false 1 1 false false Thu Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 31 10:16:29 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 31 10:49:12 -0700 2009 totally nerdy, but I'd compare my feelings while reading this to my feelings when I watched the Matrix trilogy years ago. The first one was corny yet offered a fascinating-enough underlying concept, and it compelled me enough to seek out the next one. The second one started to show the tell-tale signs of trainwreck, but the action rose just enough for me to wonder how it would all end. And then the third one just crashed and burned. Ugh.
After getting through the first two books, I was invested enough to slog through the "Specials" audiobook while driving to work, but I found myself royally disappointed. Tally proved herself to be unlikeable to me through and through, and I didn't find anything redeeming or gratifying about her in the end. If anything, she proves how a person can lose themselves completely and become a maleable ball of clay, physically and emotionally manipulated by others, but was that really what we were supposed to get out of this? Wasn't she supposed to be some kinda heroine or something? Bleh. I know this trilogy took on a lot...Not only was it a futuristic world where all of the parameters had to be defined throughout the story, but then Westerfeld goes and changes it all up. But I felt like there were so many other potentially-interesting avenues that were left unexplored in the end.
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