The Vision Quest: The Age of Light Book 1
Deborah Pratt.
Reviewed by Tonia Montgomery
Pratt takes the age-old structure of the hero and his quest and
delivers a fast-paced foray into the future. Lazer is a typical
teenager, though the Earth he lives in has changed drastically. He
finds his dreams of being a pilot shattered when his father and
thousands of others are murdered by droids. These droids were created
to protect humanity and assist in the recovery of the land after the
devastation of the quakes. However, one droid has eerily evolved into
sentiency and decides to take over the world. Lazer must grow up fast
as he begins to explore the hidden talents within himself, following
the leadership of a Master who isn't even completely human.
I approached this story with great hopes. I remember Quantum Leap, of
which Deborah Pratt was the Executive Producer and Head Writer, and fed
my appetite for clever and inventive scifi by never missing an episode.
In The Vision Quest, Ms. Pratt has created a world readers can accept.
The technology is believable and understandable. The characters are
vivid and colorful. We are introduced to our hero when he is less than
heroic and watch him struggle to come to terms with the difference
between his wants and reality. Pratt captures his adolescent angst
fairly well and readers can see his potential to be the one to overcome
the enemy.
With the character of Lazer's master, Masta Poe, the story completely
falls apart. Poe is just too much. As a character, she is simplistic,
basic, and has no texture to her at all. Her actions are predictable.
True, the concept of who she is becomes necessary to the heroic quest.
The fact that she is a genetic creation of both animal and human genome
material adds a wrinkle of the unexpected, and she has a history and
story of her own to tell. The presentation of her role in Lazer's
story, though, is just disappointing. There is no depth to the
interactions of Poe and the others in the book. I felt myself backing
away from the action when she came onstage and had difficulty buying in
to what happened later. She felt canned, more caricature than character.
Yes, science fiction has archetypes. With a title such as The Vision
Quest, one would expect a young and untried hero to face obstacles that
hone him or her into the one to save the world. The hero must receive
wisdom of a master at some point and therefore Poe's character is
necessary in the story. However, the mark of good writing is to deliver
the archetypes without sliding into cliché. Ms. Pratt captured
the essence of the hero, his mother, and even his friends but missed
the target with his master.
I still am intrigued by the story and would like to know what happens
with young Lazer. One sees within this story the talent that earned Ms.
Pratt her many awards. While not perfect, The Vision Quest offers much,
especially to young readers looking for an adventure into the future.
This book would be a good addition to the shelves of any junior high or
high school library. This story, on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the
highest), receives a 6 from me.