NARM. Oh my god the NARM. It hurts us. The fact that despite an entire arc leading up to Fitz and the Doctor meeting in St. Louis, Brake bent over backwards to not set the book there. Dave's death is hilariously badly done as well, and there is no emotional payoff for the Doctor finally meeting up with Fitz again after 100 friggin' years with only his name on a scrap of paper to keep him going. There's a reason a lot of the EDA fandom uses a certain fanfic as their headcanon instead of EV. When I was first getting into the books, four rec posts I was using to read along all told me in no uncertain terms to stay the hell away from the book. I thought they were exaggerating until a friend of mine started skimming it for the lulz and sent me snippets over chat.
Just no, man. Big No, I daresay.
Edited by LucyZephyr
I never did finish it, but the paragraph wherein Dave dies was hysterically funny. Somehow, the author managed to achieve deadpan Narm. And please note that this character has been Impaled with Extreme Prejudice prior to this scene, 'cos I guess Brake subscribes to the theory that There Is No Kill Like Overkill:
- Dave’s eyes flickered open for one last time and he saw the rockets on the base of the Planet Hopper fire into life. What a view! he thought, and then died as the flames from the engines reached the bus which then exploded.
Some parts aren't so bad, but it's a major disappointment which does a lot of things wrong. And it has a bad case of dull, overwrought Beige Prose too. And Colin Brake may be the only one who knows why it makes sense that Fitz and the Doctor met in St Louis in London. In short, this f***ing egg's off.
What was so bad about Escape Velocity? I really enjoyed it.
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