Grounded!

Nicole Shea #2

by Chris Claremont

Reassigned to a safer job on Earth following a nightmare mission battling space pirates, Lt. Nicole Shea must act as a liaison between the Air Force and aliens, who are attempting to construct a high-powered aircraft

Genres: Science Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Fantasy, Fiction, Military Fiction

325 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Chris Claremont is a writer of American comic books, best known for his 16-year (1975-1991) stint on Uncanny X-Men, during which the series became one of the comic book industry's most successful properties.

Claremont has written many stories for other publishers including the Star Trek Debt of Honor graphic novel, his creator-owned Sovereign Seven for DC Comics and Aliens vs Predator for Dark Horse Comics. He also wrote a few issues of the series WildC.A.T.s (volume 1, issues #10-13) at Image Comics, which introduced his creator-owned character, Huntsman.

Outside of comics, Claremont co-wrote the Chronicles of the Shadow War trilogy, Shadow Moon (1995), Shadow Dawn (1996), and Shadow Star (1999), with George Lucas. This trilogy continues the story of Elora Danan from the movie Willow. In the 1980s, he also wrote a science fiction trilogy about female starship pilot Nicole Shea, consisting of First Flight (1987), Grounded! (1991), and Sundowner (1994). Claremont was also a contributor to the Wild Cards anthology series.

Reviews

[Lauren Stoolfire · Rating 3 out of 5]

Grounded! (Nicole Shea #2) by Chris Claremont didn't need to be quite so long but it was still a decent sequel to Firstflight. Nicole Shea still reminds me of Captain Marvel. I'll definitely be back for the final book in the trilogy to see how it all ends.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the second book in the Nicole Shea series by Chris Claremont. The first book in this series, "FirstFlight", was great. This one not so much. This book was hard to follow. The writing was erratic. The sentence structure was bad. Also, the dialogue was hard to follow with too many speaker shifts. Also the plot was very weak. After such a strong start to this series I am sorry to say this one was very disappointing. I will not be reading the third book. :(

[Lindsay · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book sucked in so many ways. First, it was hard to follow. The sentence structure was bad. Also, the dialogue was hard to follow w/ too many speaker shifts and not enough speaker clues. Another thing that really bugged me was the awkward contractions. There were a lot of contractions with names so it would say “Nicole'd” instead of Nicole would. And finally, the action itself wasn't in enough detail so I had to think about how something was happening and fill in the blanks myself. The plot itself was too convoluted to make any sense out of. Too few clues were given to understand how the plot progressed. This book was also badly written as a sequel—it didn't stand by itself, I felt I was missing a lot b/c I hadn't read the first book.

[Artur Coelho · Rating 3 out of 5]

Confesso que esta foi uma leitura penosa, mostrando que as qualidades de escrita num dado registo não se traduzem automaticamente para outro. Claremont era (e ainda é) um exímio argumentista de comics, mas em termos literários não se safa. Não é por acaso que só nos legou três livros. Este segundo mostra bem as suas falhas - uma narrativa cheia de enchimento, pouco interessante, incapacidade para dar dimensões às personagens, e uma história francamente desinteressante.

Na sequência das aventuras do primeiro livro, a piloto Shea vê-se relegada ao terreno, proibida de voar no espaço. Depressa perceberá que tal se deve a conspirações e riscos para a sua vida, numa teia complexa que procura abalar as relações entre humanos e a espécie de felinos alienígenas com que fizeram contacto e chega até a criar um atentado contra o presidente americano. Colocada na lendária base da área 51, Shea servirá de ligação a um grupo de alienígenas que auxilia no intercâmbio e transferências de tecnologia aeroespacial, testando novas aeronaves, e trabalhando diretamente com os dois filhos do milionário que conseguiu transformar a tecnologia de motores trans-lumínicos numa indústria que permite à humanidade ultrapassar os limites do sistema solar. Gerir estes dois herdeiros do império industrial tem os seus desafios. Um é um rapaz genial que procura validação constante mas na verdade está a trabalhar num intenso plano para assassinar o pai, que culminará numa tentativa de colisão com a estação orbital terrestre. A filha parece ser mais social e acessível, mas na verdade revela-se ser a génio do crime que montou a densa conspiração que dá o motivo ao primeiro livro da série, e se adensa agora com múltiplos atentados e ameaças diretas à vida de Shea.

O livro até tem umas ideias curiosas, como o navegar das dificuldades interculturais entre espécies e a ideia dos filhos do milionário serem clones mal sucedidos dele, mas isso não chega, toda a linha narrativa é bastante entediante.

(Uma nota: sendo um livro escrito nos anos 90, "milionário" é a epítome da riqueza. Hoje, seria "bilionário", e notem que isso não representa uma evolução e melhoria.)

[Caleb · Rating 1 out of 5]

Holy crap, does this series ever fall off here. I had a good time with the first book. It was a bit clunky like an old comic book, but I could make sense of it and the story was generally decent for what it was.

This is all sorts of boring by comparison though. I dropped it a little over halfway in because it was just getting so confusing that I wasn't sure what sort of acid trip we were meant to think Nicole was in. And this is after a long patch of flat out boring dialogue and bad political intrigue. I get that this is called grounded, but taking the story out of space basically kills the fun here and I just can't even force myself to finish the book. That makes me sad because I love the author normally, but this is just bad. Sorry, Chris. I'll get back to reading your comics now.

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recent Rereads: Grounded! Chris Claremont's space soap opera shifts from tele novella to Dynasty. Nicole Shea is restricted to Earth, liaison to the first human/alien collaboration. Caught up in the machinations of a billionaire dynasty, Shea is out of her depth. A deadly game.

[P.B. Obeng · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a nice follow up to First Flight but was a little lengthy. It is a fun read though.

[Chris]

I remember reading & looking this in high school but don't remember many of the details

[Tim · Rating 1 out of 5]

Okay...the first book in Chris Claremont's trilogy, "FirstFlight," was great. I just wish he could have taken the fast-paced action of the first book and put it in this one. A slow read, with a conspiracy theory story that dragged...I wish someone had read this before it got published and told Chris to cut it back by over 100 pages.

[Paraskevi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another 5/10. An enjoyable read but nothing more.