I’d heard a number of complaints about this – the voice of the young people was all wrong, the prose wasn’t as lyrical as in previous books, and there were no backstories for minor characters.
I didn’t find the first to be so.
The second? Maybe. The descriptions were still pretty good, I thought. The dialogue had a different feel, and maybe that’s what people are upset about, but I think it was appropriate for early 21st-century earth.
The backstory thing? It’s true, there weren’t. But I can only think of one character for whom the backstory would’ve been the least bit appropriate, and I don’t think we suffered from a lack of it.
I thought the book was well-written, with appropriate voices, and good pacing. Definitely a page-turner toward the end. Nice job, Mr. Kay.