Lisa Reviews: Mindee Arnett’s – “Avalon”

Avalon by Mindee Arnett has been all over the blogosphere; everyone has read it, is reading it, or is about to start reading it. Because of all this hype, I couldn’t say no when Amber asked me to review it! Space? Spaceships? Teenage mercenaries? How could I resist?

If you don’t know (though I don’t know why you wouldn’t), Avalon revolves around Jeth and his crew of teenage thieves who work for a very powerful man named Hammer. At the outset of this story, Jeth and his friends are on their most recent mission: going into Belgrave to find a ship that contains a secret weapon that Hammer desperately wants.

But Jeth is a bit worried about going into Belgrave; ships break down and people go crazy there. Besides that, he has a special connection to the place. While his parents were working and doing research, they travelled safely through it all the time. That was until they were caught deleting files and keeping information, and were executed as punishment.

Finding the ship doesn’t take as long as Jeth and his crew thought, but they can’t believe it when the monitors say that there are three people on the other ship. It’s been out for over a month, and its energy and supplies should have run out a long time ago. Three people being on the ship alive seems impossible!

But from that moment things only get crazier! Avalon, Jeth’s spaceship, is stolen, his sister is kidnapped, the secret weapon isn’t a weapon at all, and two of the most powerful men in space are tracking Jeth and his friends down!

After almost two weeks of trying my best to read, finish, and enjoy Avalon, I just had such a hard time getting through it. It wasn’t slow or boring in any way. It was actually quite the opposite. Avalon had so much going on that it was hard to keep up with. The story passed by so quickly. I felt like there was just no struggle and that the most important scenes were sometimes just glossed over.

The main characters were sent into this weird part of space where crazy and unexpected things happen, yet it only takes them a few days to find the ship and they didn’t even find it as such. They just happen to realize it was on top of them one day.

When the ship broke down, or parts were missing, I felt that Lizzie or Flynn always fixed it too easily, even when they first claimed it to be almost impossible. I guess that, in a way, I wanted to see a struggle; I didn’t want everything to be easy or ‘work out’ right away.

Overall, I loved the idea of the future and space, and this gang of teenagers doing these odd and difficult missions! I enjoyed the characters too; Celeste was awesome for not being one of those jealous ex-girlfriends who try to steal the show, I liked that Jeth kept his focus (most of the time) and that Flynn and Shady added some humor, and I even liked Milton, who reminded me of Jeth’s parents, and how his parents tied into the story.

The ending was my favourite part of this book by far! Again, with all this stuff going on, I had no idea how Avalon was going to end. The story had twists and turns around every corner, and there was absolutely no telling what was going to happen next.

My final verdict for Avalon would have to be that I liked it. I was frustrated with how quickly situations flew by, and with how much was going on, but I did like it. Avalon is a two-part series, the second and last book being Polaris, and while I don’t have any idea what Mindee Arnett would include in this second installment, I am considering picking it up. I don’t think I’ll be in line the day it comes out, but I will consider it.

Sorry this was such a negative review, but I had some things to get off my chest!