Books like The Starlight Crystal

I'm usually such a Christopher Pike fanatic - this year I have an evil plan to read books by him I haven't yet, and re-read books by him I have but never reviewed.It's all laid out obsessively so, which is how I usually am with most books. I have to say this first book of the year, though - The Starlight Crystal - it and I didn't have chemistry or sync.He writes well, of course, as he always does, but here there was a stroke of melodrama behind some of the dialogue and emotions. He doesn't typically focus on love stories of this nature, so perhaps it's that emo-ish yearning that seeks out, even though nothing he'd write could ever be called straight out "emo." This science fiction tale was as complex as anything else he comes with (how CAN he think of these things??), but while his mysteries and thrillers and drama pieces leave me mesmerized in their complexities, this one left me in the dust when the ship set sail.My mind just doesn't think this way; sad but true. I followed it awhile but I started getting bored. I could see the cleverness, but I didn't like the result either way. Inconsequential, all is love, time ultimately rules all, creation will end and begin and blah... The character ultimately has to do some pretty crappy stuff too, betrayals of friends and loves, all because of the way it's ultimately supposed to be, some higher realization stuff mantra that looks toward the goal of what will ultimately be rather than what IS now. Lots of people feel the love for this story, so it may not be something you need to write off if you personally want to try Pike's work - personally I recommend his other complex works. He's always been a heavy science-fiction writer, and it's inevitable I'd find something by him that wouldn't work well with me. No biggie, I'll keep reading and re-reading the others.Oh, and by the way, that cheesy "one liner" pops up again later - and actually has plot relevancy!"I'm Paige." He was serious, for once. "Are you the first page, or the last?"