Reviewed by Angie on
The blurb for Zenn Scarlett just screams unique and interesting! The premise sounded so strange, that I knew this would either be really fun or a complete disaster. It was definitely a risk I was willing to take, and I think it paid off. I didn’t love it, but Zenn Scarlett is an enjoyable read with lots of wacky creatures and weird science. The title character is in her third year of exoveterinarian school. Basically she’s training to care for alien animals. Her uncle runs the clinic which is stationed on Mars, but unfortunately most of the human inhabitants are not too happy sharing scarce resources with these “monsters.” The lease for the land is up for renewal, and the animals seem to be going crazy. Is the stress from her exams causing Zenn to be careless, or is someone from town trying to sabotage the clinic?
I do think that the author had amazing ideas when it came to the world of Zenn Scarlett, but it also seemed overly ambitious. Being Science Fiction, there’s of course a ton of new words and terminology throughout. Many of these words are self-explanatory, while others need some defining. In the beginning I found myself confused about how some of the animals looked, since they were not described very well. However, after the first few chapters, we’re given a lot of descriptions and I found myself having a lot of fun picturing these alien creatures. The rikkaset was definitely my favorite! It’s all highly imaginative.
As for the political situation, I wasn’t sure exactly what was going on. Most of the information about Mars’ relationship with Earth took place within conversations, which I always find annoying. The gist of it seems to be that Earth has cut off communication with Mars because of the alien involvement, since humans blame aliens for all of their problems. Where the confusion comes in is when the Rift is mentioned, as well as the Accord. I was never totally sure what either of things were. The Accord could be a collection of allied planets or galaxies, or something else entirely. The Rift, I get was what was keeping Earth from communicating with Mars, but I think there was more to it than that. I just would have liked more context for the prejudice against aliens and why Mars is being shunned.
The plot actually takes the back seat to the world-building and animal descriptions for the majority of the book. It’s also fairly simplistic. There’s really no surprises, and I predicted the culprit right away, but not why they were doing it. The plot was probably too simple to be really engaging, especially since it’s overshadowed by all of the scientific procedures and the animals Zenn performs them on. Zenn’s ability to know what the animals are feeling also didn’t play as large of a role as I was expecting. It isn’t until the very end when it becomes important, but at that point it also felt like a whole new plot was starting. Then it just ends.
In the end, I did like Zenn Scarlett. The world is colorful and vivid, even if I didn’t fully understand the politics. Unfortunately, the plot was over simplified and almost nonexistent for most of the book, which keeps me from rating it higher. The ending was a bit confusing also. I’m not sure if this is a series or not, but I’m hoping it is. Otherwise that ending was just…strange.
Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 19 May, 2013: Finished reading
- 19 May, 2013: Reviewed