Eclipse

Some of you must be wondering why I would even bother reading Eclipse (or any of Stephenie Meyer’s novels) much less writing a review. The answer is this: I always endeavor to be an ambassador for reading, especially when it comes to stories in the SciFi and Fantasy genres. That being said I believe that any book that gets people to read, especially inside the genre is important for that reason, and I should be familiar with said book(s) so if I am talking with someone who has read it I have a starting point to hopefully get that person into some other genre novels.

In both Twilight and New Moon Meyer had a tendency to reuse the same descriptions and phrases over and over again so that by the time you reached the end of the novel you never wanted to read those particular phrases ever again. Thankfully, either just in learning a bit more about writing or maybe under the influence of a good editor by the time Meyer wrote Eclipse she had curtailed this problem to a large extent. In fact if those phrases were not already etched in my memory I probably would not have even noticed them in Eclipse.

Twilight was a fun read, not much too it, but fun. For some reason it is a story that, even though it has flaws, you want to keep reading. New Moon, in my opinion is a wasted book. Having gotten to the end of Eclipse I know why New Moon was written, but I believe that with a little work Eclipse could have been the second novel and very little would have been lost. By this I mean that there is no reason to drag out the Victoria storyline through two whole novels.

I understand Meyer’s need to establish the werewolves and Bella’s relationship with Jacob, but at the same time I feel that didn’t deserve an entire novel. Due to the fact that this build up was given a whole novel the actual plot around it is very weak. Basically nothing in the Victoria storyline is advanced and all we really get is Bella being sullen and depressed and Edward acting like a jackass out of over protectiveness. Essentially all that was established in New Moon was the threat of the Volturi and the Jacob/Bella “relationship.”

Eclipse is the first novel where I think Meyer really found herself as a writer. This novel has quite a lot of action, and provides us with a lot of back-story which really fleshes out members of the Cullen tribe and provides information on the werewolves and the Quileute tribe. Like I mentioned before Meyer seems to have realized that she needed to use some different descriptors and expand the vocabulary used in the book. Plus there is a real imminent threat, with tension that builds to a strong climactic battle.

There are still a few problems I have with the novel and the story in general. First the concept of werewolf “imprinting” is a little weird, especially when it happens with a two year old (where did Meyer come up with this stuff? She even claims to be a “straight-laced” member of her religion). However the real problem I have is that Bella at first has an issue with it, I mean this is essentially what she and Edward did with each other, except without the apparent biological imperative built into the werewolf DNA.

Two issues Bella can’t get over are her age and getting married. These are issues that I find asinine and serve no purpose in the plot. In essence they are just added drama. Bella gets practically spastic ever time she thinks about the fact that she is going to turn a year older, in this case heading toward the dreaded old age of 19. This is because she will now be two whole years older than Edward was when he became vampire. Somehow this is the most awful thing Bella can imagine, other than being married. Now why it’s ok to be made undead and spend eternity with Edward, but it’s absolutely the worst thing imaginable to marry the guy I will never be able to comprehend. Maybe I just can’t understand because it’s one of the many mysteries of the female mind.

At the very end of Eclipse Meyer includes, for the first time a Jacob POV chapter, and in my opinion it is the strongest chapter in the series thus far. Eclipse is Meyer’s strongest novel to this point. It is an enjoyable read, despite the issues I have with it. I give it a 3.5/5.

In case you care I would give Twilight a 3/5 and New Moon a 2/5.