Rate this book

On A Clear Day (2014)

by Walter Dean Myers(Favorite Author)

2.53 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0385387539 (ISBN13: 9780385387538)

languge

English

genre

Science Fiction

publisher

Crown Books for Young Readers

review 1: I'm really baffled by this book. Normally, Myers wrote clear, believable characters in solid settings, but this one came across as a half-baked dystopian novel that slipped out unedited.The setting, twenty years into an unpleasant future, assumes that current trends of "the rich get richer" continue to the extreme case. That's a good setup for a dystopia. It's the actual story from that point which is weak. The main characters are odd stereotypes, other than two of the young women on the "good guy" team.The "villains" are everything from mega-corporations to terrorists to neo-Nazi biker thugs who are shoehorned into the story for no apparent reason. Most of the actions taken by the bad guys make no sense, but then, neither do the actions taken by the good guys, so it balan... moreces out. The previously successful warlord/terrorist's actions in the second half of the book are so bizarre that I'm amazed that the editor didn't call Myers on it.I could sort of believe the altruistic ex-rocker wanting to change the world. I could even understand his scattergun approach of "try a bunch of stuff and see what works." What I could not understand is how the characters survived the story, as written. Okay, I also didn't understand where the "good guy" gang bangers got antitank weapons, but compared to the rest of the story, that was a quibble.
review 2: I REALLY wanted this to be good.But I started reading-with-reluctance when I got to the following line on page 104: "It was guy stuff, but it sounded good."srsly.Myers was a lovely person, and an amazing advocate for teens and reading. I REALLY wanted to like this book.But the main character is supposed to be a math whiz. Her special role in the group is to create models to predict the behavior of world powers (the connection between these two things is not explained, just assumed). And the quote above about guy stuff was in reference to strategizing against an enemy. This does not make sense. But maybe that's because I'm not a guy?::deep breaths -- cut the snark, Raina::The romance was half-hearted (I really wanted something to develop with Anja, and that's not entirely bc of my own bias). The logic of the world was flawed.I got excited when he started off with biocremation, but there was no followthrough on the sci-fi coolness. Most of the book feels much more contemporary. To the point where, when the protagonist doesn't understand the concept of a landline near the end, it was jarring and I fell out of the book.I loved the diverse cast, but found many of the characters stereotypical. And I think he missed an opportunity by having the whole thing narrated by just one of the people on the team.Waaaaaahhhhhhhhhh.Extra star bc Myers + Effort + WeNeedDiverseBooks. less

Download links for: On a Clear Day

Advertising