fact, it was so sloppy that it made me wonder if this one was ghostwritten... which then led me to research Remnants + ghostwriting in general, and apparently only the first four books of Remnants were written by KAA, while the remaining ten were ghostwritten? If so, I'm impressed, because whoever the writers were, it meant I didn't catch on for 5 books!
I'm excited about the next one though, considering the vast development that has just struck all of the Remnants.
October 19, 2017
Well, this took a turn. I'd been warned going in that this series nosedives in quality, but it was surprising just how abrupt the transition was between Book 9 (interesting, a few narrative problems but still pretty good) to... this. What the h*ck is this? I think it's supposed to be a book, but well--it has Issues.
1) The pacing in this installment is all over the place. I swear almost nothing happens for the first 80-90% of this book. You know the big thing we've been building up to in books 8 and 9? The thing the Remnants broke their hard-won peace accord with the Riders and Meanies over? That is, their return to Earth? It's pretty anti-climactic here: after a drawn-out part one (which, really? I don't think there's enough book here to justify dividing it into parts), they land on an Earth that's a lifeless wasteland (and honestly, what did they think they'd find?), and kind of... look around for a bit. Then Yago steals the ship, stranding 99% of the Remnants to starve, and the book ends. It felt more like the first third of a longer book, with the second and third acts chopped off.
2) I wasn't expecting hard science fiction here, but holy guacamole does the science in this book stink. We're supposed to believe a planetoid consisting of the Earth and the moon smushed together somehow has less gravity than the present-day Earth. And that a ship several kilometers in length could somehow land on it. And that random pillars of fire come out of the ground because...?
3) Even the prose feels more hamfisted and clumsy than before. There's way too much telling of characters' emotions and thoughts, and what is shown is painfully simplistic; a lot of the time I felt like the characters in this book were cardboard cutouts of their former selves, with the possible exception of Tate. More Tate, please.
So why isn't this a one star? Because there's the potential of an interesting story here, even if it was only glimpses: figuring out the deal with this post-Rock (heh) Earth, Tate's mutation, what the Troika are and where they came from. It had a few nice creepy images too, particularly Violet's powers and the ruined city they find on Earth. Besides, I don't want to start passing out the one-stars juuuust yet...
1) The pacing in this installment is all over the place. I swear almost nothing happens for the first 80-90% of this book. You know the big thing we've been building up to in books 8 and 9? The thing the Remnants broke their hard-won peace accord with the Riders and Meanies over? That is, their return to Earth? It's pretty anti-climactic here: after a drawn-out part one (which, really? I don't think there's enough book here to justify dividing it into parts), they land on an Earth that's a lifeless wasteland (and honestly, what did they think they'd find?), and kind of... look around for a bit. Then Yago steals the ship, stranding 99% of the Remnants to starve, and the book ends. It felt more like the first third of a longer book, with the second and third acts chopped off.
2) I wasn't expecting hard science fiction here, but holy guacamole does the science in this book stink. We're supposed to believe a planetoid consisting of the Earth and the moon smushed together somehow has less gravity than the present-day Earth. And that a ship several kilometers in length could somehow land on it. And that random pillars of fire come out of the ground because...?
3) Even the prose feels more hamfisted and clumsy than before. There's way too much telling of characters' emotions and thoughts, and what is shown is painfully simplistic; a lot of the time I felt like the characters in this book were cardboard cutouts of their former selves, with the possible exception of Tate. More Tate, please.
So why isn't this a one star? Because there's the potential of an interesting story here, even if it was only glimpses: figuring out the deal with this post-Rock (heh) Earth, Tate's mutation, what the Troika are and where they came from. It had a few nice creepy images too, particularly Violet's powers and the ruined city they find on Earth. Besides, I don't want to start passing out the one-stars juuuust yet...
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 28, 2019
Although there has been exciting developments, some of the ocurrences that should be impactful came across as underwhelming thanks to how fast they glossed over them but it might just be my own perception.
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January 4, 2022Definitely the worst of the series so far. Throughout there have been a lot of decisions the characters have made that I've disagreed with, but this one was just filled with really stupid decisions to the point that I stop being able to suspend my disbelief.
March 5, 2022
Nice cover and that's it.
August 13, 2014
The three creepy Mayflower survivors Amelia, Duncan, and Charlie are all about using others for their own purposes, but hope is on the horizon: the planet Earth is close. But will it be habitable after the disaster that befell it over 500 years ago? Jobs has to determine the answer to that question, and in the meantime Yago's urges to be king of something are interfering dangerously and 2Face is causing waves. But now that Tate is having weird dreams about the Earth--and how it might be saved after all. Tough thing to do, though--saving a planet that has already died.
Really the highlight of this one is getting to see Earth, and there's a palpable fear and nostalgia from those Mayflower survivors who want to return to it. Some of the odd revelations about the crew members are becoming really, really random-sounding, and that detracts somewhat from the parts that are weird but somewhat sensible; however, I tend to love Applegate's characters while I'm in the moment with them.
Really the highlight of this one is getting to see Earth, and there's a palpable fear and nostalgia from those Mayflower survivors who want to return to it. Some of the odd revelations about the crew members are becoming really, really random-sounding, and that detracts somewhat from the parts that are weird but somewhat sensible; however, I tend to love Applegate's characters while I'm in the moment with them.
May 25, 2016
Definitely not the best Remnants book. In fact, it may be the worst so far. But at least they're finally making progress. Lots of the book is just ambling, but they do finally get to Earth and things start happening again. It's just amazing how stupid these characters still are. You'd think they'd learn something by the tenth book, but they really don't.
A few of the mutations are getting a little ridiculous as well.
A few of the mutations are getting a little ridiculous as well.
May 9, 2008
So the Remnants have decided to return to Earth. When they finally make it there and discover that the planet was damaged too badly to have allowed life to continue they are disappointed. But Jobs won't give up hope.
Another good chapter in the life of the Remnants and I am looking forward to reading the finale as the Remnants return to a very different planet Earth.
Another good chapter in the life of the Remnants and I am looking forward to reading the finale as the Remnants return to a very different planet Earth.
June 8, 2010
Nothing much happened in this one. 2Face is very odd. I can't deal with the names or the ages. Basically, all the same things I've been saying all along about this series.
October 4, 2015
Woah.
February 21, 2014
I can't believe that they actually landed on Earth! I'm really curious to see what happens next.
August 20, 2008
Wow, this kicked ass. Ahh, crazy old Yago. . . .
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