Akima's Story

by Kevin J. Anderson, Rebecca Moesta

After escaping the alien invasion of Earth and growing up in a drifter colony, Akima joins the search for the mysterious "Titan" starship that holds the key to humanity's future. That means she'll have to risk everything to learn to pilot a starship.

Genres: Science Fiction, Young Adult

181 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2000

About the author

Yes, I have a lot of books, and if this is your first visit to my amazon author page, it can be a little overwhelming. If you are new to my work, let me recommend a few titles as good places to start. I love my Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I. series, humorous horror/mysteries, which begin with DEATH WARMED OVER. My steampunk fantasy adventures, CLOCKWORK ANGELS and CLOCKWORK LIVES, written with Neil Peart, legendary drummer from Rush, are two of my very favorite novels ever. And my magnum opus, the science fiction epic The Saga of Seven Suns, begins with HIDDEN EMPIRE. After you've tried those, I hope you'll check out some of my other series.

I have written spin-off novels for Star Wars, StarCraft, Titan A.E., and The X-Files, and I'm the co-author of the Dune prequels. My original works include the Saga of Seven Suns series and the Nebula Award-nominated Assemblers of Infinity. I have also written several comic books including the Dark Horse Star Wars collection Tales of the Jedi written in collaboration with Tom Veitch, Predator titles (also for Dark Horse), and X-Files titles for Topps.

I serve as a judge in the Writers of the Future contest.

My wife is author Rebecca Moesta. We currently reside near Monument, Colorado.

Reviews

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Basic" is the word of the day. Simplistic plotting, rudimentary prose, the list goes on with more synonyms. At first you think that this is simply down to being a tie-in with a PG-rated animated movie, and since the cultural stereotype is that animated = for babies, so the way that the prose is dirt simple and ensures it explains the points it's making several times to make sure you get it must be because it's written for a young audience.

That's compounded by the characters all sounding the same, spouting off what Tom Baker once called 'audible print'. A book in which lines of dialogue like:
1) "I'll trust in your daring strategy, Stith, but don't short-change Ishaq. He might be more help than you realize."
2) "Did you notice all the artistic and cultural touches in our home? [...] He thinks it's very important to preserve our heritage. As a matter of fact, he says it's as much a part of humanity's hope for the future as any other part of the Titan Project. [...] He told me he taught your grandmother the mythology of Earth's southern hemisphere."
3) "You don't know what the Drej want. [...] I don't need anybody to tell me who to hate. You're just picking on Humans [sic] because they're an easy target."
...not only come from three completely different characters, but one of them is a child, is not exactly putting in the effort when it comes to characterisation.

Which makes it all the weirder when, as part of a climactic scene, one of the main characters tries to hold back an angry mob by using pheromones to increase, and I quote, "the sex appeal of a lot of our attackers". It would come out of nowhere regardless, and at least it isn't described in graphic detail, but it's doubly jarring to feature a scene where our heroes distract their enemies by inciting a very confused orgy in a book that has been barely above the level of a Disney Read-Along Storybook version of Treasure Planet so far.

It's the book equivalent of cereal. Passes through you with little to no trouble, leaving no material impact and you tend to forget it ever even happened five minutes later.

[Siina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I finally had the time to read Titan A.E.: Akima's Story as I had read Cale's Story already years ago. Titan A.E. is one of my favorite movies and I wanted to read the books too, since I wanted to dive back into the story. Akima's Story is interesting, since we hardly know anything about her past. Mostly the book is about how Akima escaped from Earth with her grandma only to later on lose her on New Marrakech and how she got a new family and then that was gone too. Drej are on the hunt again throughout the book, since Titan is still out there and Akima and Ishaq need to solve the puzzle his father left behind. It's great how Akima is bound to Titan through this book and how it gives us more information concerning the project and why Akima was where she was when she met Cale later on. The plot isn't all that complicated or amazing, but quite solid still. Kind of basic perhaps?

The writing is OK and Anderson writes Akima as she is in the movie. This I appreciated a lot, since she feels like Akima. The book rolls nicely and is a good add-on to the merchandise. I'm sad that the movie wasn't the success it should've been, since it's amazing. I must say that Cale's Story is slightly better than this, but this isn't bad either. If you like the movie, then try this, since it sheds more light on everything that is the Titan Project and how things got how they got.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun to get a little more depth behind Akima’s character.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the additional background info given to the Titan A.E. story. You should read Cale's story before reading Akima's story.

[Liselle Hagwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is leaps and bounds better than the movie! The movie couldn't do it justice. It used to be one of my favorite books growing up.

[Ryofire · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really like that Akima got her own book and even Stith got a background! I also loved Akima's grandma. It just sucks that the latter wasn't in more of the book. And that outside of Stith and Akima's grandmother, there are no other women in the book.

This book is like the other two prequels. Not that fun of a read and poorly edited. But the story is more interesting than the others (honestly it's the only interesting one). You meet Akima as a teenager and see her growing up and learn about living on a human colony after Earth's destruction and how she learned how to be a pilot and how she met Korso (really didn't endear me to him) and prejudice against humans (which was really poorly constructed; I don't think the authors know a lot about how prejudice works) and why she collects Earth artifacts. And Stith. Who is amazing in so many ways.

I do like that we delve more into Akima as a woman of color (she has Japanese ancestry) and how she grows up in a Muslim home (after a fashion), because of her foster uncle(?). It was also nice to see how the person who sticks out for her didn't stab her in the back or meet a bad end although I really question what happened with that plot because it seemed mysterious and interesting but the film never developed it and these were the only three published books. Maybe they though they would get to develop the universe more with video games and more books and films?

I wouldn't pick this up for a fun read but it's definitely the best of the trio and honestly more of a creative story in many ways than the film.

[Rogue · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oy! The movie was great, the books were poor! We do get a tiny bit of Akima's backstory, but mostly it is just the author reminding us on nearly every page of what has just happened! Over and over and over! Unfortunately, I'm not exagerating! Also, the writing style makes it appear that this book was meant for kids (9ish I'd think), but they have no problem adding swear words! It doesn't make any sense for them to be there! Of the 3 books, this may have been the poorest quality of all, but it almost ties with 'Titan.'

[Delila Reviews Things And Stuff · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very similar feelings about this book to the Cale story. Interesting background info that isn't entirely necessary, but a fun ride. The only problem here is that the writing is sooo clumsy. I felt so bogged down by clunky language and passive voice, sometimes I had to put it down. It takes some time getting into, but takes off late in act 2.

[Ann Cathey]

A delightful bit of backstory for the Titan AE movie character Akima for the YA readership. Action, adventure, space travel, and good clean fun.

The book begins with Akima's life aboard drifter colonies, her lessons and losses, her friendship with Stith, the kangaroo-like Mantin, and her personal reasons for find the Titan (the ship the movie is named for.

[J.M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really like the way they provided two different books with the same story in it, each from a different character's POV. It gives more insight into the characters than the movie and novelization alone provided. A good sci-fi read that will definitely appeal to YA fans as well as older readers.

[Scot Eaton · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best movie tie-in novel I have read outside of the Star Wars extended universe. This was a really good book. It is better than Cale's Story, but the two should really be read together, with the novelization of Titan A.E. as the third part of the trilogy. Worth tracking down.

[Arwen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ever read a book and feel like, "Well thats over"? Yep, Akima's Story feeling like it was written by a amateur writer with a good editor. It's okay, but fails to make you really connect with the character or feel like you're living in their world. It's just a plot-point-connect-the-dots.

[Valery · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nothing groundbreaking here, but a quick, enjoyable, and well-paced background story for fans of the Titan A.E. movie. The prose is much better than I usually expect from such dime store companion novels, and at under 200 pages, it's the perfect weekend snack lit for sci-fi lovers.

[Scott Henricks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Again, I read this book because I was worked on the movie for Fox Animation. I was interested to see what else I could learn about the characters and the story behind our story.

Good Stuff!!

[Patrick Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember when everyone of this drifter colony are at the funeral Of akima's grandmother. Mohamed Bourain's favorite color is bright purple. You know Akima honored him after his death.

[Skye (Skye's Scribblings) · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 Stars