I picked up this book because there was a quote on the cover by Orsen Scott Card. Something about Barnes being the next big thing. Now I�m not sure what Card�s been smoking lately because this book was pretty consistently annoying and unsatisfying throughout.
The story is told by and about a teenage girl, Melpomme, who lives on the Earth orbiting spaceship the Flying Dutchman. She is coming of age in a near future where the Earth is in shambles and all her preconceptions about they way life works are starting to fall apart. A new student, a groundhog (earth kid) has come up to join her class and Melpomme�s life is flipped upside down. Whatever will she do??? The story actually sounds like it might be ok I suppose, but really it isn�t. I�d like to think that it is intended as a children�s book, well a teenage book, but I really don�t think so. The most significant problem with this book rises from the fact that it is told by a 14 year old kid. That might not be so bad if the author had any legitimate voice, but it�s written like a 14 year old actually did it. The story is confusing, immature, and never really engages in any way.
The characters are the other major problem. I understand that this is supposed to be the future and all but I just didn�t believe that these were real people. These kids do things that people just don�t do. I really didn�t believe any of it. On a final note, this book was only 215 pages long, but it took me a long time to read, I just wasn�t interested by it. The only redeeming elements in the book were the scenes of Aerocross (sp?) (a zero g lacrosse-like game), and some of the scenes developing another lead character Randy. So in the end, I�d have to say avoid �Orbital Resonance� it�s just not worth it.
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