The second book in Robison Wells' "Variant" series (trilogy? quad?), "Feedback", is... better than the first. The writing still feels a little unpolished and sometimes I felt like bits of the plot slipped through unnoticed and I had to go back a page or two and try to find what I had missed. I found "Feedback" compelling, just not amazing. Wells pushes the story even deeper into the Sci-Fi genre, so that's interesting, but I'm not a great fan of Sci-Fi, so that didn't make me like it more.
I guess I'm spoiled to want all the books I read to be amazing, but... it would be nice. :)
Though I wasn't totally sold on this book, my two teenage sons loved it. They loved the first, "Variant", as well. SO, I guess the good news for Robison is that his target audience is enjoying the books he wrote for them.
I do look forward to seeing what else Robison comes up with in the future- he is a decent writer, and often the first few books by an author are their weakest, so there is definitely hope for improvement. I sincerely wish him luck with that.
To sum up: I liked, but didn't love these books. I would recommend these books for teens-- they would probably like them better than I did. Adults who normally only read YA will probably like them, too.
I started out thinking "Variant" by Robison Wells is yet another teens-in-peril at the hands of unknown, unseen, wicked-evil adults YA novel. Which, to be fair, it is. It's the first of... I don't know... a trilogy? Maybe. And the sole reason I gave this book a look is because Robison's brother, Dan, is among my favorite authors. His John Cleaver books are soooo good.
That's reason enough to give his brother a chance, yes? The beginning of "Variant" reminded me a lot of James Dashner's "The Maze Runner", featuring a group of teens isolated from the world in a compound of some kind, unable to leave and forced to comply with strange rules and activities without any real explanations. "Variant" is set in a school in New Mexico, and the first-person character of Benson is likeable, if not loveable. He's incredibly well adjusted, intelligent and self-aware, considering he's spent most of his life bouncing from one foster family to another, and he copes better than the average teen would with what happens.
