Title: No Ordinary Star

Author: M.C. Frank

Pub. Date: November 25, 2015

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

A soldier is summoned to the North Pole, days before the year changes, told to fix the great Clock for a celebration. He has no idea what to do. 
A girl, hunted for the crime of being born, almost dies out on the ice. She is rescued by the last polar bear left alive.
A library waits for them both, a library built over a span of a hundred years, forgotten in the basement of an ice shack.
The world hasn’t known hunger or sickness in hundreds of years. It has also forgotten love and beauty.
The year is 2525.

Inspired by the short stories of Ray Bradbury, this futuristic novel is set in a world where Christmas -among other things- is obsolete and a Clock is what keeps the fragile balance of peace. 

I was wary going into this book, because I read Salt for Air by the same author and was not a fan. I definitely enjoyed this book more, and want to read the next two books, but I still had some issues with it.

I’m really not a fan of this author’s writing style, but for the sake of the story (which I’m interested in) I can deal with it. To be honest, it felt a little juvenile and it needed some more editing. I thought that maybe I could push past it, just ignore it and keep reading, but ultimately, I couldn’t. The writing style was so in my face and my distaste for it continued to grow. I put so much effort into just focusing on the story and ignoring the writing style, but damn was it hard. I also wish that the story wasn’t broken up into three books. It’s not like a traditional trilogy, where each book tends to have its own arc, but is only 1/3 of the story. This book was literally just 1/3 of the story, and not a very long one at that. So I’m kind of annoying I’m going to have to pay over $20 just to finish the last 2/3 of the story.

I don’t see a reason why it was split into three separate books, except for monetary purposes. I could be wrong, but from my end, that’s what it looks like. But I’m also the person who will buy the books to finish the freaking story, so…

Also, can we all just agree that Utopias suck. So much. They can’t actually exist and legitimately every book that has a utopia in it, they are crap places to live. Like, no thanks.

Onto the two main characters – I don’t really feel strongly about either of them, either way. Well, actually, my whole feeling towards the book is ‘meh’ – not good not bad, has some issues, but the story is interesting. Though, I do think that the quality and style of writing negatively impact the story as a whole. I think I just need to agree that this author just isn’t for me. I strongly feel like the author needed to clean up their writing.

I haven’t read the Bradbury works that inspired these books, so I can’t speak to the original, but I’m sure they are good.

Though, with that all being said, I am glad that I gave this author another chance. Salt for Air left me so disappointed I almost didn’t pick this other book up. Once I finish this ‘trilogy’ I don’t think I’ll read anything else by this author. For such short books, there is no reason for me to have to literally struggle and drag myself through them. Overall, it was an interesting story, and since I haven’t read the Bradbury piece, it felt unique.