Review – Orbs

The premise of Orbs by Nicholas S. Smith is relatively interesting, but there are several things that, honestly, just ruined the book for me.

One problem is the constant jump in viewpoints, sometimes several times within the same scene! It makes it a quite jarring and confusing. Also, half the time I’m left wondering why the jump happened. Can’t the main character notice the tension in her ex-lover and thus relate to the reader his state of mind? Do we have to jump to his view point for a single paragraph just to find it out? And then, jump back to the main character, not even knowing if she has noticed it?

Another problem is over-explaining and including irrelevant information. The first AI chapter is a perfect example. Before the chapter, there is an odd event that happens and the characters are trying to figure it out, there is a sense of mystery and creeping doom, since if they are correct in their guesses, things are bad – very bad. Then we get the AI chapter, which (obnoxiously) recaps everything that just happened and confirms the worst fears of the characters. In the very next chapter, the AI reveals this information to the characters. Now, why couldn’t I learn this information with the characters? Why couldn’t I experience the emotional impact together with the characters? I actually have no good answers for these questions.

It completely undermined the tension and the interest I had in the story.

Another problem is that the book insists on telling us detailed backstories that are better left to the imagination. We find out early that two of the characters previously hooked up. Instead of exploring that relationship in real time through glances, off-the cuff comments to each other, or other nuanced ways, we get a flashback and a straight up explanation of their relationship. Yay. That was fascinating to read. (That was sarcasm, by the way).

Now that I write it all out, I realize that this book’s main problem, out of which the others stem, is underestimating the reader. We’re not stupid, we get it. If a character start to focus on someone’s lips, that probably means they’re interested. We don’t need a paragraph explaining it to us. It completely halts the pacing of the story and makes it difficult to care about what happens next.

How deadly are these flaws? I couldn’t finish LISTENING to the book. And I have 1 hour every single night, while I try to put my baby to sleep to listen to something, anything. And I often would just sit there in silence while my baby tossed and turned in bed.

So, yea Skip it!