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Watch City Trilogy #2
Subton Switch: Book 2 in the Watch City Trilogy
Subaquatic city, 1886. Verdandi, a fiery teen tinkerer, is held captive by an evil totalitarian government. She is blasted into a chaos of beauty and fear, depression and addiction.
Verdandi discovers that her only chance of liberty lies not only in trusting her friends, but in challenging her mind and body to fulfill her time travel quest. What begins in compulsion becomes necessity, and Verdandi finds herself torn between two very different worlds, with the only reconciliation being time.
The “Watch City” trilogy continues in “Subton Switch,” creating a testament of the power within us to change ourselves, and the world.
Verdandi discovers that her only chance of liberty lies not only in trusting her friends, but in challenging her mind and body to fulfill her time travel quest. What begins in compulsion becomes necessity, and Verdandi finds herself torn between two very different worlds, with the only reconciliation being time.
The “Watch City” trilogy continues in “Subton Switch,” creating a testament of the power within us to change ourselves, and the world.
590 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 31, 2019
1 person is currently reading
6 people want to read
About the author
Jessica Lucci
40 books90 followersJessica Lucci writes about modern issues while maintaining historic integrity. She is the winner of the IHIBRP 5 Star Award, and received Honorable Mention for the LesFic Bard Book Awards 2019. She makes her home in Massachusetts, USA, where she is currently writing a historical fiction love triangle.
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https://www.jessicalucci.org
Twitter: @Jessica__Lucci
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 10, 2023
I'm not sure where to begin. I have so many things I want to say, and it's hard because I don't want it to be some redundant review like the book. I'll give a list of pros and cons, how about that?
PROS:
1. The characters, when they're not being poorly described, hyper sexualized, or making weird/OoC choices, are really engaging. Starting on the second book (as was suggested to me by the author), I found myself immediately lost, but went with the flow and found a groove in holding onto the stereotypes of each character in order to tell them apart.
2. The universe itself, when it's not being described vaguely like a child with no sense of interpretation trying to explain their dream as it fades from their memory, is fascinating. The story takes place in some sort of """"""1800s"""""" America, but there's a lot of interesting locations and battles and entire history.
3. The catchphrases are cute. They say like "May time serve you well" and the response is "May time circle 'round and serve you back!" and I just really love that.
CONS:
1. E-v-e-r-y character is a Betty Sue. Not in that they're perfect. The author goes OUT of her way to assure you that none of them are perfect. No, it's worse. They're all Betty Sues because there are NO problems in which there isn't an almost immediate solution. The beginning of the book finds the three main characters (of this book) in a submarine where things keep going wrong, and one of them literally always has a weird, immediate solution.
Here's where I pause to say that I live-messaged my friends my feelings about this book, so I'll insert here about this section: "Like without giving too much away their submarine has an issue with it will say and they have to leave potentially temporarily..... And they're like Oh God we can't breathe in water and then all of a sudden the one person's like actually, even though our wet suits for breathing underwater with our oxygen tanks and stuff even though they got broken. I have these magical pills that you swallow and you can breathe underwater -- And they're like oh great. And then they're in the water and they're like oh we can't. We can't. We can't rise to the surface too quickly. Or we'll get the bends and die and then they said Yeah. But good thing we don't have to ascend too slowly because we're wearing these jet propulsion boots that we slipped on that are being mentioned after the fact........"
I even said "I have a feeling the whole book is going to be like this" and it WAS.
2. There are no passive sentences. I feel, truly in my heart and soul, that the book could have been accomplished REALLY well in 200 pages. The issue is, the author continued to insist upon herself by having every single moment be an action filled moment with an immediate payoff solution. I have a big issue with this, because even with the ACTUAL rising tension (and """"big bad""") of the book, the plot just kept driving rather than stopping to be introspective. Even the moments that felt introspective had to have a character in the background actively doing something. It's incredibly frustrating.
3. Inconsistency in character narratives. I can't dive too much into this because it would take all day, but I'll summarize by this paragraph in my messages (spoiler for this part, I guess, if anything is this book is worth spoiling): And this just keeps happening through the WHOLE book where something will get introduced and then subvert your expectations because the author deemed it not important enough to finish that plot point.
4. Everything is incredibly obvious. Besides there always being an answer to every small problem leaving VERY little room for me to care because I just assume everyone will live and be fine, the author tends to make things painstakingly obvious. She introduces a love interest to the one character and it's so clear, way before they make it known, by the first sentence, that he's the love interest. ""Spoiler alert"":
5. Unneeded things/misc. These last two points are pure opinion and so take them as you will:
The way the book is written is annoying. A message from my live-messaging: "Some sentences in this book are like "they ate scones with jam mmmm yummy ummy wow so tasty" and then the literal next sentence will be gobbledygook like "Could you please pass me the magnetometer please?" And then expect me to want to keep reading (I will, begrudgingly). And don't forget when they want to try and sound smart, like this sentence: "Geomagnetic clips in desalinated water to bend light; performing alternate gravity pulleys across the reef; And now this!""
ALSO THIS ENTIRE SECTION:
6. Time makes no sense. For a book surrounding the concept of time and INCLUDING time travel (which doesn't work but I really just .... I just can't), the book does not feel like it's taking place in "1886". Yes, there were many weird inventions in the late 1800s. Yes, it's a fantasy novel. Yes, it's up to the author. But if you're going to have an entire world built around the fact that this is taking place in the late 1800s, I find it disconcerting that in MANY cases their chambers, and homes, and PRISON CELLS are more advanced than modern day. It doesn't make sense. Automatons? Robot butlers? Flying robots? Robotic eyes and hands? None of it works if your time period is saying 1800s. This one is a personal grievance so that's why I'm putting it last. Just not to my own taste.
7. There are no page numbers ????????? Why ????????????
It also feels like the last 20 chapters were the author just trying to finish the story. I say this because there are sections where the there are fatal errors in the text, complete mistakes, name changes, etc., and it just goes overlooked. At one point Tess sits near Bashelle in and start to speak in Tagalog because Martina can't understand it (Martina is deaf by the way and I guess just reads lips for every single language because she has literally no issues and it doesn't affect her besides just being a thing thrown in), but IN THE BOOK it says, AND I QUOTE: "Bashelle and Martina spoke in Tagalog, a language they were both confidently correct that Martina could not understand." but ??? It's literally Tess and Bashelle speaking. Also all the characters know like 12 languages.
Final thoughts: I tried really hard to like this book. It's the reason I'd read like 100 pages a day and go in on the world, because I wanted to like it. I like the characters. I like the world. I think the plot is contrived, and it hurts me to write a harsh review because I know how hard it is to be an independent artist looking to be recognized.
When you have sentences like this though: "She cried so hard that she cracked a rib. It healed instantly." It makes it hard to root for the underdog.
I'm glad to be done with the book. I recommend it if you want to read it. I won't move on to the third book. Overall 1/5. It was a book that I read.
PROS:
1. The characters, when they're not being poorly described, hyper sexualized, or making weird/OoC choices, are really engaging. Starting on the second book (as was suggested to me by the author), I found myself immediately lost, but went with the flow and found a groove in holding onto the stereotypes of each character in order to tell them apart.
2. The universe itself, when it's not being described vaguely like a child with no sense of interpretation trying to explain their dream as it fades from their memory, is fascinating. The story takes place in some sort of """"""1800s"""""" America, but there's a lot of interesting locations and battles and entire history.
3. The catchphrases are cute. They say like "May time serve you well" and the response is "May time circle 'round and serve you back!" and I just really love that.
CONS:
1. E-v-e-r-y character is a Betty Sue. Not in that they're perfect. The author goes OUT of her way to assure you that none of them are perfect. No, it's worse. They're all Betty Sues because there are NO problems in which there isn't an almost immediate solution. The beginning of the book finds the three main characters (of this book) in a submarine where things keep going wrong, and one of them literally always has a weird, immediate solution.
Here's where I pause to say that I live-messaged my friends my feelings about this book, so I'll insert here about this section: "Like without giving too much away their submarine has an issue with it will say and they have to leave potentially temporarily..... And they're like Oh God we can't breathe in water and then all of a sudden the one person's like actually, even though our wet suits for breathing underwater with our oxygen tanks and stuff even though they got broken. I have these magical pills that you swallow and you can breathe underwater -- And they're like oh great. And then they're in the water and they're like oh we can't. We can't. We can't rise to the surface too quickly. Or we'll get the bends and die and then they said Yeah. But good thing we don't have to ascend too slowly because we're wearing these jet propulsion boots that we slipped on that are being mentioned after the fact........"
I even said "I have a feeling the whole book is going to be like this" and it WAS.
2. There are no passive sentences. I feel, truly in my heart and soul, that the book could have been accomplished REALLY well in 200 pages. The issue is, the author continued to insist upon herself by having every single moment be an action filled moment with an immediate payoff solution. I have a big issue with this, because even with the ACTUAL rising tension (and """"big bad""") of the book, the plot just kept driving rather than stopping to be introspective. Even the moments that felt introspective had to have a character in the background actively doing something. It's incredibly frustrating.
3. Inconsistency in character narratives. I can't dive too much into this because it would take all day, but I'll summarize by this paragraph in my messages (spoiler for this part, I guess, if anything is this book is worth spoiling): And this just keeps happening through the WHOLE book where something will get introduced and then subvert your expectations because the author deemed it not important enough to finish that plot point.
4. Everything is incredibly obvious. Besides there always being an answer to every small problem leaving VERY little room for me to care because I just assume everyone will live and be fine, the author tends to make things painstakingly obvious. She introduces a love interest to the one character and it's so clear, way before they make it known, by the first sentence, that he's the love interest. ""Spoiler alert"":
5. Unneeded things/misc. These last two points are pure opinion and so take them as you will:
The way the book is written is annoying. A message from my live-messaging: "Some sentences in this book are like "they ate scones with jam mmmm yummy ummy wow so tasty" and then the literal next sentence will be gobbledygook like "Could you please pass me the magnetometer please?" And then expect me to want to keep reading (I will, begrudgingly). And don't forget when they want to try and sound smart, like this sentence: "Geomagnetic clips in desalinated water to bend light; performing alternate gravity pulleys across the reef; And now this!""
ALSO THIS ENTIRE SECTION:
6. Time makes no sense. For a book surrounding the concept of time and INCLUDING time travel (which doesn't work but I really just .... I just can't), the book does not feel like it's taking place in "1886". Yes, there were many weird inventions in the late 1800s. Yes, it's a fantasy novel. Yes, it's up to the author. But if you're going to have an entire world built around the fact that this is taking place in the late 1800s, I find it disconcerting that in MANY cases their chambers, and homes, and PRISON CELLS are more advanced than modern day. It doesn't make sense. Automatons? Robot butlers? Flying robots? Robotic eyes and hands? None of it works if your time period is saying 1800s. This one is a personal grievance so that's why I'm putting it last. Just not to my own taste.
7. There are no page numbers ????????? Why ????????????
It also feels like the last 20 chapters were the author just trying to finish the story. I say this because there are sections where the there are fatal errors in the text, complete mistakes, name changes, etc., and it just goes overlooked. At one point Tess sits near Bashelle in and start to speak in Tagalog because Martina can't understand it (Martina is deaf by the way and I guess just reads lips for every single language because she has literally no issues and it doesn't affect her besides just being a thing thrown in), but IN THE BOOK it says, AND I QUOTE: "Bashelle and Martina spoke in Tagalog, a language they were both confidently correct that Martina could not understand." but ??? It's literally Tess and Bashelle speaking. Also all the characters know like 12 languages.
Final thoughts: I tried really hard to like this book. It's the reason I'd read like 100 pages a day and go in on the world, because I wanted to like it. I like the characters. I like the world. I think the plot is contrived, and it hurts me to write a harsh review because I know how hard it is to be an independent artist looking to be recognized.
When you have sentences like this though: "She cried so hard that she cracked a rib. It healed instantly." It makes it hard to root for the underdog.
I'm glad to be done with the book. I recommend it if you want to read it. I won't move on to the third book. Overall 1/5. It was a book that I read.
April 25, 2020
♡ This is an exciting tale!
Love this Steam Punk Writer's mind! Book two did not disappoint, loved the characters and the poet turn Jessica Lucci put into her writing.
Love this Steam Punk Writer's mind! Book two did not disappoint, loved the characters and the poet turn Jessica Lucci put into her writing.
October 16, 2019
For all Steampunk fans this is a must have. The flow is fun and imaginative while the characters entire and impress themselves into the reader's hearts. This book will not let you put it down until you're finished I highly recommend it.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews