Book Review (11): Stitching Snow

Hello, I'm back with another review. This was an impulsive buy. I had no clue what story it was. I just liked the cover of the book. After I bought the book, I read reviews and I was afraid that I would be disappointed.

It's funny that I read books that I've just bought instead of reading books that have been in my shelf for years unread.



Stitching Snow
R.C. Lewis

Synopsis (in my own words): Essie was stuck in a snowy planet and she's a tinkerer, fixing robots and stuff. One day, this beautiful man crashed into her place on a space shuttle. She wanted to help him and thus got herself pulled into her past.

Reviews on Goodread were less than stellar. The book is a retelling of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves", set in a futuristic world where people travel between planets. Let's see what I think.

1.
Firstly, Kudos to the author. Everyone said that it's boring and reused, I did not notice that the story was an adaptation. Maybe I was a little dumb in that, usually I spot references really quickly, but it was not until the last third of the book that I suddenly went, "Oh! Why did I not see that her seven drones were the seven dwarves?"

I'm an idiot.

I did not think that it was such a bad thing. The retelling was not obvious, in my opinion. Reused ideas? Come on, people, storytellers have been retelling stories for centuries. Get over that. I always like originality, but in this age, originality is hard to come by.

2. Setting
The setting was interesting. Maybe it was because I don't read sci-fi, but I liked the different environments of the planets.

Now, the things that I didn't like:

3. Characters
This was supposed to be a strength, but as I wrote, I realised that I didn't like it much anymore. So I have turned this into something that I didn't like.

The protagonist Essie is quite a strong-willed, feisty character. She had learnt to survive on her own in the icy tundras for many years. However, that's kind of what all the female protagonists are like nowadays. What happened to sweet, demure girls? I guess they never become protagonists. Maybe I should look for a book with a demure girl.

Back to Essie, the author did toughen her up, but I think she could have been just a tinge bit more crude. In terms of her character, I find her personality pretty generic and would not have thought of her as an interesting character. It was the same for her seven drones.

However, the character Dane was a strong complement to Essie. He was sweet and humorous. Even when he did things that I cannot say (because that would spoil the story), I never disliked him. I kept rooting for him and had my prediction on what Dane would turn out to be in the end. I was surprised with his development in the end.

4. Vocabulary
Rich, descriptive vocabulary EXCEPT for their verbs. Their spoken vocabulary was limited. It's always 'rigging' or 'botch' or something like that. It gets repetitive over 300 pages.

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Overall, it was a good read, I wouldn't reread it though. Not when I have many books to finish.

Verdict: Consider it

Pictures taken from:
Cover page