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Zita, La Fille De L'espace (2013)

by Ben Hatke(Favorite Author)

4.23 of 5 Votes: 4

languge

English

genre

Fantasy

publisher

Rue de Sèvres

series

Zita the Spacegirl

review 1: I saw "The Return of Zita the Spacegirl" on NetGalley months ago, and it looked awesome, but I didn't read it knowing that it was the third in this series. Then I forgot all about reading Zita until I stumbled upon the "Children's Graphic Novel" section at my local library - and they had all three! So naturally I snatched them up, and have already devoured this first one. And it was as awesome as I suspected! Zita finds a mysterious button with a meteorite that crashes near her house - and of course, she just has to press it. A vortex opens and sucks in her and her best friend Joseph, where they find themselves in a mysterious land of robots and alien species. One species carts off Joseph to use as a sacrifice, and it's up to Zita to save him and get them back to Ear... moreth! Along the way, Zita assembles a rag-rag group of alien/robots who sometimes are more of a hindrance than a help, but in the end they all work together to save this new world from destruction! Strong-Strong is my favorite of her new friends, although Mouse is a close second. I can't wait to read the next two :)
review 2: This was a crazy, fun sci-fi adventure, and based on this first installment alone I can see that this series has a tremendous amount of potential. Zita'a first quest to save her friend from alien clutches is fast-paced, funny, and imaginative. It contains a great cast of supporting characters, a fantastic art style, and the hint that this is only the start of an epic adventure. I have to say, it was a really enjoyable read.However, I felt this story's greatest fault was that it lacked development across the board. While it's clear that the world Zita was transported to is rich, complex, and inhabited by some really interesting species, this story lacks sufficient world-building. I feel like the story progresses on a need-to-know basis: the audience is only given the barest skeleton of knowledge that they need to understand any given scene. But I wanted to know more about where Zita ended up, more about the societal hierarchy (if any), and I wanted to feel the vastness of the world and all its possibilities. But I didn't.Also, even though they were enjoyable, I found the characters to be somewhat bland. I don't know anything concrete about their personalities or their pasts--who they were before the story begins. They seem pretty one-dimensional to me (so far, at least); they don't have any personal conflicts or turmoil to work through, there aren't any experiences or emotions for the audience to latch onto. The characters just seem to be going through the motions and embarking on adventures, but there doesn't seem to be much at stake. Sure, Zita wants to save her best friend, but the bond between them isn't very developed, so I don't feel that desperation that Zita seems to feel.Also, a lot of this story seems to be convenient beyond all reason. Zita is extremely trusting of everyone considering that she was just teleported from earth to a strange alien planet. As soon as she meets someone, there's an immediate trust between them and they automatically become part of the traveling company. As I said, I liked the characters, but I didn't feel like the kinship between them was properly earned. Because of that, climactic scenes, plot twists, or moments of betrayal were not as impactful or emotional as they could have been. In that regard, I felt this book progressed faster than was beneficial to the plot and the characters.However, I also feel like this series shows a lot of promise. I hope the next installments really develop Zita and co. and delve deep into their characters. It seems like this first installment is setting up further exploration of the world Zita had landed herself in and I hope that there is further exploration of her new surroundings to come.So I would say this was a solid first book, but we'll have to see what the next installments bring to the table! less

Download links for: Zita, la fille de l'espace

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