Review by vergilTfallen -- The Orb by Tara Basi

[vergilTfallen]

[Following is a volunteer review of "The Orb" by Tara Basi.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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Drama and tension are integral parts of storytelling. Building, mystery by withholding information and using misdirection on your readers is not a bad thing. In fact, it can be essential in a mystery or a thriller. However, in The Orb, the author prioritizes this drama over logic. Withholding information is fine but baiting someone and giving half answers for over half the book can be beyond frustrating. The book has good points but much of that is overshadowed by the painful dialogue delivery and its overall bland story arc.

Set in a world where a strange alien orb appeared in London, the arrival sparked a drastic change in humanity. Religions were created, new ideas brought to light and wars spawned over its existence and purpose. The Orb follows two characters, Peter Morris, a professor seeking answers to his daughter’s death and Zip, an old war veteran turned PI with PTSD, missing memories, and slew of confusing motivations. The story unfolds as Zip is hired to find out who ordered Peter’s daughter’s death and uncover why it happened. Zip and Peter unearth a conspiracy between the ruling factions, a secret plan laid by a dead woman, and so many other mystery tropes that my brain hurts trying to cram them all here.

The book does have some amazing wordplay. The descriptions used in the VR worlds and to describe the broken war-torn world is breathtaking and deep. The depth of detail is both wonderful and slight problem. Sometimes the deep descriptions and similes can impact the pacing of a scene and is a good way to ruin the tension. Overall, it is still a well-done job with less than a dozen spelling errors I could find.

The greatest flaw with the book is the habit of trying to make things more dramatic while ignoring the logic of the situation and people. Many times, events unfold that we as the reader are told should be impossible and then we are never given a good reason for them having happened. The result is a dramatic reveal that doesn’t make a lot of sense. Worse is the anger inducing dialogue. Much of the dialogue boils down to one character asking reasonable questions and the other answering them in vague nonsensical ways or ignoring it all together. It is a constant series of people saying, “I can tell you the reason.” “Why is that?” “I can only say that it will be clear soon.” or the repetitive trick of saying, “There is one more thing.” Prompting the character to ask what that is and then have the person say they don’t wish to say. These types of dialogue are everywhere in the story and drag it out far longer than it should be.

Overall The Orb by Tara Basi is not a good book. Its not bad, but it fails to deliver anything that can draw me in. The world is interesting, the story is alright and could be enjoyed by a hardcore sci fi nerd but the light-handed logic, inconsistent characters, and the painfully stretched ‘cryptic’ dialogue hurts the book a lot. Moreover, I found the story boring. The characters seem more passengers than active elements to the story. I give the book itself a 2 out of 4. It has fun ideas, but it has a lot of work to do.

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The Orb
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[Erin Painter Baker]

I completely disagree with your review. I loved this book, and only annoyance at one character's ending caused me to rate it three stars instead of four. That said, this is a very well written review. Nicely done.