Book Description
Amy is a cryogenically frozen passenger aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed. She expects to awaken on a new planet, 300 years in the future. But fifty years before Godspeed's scheduled landing, Amy's cryo chamber is unplugged, and she is nearly killed.
Now, Amy is caught inside an enclosed world where nothing makes sense. Godspeed's passengers have forfeited all control to Eldest, a tyrannical and frightening leader, and Elder, his rebellious and brilliant teenage heir.
Amy desperately wants to trust Elder. But should she? All she knows is that she must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets before whoever woke her tries to kill again.
I'm going to say right off the bat that I did not enjoy this book. I found many things regarding the characters, the plot, the science, and the technological advancements of the spaceship to be completely illogical and highly frustrating.
The people aboard the humongous spaceship of Across the Universe are at least 10 generations of descendents from the people who left Earth 250 years ago to travel to the new world. These people, however, are still fixated on the Earth and still using Earthly terms to describe things like Amy's "sunset" hair when they've never even seen a sunset. They find exercise to be unproductive, yet instead of looking like the folks from Wall-E, they have the kind of hot muscles and carved biceps you can see through clothing.
The ship - 250 years later - is now far more advanced than it was when it left Earth. Where did they get all of the new materials and manufacturing capabilities out in space? I'd also love to know why they can create these amazing technologies but aren't capable of splicing some wires together that get cut on the ship.
I would really love to give bigger examples, but I'm about to enter into spoiler territory so I'll just say a lot of things made no sense to me at all.
There are a couple of redeeming qualities to Across the Universe. It's a fast paced read. Despite the numerous flaws, it did hold my interest until the end. I don't know that I will be joining anyone in reading A Million Suns, but I do have hopes that the series could improve from here. The dystopian framework has already been laid, and the characters have the potential to be likeable going forward.
If you enjoy reading dystopian for the sake of dystopian, Across the Universe provides a new premise within the genre. I would most compare this book to Lauren DeStefano's Wither. They have a similar appeal despite their flaws in logic.
3/10: Didn't Like It
Have you read Across the Universe? Were you able to successfully suspend your disbelief?
