Extras by Scott Westerfeldrating: 4 of 5 stars
First of all, I must confess how much I love this series overall. I find the series to be fast paced, entertaining, and thought-provoking. Tally's story in the first 3 installments really captured my imagination. However, I was just a little disappointed with this installment. My disappointment is really very minor. I think I had expectations about the book that worked against me. I expected that the main character would be from the same part of the world as Tally. I expected that Tally would play an important role or none at all. Of course, some of my expectations were exceeded as well. For example, I would expect a futuristic Japan to be extremely technologically advanced and the author had some interesting ideas on that. I really enjoyed that exploration. At the end of the day, here's what I think happened. The "trilogy" was extremely popular and people wanted more. So, the author finally gave in to pressure and expanded the series. He was smart and chose a new character's story to tell and found a way to keep established ideas and people in it as well. Brilliant, really. But, I wanted something either entirely different or very similar to the previous stories. I did not really want a mix of the two, which is what happened. I imagine 99% of the fan base will love that approach, but I was mildly disappointed with it. Oh well. I still liked the book a lot and I love the series enough to recommend it to young adults and older adults, as well. I am curious to see how others react to the book and what the author will do next.
