[BWF] Arabella and the Battle of Venus by David D Levine 1.5 stars rounded down.

[Karin]

I rounded the first book up to 4 stars, and although I realize that Levine was going through a difficult period of his life, this isn't why this book fails, and those proofreading and editing should have picked up on most of what failed in this one.

It started off well, but as the book progressed the voice I enjoyed so much went down. The love triangle was inane and unbelievable. How many 19 year old girls are attracted to men aged 40? When I was 19 I had a boyfriend whose plan was to make his first million by 40 and then get married. I said nothing, but in my mind I thought 40 year old men were too old to be attractive, and not just because my mother was 41. I also have difficulties with adults of that age flirting with teens. There is so much wrong with that I don't know where to begin.

If that were the only problem, I'd have let it go. However, calling French people frogs is highly offensive, even if you say frog-eaters. And then having the people of Venus resemble frogs on top of it. The use of French was poorly done, and the story didn't hold out well. We have a wonderful character whose English isn't that great who somehow learns the Venusian language well enough in a very short amount of time to help coach Arabella.

One of the most fun things about the first book is its lack of science--it's rather fun to have people travelling in outer space in air on ships, and to think of an automaton that might think and hear. However, using scientific explanations for hydrogen destroyed this because it involved thinning atmospheres which meant the fun house of cards for space travel that this book had stood fell apart.

Then there was the pregnant male Venusian with no explanation. Biological males cannot get pregnant; I realize that male sea horses "give birth" to the young after the female deposits her eggs there. It's one thing to try and be creative with various things, but anyone who has studied animal biology knows this is impossible--it was trying too hard with no real understanding of animal biology. Had he made them hermaphrodites like earthworms, this would have worked better. There was an episode of Star Trek: Next Generation that did a more plausible story line with a single sex species, The Outcast, Season 5, episode 17 which I saw in a rerun and primarily remember because that character on the ship was named Soren, the name of my late niece.

I won't continue with the list of disappointing things in this installment, nor with this series, but will read the very end of the third book just so I know how it ends.