Sometimes the problem with a short intro story to a trilogy; is that it's difficult to fully capture the nuances of the character that shows up in the real story. Having not read the rest of the story I can't make a judgement.
I love Trevanian and especially his Shibumi and I love Ludlum and his Jason Borne series. But these are not really the type of book I particularly go out of my way to pick up. The reason I mention them is that the story of Evan Gabriel- in this short brought them to mind. We have the focused killer who has a little bit of heart somewhere buried under his hard core. The trick for them is to not let on to too many people or it might compromise your effectiveness.
This story takes Evan from not so humble beginnings - at the top of his class at the academy- to his ultimate final evolution to the super soldier. There's an element in this story that I found predictable- maybe not everyone will. I can't say because it's a spoiler.
Anyway the story seems to revolve just on the edge of trying to explain Evan's motivation for being where he is in this military program- while at the same time making it clear that he's more hijacked into it than anything. The disturbing part is that his superior is painted as a rather ruthless individual who will do anything at all costs to ensure the security of the federation.
We really don't get a chance to see much of how good or evil that thought may be though we see a bit of life in Evan as he struggles with the whole concept. I'll assume that in the later stories that we see where Even's heart lies in this matter. I'm not at all sure about Biermann.
Anyone who loves those thriller suspense novels with the spies and agents of exceptional ability should love these stories. It will be interesting to see how Evan makes it through all this and if he can retain his humanity.
Sural
One thing about building worlds in science fiction is that there is really no wrong way to build. It's mostly a matter of building a believable system with some consistency that adheres to its own rules.
I have read Sholpan -by Joe Vasicek- which had an interesting take on prisoners being pressed into slavery and sexual submission- I was impressed by it and decided to give Outworlder a try. Its a short read and well worth the try.
The Outworlder story is short and sweet. It seems a bit disjointed in that we jump into the story and rely on flashbacks to bring us up to speed.
I'll try to decipher. Some catastrophe may have taken the home-world Earth and now there are settlements far and wide that have been looking for the new Eden which will match the patches of earth they have brought with them as their model. We start with Jeremiah on the Station Megiddo- though really Jeremiah has started from Edenia; raised by his parent to the age of 18 upon which time they have given him the old star-ship Ariandne. It seems Ariandne is some sort of family heirloom given to him so that he may leave Edenia and spread his seed elsewhere.
The society of this future relies on the notion of sending the men away from home never to return so that there is a strong cross sampling of genetic material through the vast new plane of existence. In a nut shell Jeremiah is expected to find himself a wife and a new home. The problem is that he's not really all that enthusiastic about it and even his sister, Sarah, is having a hard time letting him go. His parents are more like the mother bird, all too willing to thrust the chicks out of the nest and watch them flounder and fly.
This is how Jeremiah makes his way to Megiddo- despite warning that something is wrong in that sector and ships have not been returning- Jeremiah is looking to make some trades. To do this he's been told he needs to dock and meet with the Station Master. With some trepidation he does so.
The reader is quick to discover that there are language troubles when traveling afar, but Station Master Korha knows just enough Outworld creole to get Jeremiah into trouble. There seem to be some problems on the station, which are indicated as potential danger to Jeremiah. If we believe Korha, then it is these problems that have precipitated his urgency in trying to dump his entire household of five daughters into Jeremiah's hands. Jeremiah senses some sincerity in the girls being in danger and he hesitates too long.
We're about to learn that Ariandne is not a large vessel and as a bachelor Jeremiah has been content to keep his living quarters quite cramped. I'm not sure whether that's a blessing here, but it does limit his choices and he ends up with what he feels is the eldest of the group. Of course with great sense of danger and threat he has to quickly retreat to his ship and cast off from the station before he can have second thoughts about what he just did.
Unsure if he's been hastily married, yet at the same time sure that shouldn't be the case- there are some complicated implications in the social structure of things that might bite him later if it's so. Jeremiah tries to convince himself that he'll find a good place to drop her off where she can make a life for herself. Mostly figuring he's unworthy because he once promised his sister he'd never leave knowing full well he would have to go.(He figures he's just a bad person.)
If I could tell him, I'd let him know that being in close quarters with a lovely single woman and trying to keep your distance is a losing proposition. Compound that with the language barrier. Apparently Noemi does not know any Outworld creole. This creates a tense situation and clearly keeps Jeremiah clueless about what he's in for.
I at first felt sorry for Noemi- in many ways because Jeremiah is clueless and conflicted. But, it seems that Noemi might be a bit smarter than average.
My understanding is that there might be an installment in the series of stories that takes this from her point of view. I'm definitely going to look into the other stories to this series.
Interesting almost social side step story that should engage anyone who like science fiction and social commentaries.
Sural
This e-book was around five dollars. I've been doing the free ones and usually borrowing the money ones. This is not specifically Science Fiction- it tends more to Paranormal Romance. But, its got this kind of John Carter of Mars leap from one body to another thing going so in that respect its like a Sci-Fi adventure. It has a bit of mystery at first while trying to figure out what is happening.
I read a bit of a sampling first and was drawn into the story. Enough that I purchased a copy.
It starts with the mystery;someone wakes up in a garden of flowers and trees wondering how they got from their bed to the garden. They think they're dreaming and their senses seem to be off a bit; plus they now have a different color hair.
The story shifts to Gwen Penn who is registering for classes- perhaps at the local community college. Gwen seems to be a bit of a loner and doesn't normally interact with people much more than necessary. While waiting in line she meets Mick who calls himself Mimic, a nickname from an affectation of his which is stuttering. They seem to get along well and even to Gwens surprise- she starts to design a schedule that will intersect with his.
Gwen's parents are out of the picture. Her mother is institutionalized. She lives with her grandparents and has become codependent on them. They have encouraged her to go to the college of her choice and she's decided to make her choice local. It seems that she may not be focused on what she wants to do. Contrary to that Nick seems to have a strong notion of going into Art. Gwen has some ability in that area which might explain the corresponding scheduled. Gwen's reserved nature, inward drawn personality is partly there because she has recently lost her best friend Baylee in an accident. She's not easily ready to commit to friendships because of this.
We don't spend much time with this Gwen because most of the story takes place in some alternate universe. This is a universe of magic where everyone has some magical ability and where cars don't have wheels and they fly. There are no restaurants because people don't eat in this universe. And people get energized from the rays of a dark sun. They're daylight seems to be more like moon light at night and extreme dark when the black sun is up.
Gwen of course is the one waking up in the garden. It is actually close to a house which is similar to her grandparents house and eventually we find that that is where she lives. She has skipped into another body and discovers that her name here is Alexa Murdock. Alexa seems to live alone-possibly an orphan. Her father died doing experiments related to an epidemic, which is plaguing the world. It seems that the victims are called Wardlows and they are people who's spirit has been usurped by demons who are considered bloodthirsty and dangerous. Alexa's father thinks there is more to it than that and had tried to create a drug that would induce the same syndrome on someone for a limited time so he could prove this theory. It seems now that Alexa has taken up his work and Gwen is the Wardlow.
The original plan was for Alexa to do this while her friend Cat made sure that if it succeeded that the Wardlow would not be found out and Cat and some others could observe and discover the truth. For some reason Cat does not get there in time and a young man named Rook finds her collapsed in the garden and takes her to the hospital. Gwen has an immediate connection to him-which is very odd for her. Rook had been on his way to visit his sister at the hospital. His sister Raven is in a coma and his father is institutionalized because of his grief over the accident that left Raven that way and killed his wife.
Gwen wakes up in the hospital and begins the tenuous process of learning about this strange world through Rook. She's playing it cool and by the ear because she doesn't want to end up institutionalized like her mother. What she doesn't know is that there are people who capture and execute Wardlow's like her and she shouldn't be involved at all with Rook or anyone else except for a select few in some secret group that knows about this experiment.
The people looking for Wardlows are called hunters and they work for the TAS The All Seeing. The all seeing work for someone else but they have the ability to find the Wardlows and they send the hunters. The hunters are invisible normally but Gwen is able to see them. That allows her to elude them. For a time. Eventually they will catch up to her.
Gwen is falling for Rook, while knowing how wrong that has to be considering she won't be staying here and the amount of danger that puts her in. She has to make sure Rook doesn't figure out what's wrong with her. She also doesn't have any idea what Alexa might be doing while she's in her world in her body. She's also beginning to see some injustice to what's happening to the Wardlows and she may have to invest more of herself into this reality to help find an answer. It could cost both Gwen and Alexa their lives. And the secret behind all of this may be something more sinister than just fear of contamination.
This is the beginning book of a series that I guess would fall in the Young adult- Paranormal Romance category although it has elements that show up in Science Fiction- that's a great thing since that's what I like to read.
There's more to the story- though I don't think the second book is yet finished.
Sural
I began reading the Stray which hooked me because it reminded me of some of Robert Heinlein's later works where people could take a a left turn in just the right way and end up in another dimension. Maybe even get lost as his character JOB did. And Cassandra is such a dear character- reminding me of one of my favorite book critics whose not afraid to use the f**k word.
I could see her as this character when she discovers she's lost F**Kity F**K. Sort of jarring as an opening sentence.
This novel is done from a first person perspective and that works well for this story. Contrary to what many believe, first person is not what makes this YA its the YA in the story that does that.
This is a sort of Young Adult story so it throws one that it starts right way with this type of language-or at least it does us older folk.
Her full name is Cassandra Eloise Devlin. She's been living a sheltered life in Australia and the last thing she wanted today was to get lost on the way home. Well at that age it's a bit embarrassing to get lost. But with this the wrong left turn thing going here it's going to take a while for Cassandra to figure out that she's not just lost. She's LOST.
The good news is she has her wilderness survival kit. The bad news is it has everything she might need if she's lost in Sydney. Not much use for where she's at. At one point she's speculating New Zealand- she's still thinking just a bit on the shallow side of the galactic pool.
In the next few pages I have sympathy for Cassandra because she's going to do a lot of camping. I hate camping. And she's being forced to do it while still rather lost all the way around. Of course this camping becomes survivalist pretty soon, which is totally different from camping- not that I like it any more.(at least camping usually has the full range from survival roughing it to places that have electricity so you can charge your gadgets and stuff.) No there's not hope for that.
Things have gotten real by this time when Cassandra has found all sorts of mysterious flora and fauna. They look almost familiar but very much strange and unfamiliar. And very much wild and dangerous. After wearing down her few useful tools and walking endlessly she comes across a settlement. Unfortunately it seems to be abandoned.
Having some time to relax a little and become frustrated by her lack of survival skills Cassandra also has a chance to check out the new world to make some few observations about things. (These become handy later but for now its mostly her own curiosity.) She tries unsuccessfully to make her own materials for bedding and clothing and other house items.
Thankfully there are others who know of this world and settlement and who also seem aware of the openings between dimensions and worlds through which Cassandra has stumbled. A team of these people show up at her settlement and a couple of them scare the daylights out of her when she wakes up to them hovering over her. At this point though she's sick and feverish so she's more relieved than frightened.
Taken to a hospital like environment she is poked prodded and injected. She doesn't understand the language right away but there seems to be a technology that helps her with this. Once she starts to learn things she realizes that she's considered a savage and that she possibly will never reach their level. When it finally dawns on her that they're treating the savage like a lab rat she begins to balk and that's when her true character kicks in. They say that they will try to return her to her home, but they don't have a clue yet where that is, though they seem to know how to do it once they find it.
Later we find its not so easy to do that.
Of course at this time Cassandra also begins conflict with the people who saved her and it interferes with whats up for her future. This is a sort of Science Fiction fantasy and almost Paranormal romance, which will contain some romance for Cassandra down the road. But with the speed bumps she creates for herself in the first two books it's going to take a while.
I loved this story as Science Fiction. The characters were every much as engaging as I hope for. I'm a character driven story lover and don't much care that all the science is believable nor do I demand a long explanation of the science for validity. It's a bonus that there's a cute romance story that comes out eventually and of course one whole underlying thread that's resolved at the end of the trilogy.
I think YA and Sci-Fi and fantasy and paranormal romance lovers will not only love this book but whatever else Ms Host has in that great mind of hers.
Keep it coming Andrea.
Sural
I never know what to expect with novellas. I certainly didn't know what to expect from this one. But it was free so it was worth a try. I had hopes at least that it wasn't going to digress into erotica, which it could based on the small blurb that was there.
One issue with novellas is that they have more wiggle room than short stories and less development room than novels. At least with short stories you forgive the lack of room to develop characters and you can move on to the next short story because generally short stories come in groups- except now with e-books that's not so much a rule.
Stella is quite an interesting character. She has a potential to be strong but she's young and in some ways naive though mostly sometimes just annoyingly softened by way of her upbringing. She's intelligent and she's been apprenticing on a ship as an astrogator so she is going through the motions, but her heart doesn't seem to be fully into the direction she's following. In some ways it seems she might be interested in being a housewife, her father has encouraged her to do more just as a fall back.
It's on a break from her apprenticeship when she and her brother Ben are on their way to the surface of Kardunash IV where she intends on meeting her boyfriend Lars. We learn that her family owns a merchant-ship the LLEWELLYN and she was born in space-on a space station. This is all important for later.
The Hamaji battle fleet show up and her entire life is thrown into chaos. She's captured and doesn't know where her brother Ben has ended up at and she's been pressed int servitude as a major Hamaji general's concubine. Hence the worry that this could go all erotica on us. It thankfully doesn't. Another important thing is that Stella has made sure that she is versed in many of the languages including the one primarily used by the Hamaji.
As things evolve so does Stella and when put to the test we see that her beliefs and convictions are more than just following what her father thinks she should do. Stella proves to be a person of strong character and we can't help but be left with the notion that whatever she decides to do it will always be what she thinks is right.
Overall in the limited space allowed Joe does a great job of introducing us to his universe and his characters and even keeping it entertaining for all.
I recommend this for a quick read for anyone who likes Science Fiction and adventure- if you're looking for erotica you'll be disappointed.
Sural
I liked the premise of this book. I liked the internal story. I would have loved to be able to say I loved this book- but I can't. And, I do understand that there is a certain kink in the method of this writer- I just think that someone reading this should come prepared.
It might just be me, so take this with a grain of salt. After all, I watch movies with similar genre element, but not too many times do I read books of this genre.
There were several things that started out as little annoyances and just kept building into grating elements.
First I'll give some back ground on the story. We start with Heather, who seems to have had an accident or something and has lost her memories. Then there is a disembodied voice that tries to help her through her panic as she becomes aware of memories and realizes she has a brother and she thinks something is wrong.
The voice tries to calm her and then proceeds to say that she's going to go on some sort of mind travel journey into the past to obtain a full picture of something that will help her.
Then, apparently in the mind travel, we are at Seaborn a quaint community that seems to be quiet and sheltered. When we arrive, there seems to be something which is going to cause a stir in their community. We start with a group of youths Dasha, Jorn, and Kasper. They are concerned about their friend Maggie and her father Orloff, something is wrong but they are afraid to approach the adults of the council.
This is where two of the problems start for me. And, again it might just be me, but there are several-not all-but a lot of times where it looks like contractions are avoided. Now I know some people don't like them in some writing, but it began to sound a lot like a certain android we will not mention. There were a few contractions, but many times the lack of them showed up in dialogue and sounded stiff and unnatural.
The next thing is that it begins a rather annoying trend that works into the entire novel. This could be a device for part of how this Heather is seeing things but it's still annoying. We begin head hopping back and forth between the three each time we get the full thoughts and emotions of these people and its like some hot potato game.
When they link up with the adults it hops over to them quickly. Now we have Karen, Savannah, Jackson,Gordon, Orloff, Tracy and Perry. It seems that Orloff's wife and daughter are missing. And soon we find out that Dasha has been communicating with some voice in her head that takes the name Ikron. Ikron has been taking Dasha on Mind travels and now, using Perry's memories, is going to take her to her grandfather's birth.
This feels like that mirror in a mirror thing starting here.
Now its Dasha watching(maybe Heather watching Dasha watch) and we go to Carol and John Writer, Doctor Holfman, and Tom Brady. Carol is nineteen pregnant and frightened. Doc is getting prepared to deliver her and everyone is excited. Carol starts ranting about it being a mistake to have the child suggesting they should have aborted it.
At the time of birth the lights go out and when they come back on there is one baby and 5 dark clouds of energy. It's difficult to say if Carol delivered all of that but that's the suggestion. Carol declares that Ethin is here and the room grows cold and Sheriff Tom Brady acts like he's gone mad. A strange person shows up and in the end only John and Holfman and the baby-Jason- are left alive.
Fast forward to when Jason is a teen.
The cast of names grows exponentially. We get to know some of them dearly and the head hopping begins to get thick though I think I understand it's purpose.
This novel is like some of my old favorite movies; Aliens, Terminator, all the night of the living dead. People are going to die and it seems we'll be in many of their heads at the time that that occurs. That means we're introduced to all of them even some that would seem minor just for this privilege.
This is the hot potato of death. Well, its just a hot potato for a while until the terrible five show up.Of course these five are somehow related to Jason. And Jason is the only one who can do whatever must be done with Ethin and so they are out to get him but they also have to rack up some soul points by killing over a hundred people. Only they call it end or ending them. They do this seemingly quite freely using a weapon that causes no excess blood. This is okay with me because I hate those descriptive bloody scenes anyway.
So, other than Jason don't get too fond of anyone.
Now, I really do like some of the basic idea here. There's a parallel or alternated universe where Ethin has been defeated by his enemies, so he is going to come to Earth and prepare for a comeback. This somehow involves having only a small pocket opened into our world that can only be expanded after a specific amount of 'ends' to the inhabitants. Jason's mother has left him some information that will help him which his father has so sparingly left till just this very last moment to give to his son. There's even a part where things get so bad they have to get away quickly and somehow leave the book with all the clues, so they have to come back.
All this time we're doing head hopping, even into the head of very minor characters that we'll get to know long enough to watch them die from an up close and personal place.
So if you like those breathtaking seat of your pants thrillers that show you everything-except this time for the blood and gore- this is the story for you.
It has, I think four books, and I do want to know what happens. Maybe even find out how Ethin and his cronies decide, which people have value- what that means- and whether that means they are safe from ending.
For me this was a bit difficult reading- I'd expected it to be the wholesale slaughters that would stop me-it turns out there were other issues. Maybe most everyone else can get past my issues and enjoy the nifty plot and the excitement.
I still need to find out why Heather had to hop to Dasha who had to hop to Jason through Perry and how Perry's memories manage to do that wild head to head hopping.
Since Jason seems to be Dasha's grandfather I guess we can assume he will make it through the four books. Or at least most of them.
By all means visit the author's website to get some insight to his process.
Sural
|
