I think that I have made it clear
in the past that I am appreciative of
J.F. Perkins' work. That's why it pains me to say that Definition was definitely not as good as it could have been, given the quality of Perkins' previous work.
Definition is a throwback to the olden days of science fiction, with identifiable people thrown into the mix with futuristic tech straight out of the author's mind. To my reckoning, that's always a good place to start. The one problem I have here is that it's hard to identify with the tech. The thing about sci-fi is that it needs to be grounded in a certain strain of reality, in order to maintain the reader's ability to identify with the setting. This is usually done through nuance, or by brief mentions here and there.. an old fashioned LCD TV on the wall, stuff like that. Having a cargo bay stuffed with two classic cars in deep space is a bit ham-fisted. I will say that the Perkins' explanations of the D-Drive was pretty well done and helped me understand what he was getting at.
No, there's three real issues with this book that sorely need addressing. First, there just doesn't seem like there was much of a vetting or editorial process with this book. There's lots of spelling and grammatical errors and, while Lord knows I make plenty myself, they are hard for the Errorists to overlook. There's also lots of plot holes, or large unexplained events happening apparently in the background. For instance, in Chapter 40(!) of the book, a large glass dome separates the crew from their escape route.. Why wasn't it mentioned before then? No one even saw a large glass partition in the ceiling, waiting to drop down? Did it just materialize? In Chapter 12, the ship apparently starts picking up pods and holding them in her field before heading to drop them off.. but that order was never given, and the ability was explained after the fact. What gives there? And as far as the overall organization goes, there's a lot of sections in the chapters where the perspective shifts from one group of characters in x place to another group of characters in y place, without at least a couple of dots between the paragraphs to warn the reader of the change. That sort of thing is.. jolting.
The second major issue is with the characters themselves. I have a feeling that over the course of the series they will be fleshed out more, but at least during the first book they are paper thin without much definition to them. The main character's entire back story can be summed up in about three sentences; one for his military past, one for his romantic past, and one for his role in winning the war against the spiders. That's it. The rest of the characters, most notably the villain and Lucas, have even less back story than that. Mr. Perkins did such a good job fleshing out the characters in Renewal that it's not beyond expectation that the characters in Definition are treated likewise.
The final issue is the ending. Sorry, but it's way to sappy. Dripping with corn syrup sappy. There's no way everything should be tied off that cleanly, and in such a short space. Maybe it could have ended with the terrorist's perspective, calculating their next move.. Or maybe in a meeting of space admin, talking about the implications of having a boy being a walking weapon. Some strife, some drama! All I ask is to make the ending not so picture perfect!
Unfortunately,
Definition is about a 68 on my scale of 100. That puts it above some of the books I've read and reviewed here, but not by much. I just expected more out of Definition because of the relative strength of the author.. and these are systemic issues too. I hope Mr. Perkins will take more time in addressing these prior to his next book release.
