Eschewed Obfuscation

I read the first two volumes of this trilogy a long time ago, but wanted to review all three at once. Really, many comments apply to all three. For instance, not exactly cheap suspense but not exactly valuable suspense either; everything hangs on the plot, and if that is circumvented all real curiosity disappears. The plotline is beautifully done, of course, but ultimately Westerfeld's books tend to the read-once-and-forget-about-it catagory. The vital question is how to get from Point A to Point B--not the journey of actually getting from A to B. I don't regret having invested the time to read these books, and will gladly continue reading Westerfeld (albeit strictly from the library), but they rank as solidly YA and simplistic enough that a second read would bore me tremendously.

The other major issue I have is with internal logic. Specifically, they are discussed below in the individual entries.


Uglies
by Scott Westerfeld
425 pages (trade paperback)
Genre: Fiction/SF/YA

Tally's voice grabbed me right from the beginning and carried me through like hoverboarding on the old roller coaster. I did predict several of the plot twists and revelations--especially Shay's riddle, which was way too obvious to confuse Tally, in my opinion. (I.e. "the side you despise," which made me think of a certain scene immediately and about 50 pages before Tally did.) Also, how come Special Circumstances hasn't figured out where the Smoke is from returning runaways? It's specifically stated that some uglies can't take the lifestyle and return to the city; there is no evidence of any memory-control device/procedure, so wouldn't this be a huge security breach?


Pretties
by Scott Westerfeld
370 pages (trade paperback)
Genre: Fiction/SF/YA

Still occasionally predictable, but I didn't mind as much. Major snag here was the love triangle, which made me groan almost as soon as Zane was introduced. They can be done well, I admit, but Westerfeld just doesn't have the knack of it. Also, the ending was weaker than I expected (perhaps an inevitable failure of the second book in a trilogy).


Specials
by Scott Westerfeld
372 pages (hardcover)
Genre: Fiction/SF/YA

I made the mistake of skimming ahead while only about a third of the way through this final volume, and then struggled for weeks to finish it. The reading is still fast, but tendency to skim increases exponentially and I had no urge to pick it back up after putting it down. The plotlines--including multi-book arcs--are tied up neatly and the ending is satisfying. I still didn't care much about either Zane or David, and the resolving of the love triangle worked for me about as well as the general principle did. That is, not much. But that may be very much a personal pet peeve; I can't think of any way that the love triangle could have been resolved to my satisfaction, and Westerfeld's way is efficient and practical.


A solid series for YA, and something I'd recommend to teens who read solidly in YA. For those who have experimented successfully in adult SF/F, though, it may well end up as a one-hit wonder. Not necessarily a negative attribute, but just something to keep in mind.