Another Space in Time

Hejmanowski tried to do too much, to cover too broad a range of ideas under one fiction cover. I can see the broad vision, however, for me he didn't quite pull it off. Collider is well written, exciting, and difficult to put down, and yet it doesn't quite all fit together. For me the two stories, one in the physical life we live, and one set beyond, should be two different books. The science and the true-to-life drama easily stretch into metaphysical speculation, and the afterlife reaches back into life well enough, but the wall between them is less than convincing jumped. I may well read this book again in a couple of months, and if that helps me climb the wall I shall change this review. It is possible that I was guilty of not reading accurately enough to catch all the joins. I would certainly enjoy reading this book again, being excited once more by the skillfully crafted characters. I really don't want to put people off reading Collider as it says so much so well; h...

This is a nicely put together work by a man familiar with his stories real setting. The script is never dull as it skips through its dramatic event-line in a very appealing timeless sort of Jack London style. It reads as though equally composed of a mix of journalistic feature, and fiction adventure genres. We get the graphic detail, creating vivid self-generated views without the words ever becoming more than quietly descriptive. There is nothing over gratuitous, pandering through unnecessary detail, to our base natures. I felt that I had already watched the film that has yet to be made as the pages scrolled by me, imagination building the landscape and its characters in intricate detail from Owenby’s talented direction. I have no idea how far Macon County factual history is redrawn. It is impossible to tell which parts have absolutely no factual basis, and which are dripping with it. As the author lives amongst the community I suspect that real characters are well camouflaged e...

This short book of 36,000 words is a trifle too short to fully expand and explore all the elements of the plot in the detail I would have liked. Almazan's writing is certainly entertaining and has a lively spark of originality about it. This book will suit those who wish to read stories about strong female fantasy/SF characters that maintain their individuality and femininity. Joanna Lyon is a research scientist. How refreshingly normal that is. She is a truly normal female with all that that entails, rather than some sort of super-heroic titan that wields a sword better than mere men; so often the fare of modern SF and fantasy. The action is set on an Earth and a parallel Earth that is possibly identical. This second place is on a timeline that is running slow by a century or so. This parallel existence is an interesting concept as it allows Joanna to go backwards in time to before her own birth, without actually using a time machine. The possibility that the "wormhole...

This is the first Stebbins I have read; it is unlikely to be the last. The story is very much visionary, speculative and philosophical science fiction. The writing is all in first person narrative form being an episodic interior monologue. In other words, the mental voice, the mind, of Ambra Dawn talks directly to us through the book. I really enjoy this sort of inventive philosophical science fiction. Condemn me, not Stebbins, if I paint too enthusiastically. The stories structure is pure dystopia, but dark though the story is it leaves a strong glimmer of hope for humanity and the victory of good over evil. To be victorious we will come to realize that we need Ambra Dawn to be heroic. We must also learn to trust and follow where ever she guides us. Every being in the known galaxy appears to blindly accept a false premise, this being that there are many Orbs, portals, between places in Space and Time. All civilizations in this creation are as seduced by what they observe of the port...

This social drama is set in a small satellite town of Frankfurt, which could be in the domain of just about any western city. The small town is mainly one of middle class streets. There is though, an area called the Park which is made up of low cost, high-rise apartments. This neighbourhood is full of foreign and first generation German citizens, many of Turkish extraction. The Park is an estate labelled by high unemployment and crime. The story is written in a pacey way, without any excess of information or irrelevant detail. Biessmann has a very modern style of writing that keeps the plot boiling along. The descriptions are always crystal clear. The ending rather faded, as though a next episode was soon due, despite this my interest was sustained to the very end. That isn't to say there wasn't a crescendo, just not one quite as sustained at a peak as the plot was set to allow. Quite possibly Biessmann deliberately undercooked the end in order to maintain a strong sense of ...

Great stuff! I would suggest reading Lethal Inheritance first, though it is certainly not essential. This really is a pure fantasy book, written with an older teenager as the target audience. I'm 57, and don't really believe that I would have enjoyed it any more or less at 17. I didn't like it quite as much as the first book. This is mainly because I'm eager to reach the end of the quest, thus find the middle somewhat of a frustration. The books overall quality is top draw, with a good pace and easy style. Unsurprisingly, some of the fantasy elements are very familiar to anyone that has read any of the genre but that doesn't mean there isn't a good deal of originality as well. We can see all the classical elements of the moral quest, the long road searching for the magic that will allow evil to be defeated. The dark forces are embedded in the suffocating, black serpentine. Ariel, the heroine is growing in skill, becoming immersed in the magic of her inheritan...

This is a well-crafted or rather re-crafted, mix of legend history and scripture for young people. Possibly it is actually based on a misconception; an error of translation, as Saint Gerasimus of the Jordan was almost certainly the man that helped the lion, and not Saint Jerome. As a central theme of this story is errors in translation between languages, this confusion seems most appropriate. This is a short good news story, written to be accessible to children. This is nothing to do with the Good News Bible, which is very poor translation, a modern interpretation, of ancient scriptures. It is false to make a literary connection with C.S. Lewis's "god" lion, but this proverbial story should sit in close proximity in the section of "Christian" themed writing for children. For parents that hope that their darlings might just find time from modern distractions to read books by the likes of Louisa Alcott, Lucy Montgomery and George MacDonald, this story of a ...