Another Space in Time

Is Jack Caufield a simplified Bob Waldner? My take is that he more or less is. So how much of the plot is taken from real life? All of it? Well not as a chronology of a single existence, but yes, this all can have happened. The plot is novel in construct, inventive, containing adrenaline kickers, psychological, thoughtful, page turning and ultimately frustrating in a very good reflective of unfolding true life. As individuals we never get all the answers to anything, do we? Crimes and their solutions are usually beautifully dovetailed in conventional genre reads but rarely in the grit and sweat of real life. To Jack, so much of the life he has cut-out for himself seems to be far short of what he would have liked to achieve, despite the fact that he is more than financially secure. He is pervaded by self-doubt. "I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up" and, "I'm not brave enough to be what I want to be" are ever familiar thoughts. ...

This wonderful book has already been heavily reviewed and highly praised. How can I usefully add to the many affirmations of brilliance? I will start by mentioning the only deficiency, which may be confined to the mobi version I read. A few of the changes of scene were abrupt enough to stagger the flow of my reading. I would have liked a few more new chapters to emphasise scene changes, or even a few dinkus between the paragraphs. I didn't find the extra line breaks sufficient on my reading device as they often aren't noticed between variably formed 'screen pages'. I fully acknowledge that this is pernickety― but the book is so well constructed in most other respects that this easily included little change would be worthwhile. If stronger breaks have been left out to account for differences in line length (dependent as it is on font size), then a compromise might be to position a 'dinkus' on a double or treble width indentation to that of the paragraph openin...

This is wonderfully inventive speculative fiction. Philosophical 'science' shines through from page one to the last word. Solari's first book certainly isn't one of the all too predictable adrenal hormone blasts that so many readers are addicted to. Rather, tension builds through the intelligence of the plot. There is plenty of excitement for those prepared to get involved in the story, in the well constructed characters, in the concept of looking at humanity from outside of the box. And yes, there are climatic moments to raise one's blood pressure, just not enough to maintain the constant interest of a gastropod. There are sentence constructions that will unsettle pedantic grammarians, though I don't think many of those reading for pleasure will be the least bit troubled. Anyway, much of the language is emanating from the minds of beings more advanced than mere 'preintelloids'. Solari uses some really gorgeous invented words. This is, after all, spec...

Friedman brings together so many normally closed circles of life's tapestry, dissects them and spreads them wide. Then she chews on them in a range of partly fictional and partially factual related lives, layer by non-sequential layer. The plot draws together and demonstrates the connectivity between the political, cultural and private life strands that mould the being. She studies a series of creative snap-shots to demonstrate the fact that we progress by knowing and understanding each other's paths and not just our own. This is a stand against the autistic political and social boxes that are used to justify aggressive action. Innocence knows to mend rather than destroy, despite the messages delivered by the cynical experienced. The strategy of peace, mending at all costs, is too easily abandoned. The Holocaust is connected to the election of Obama, life in Damascus is connected to the war in Vietnam, and a child adopted into suburban California is connected to the child co...

Stebbins has done it again. He has created a wonderful sequel to your marvellous 'Reader'. I suggest reading in order, though that isn't vital. However, doing so will help you understand and empathise with the expanding vision that is the mind of Ambra Dawn. I sure this book stands alone, but there is a definite downsides to the lack of story revision. All authors of book series have the same impossible problem of balancing back-story and progress that can never satisfy all readers. This is a second visionary, speculative fiction masterpiece; and yes, as is all the best fiction in this category, it is highly philosophical. Stebbins takes us through the lows of his dystopian vision to soar out like the Phoenix into a new and growing existence, a possible Utopia. Well at least the vision can be left to grow unmolested until the inevitable third instalment arrives. What will that be called? My speculation gives me, 'Creator'. I feel sure that we will then come to b...

To me, this novella is is more to do with extreme emotions in the one being, the author, than a romance between two characters. I read it as a mix of mystical realism and autobiographical mystical soul searching. I see it as a bipolar study of good versus evil personality traits, and an exploration of the inherent dangers in drawing back together compartmentalised emotional states. The prose is richly descriptive, but in places strangely inconsistent, almost as though the words were arriving on the paper through mystical translation from some other language. I couldn't decide whether the line editor was poor, or if the occasionally strange word choice was a deliberate attempt to reflect thoughts arriving from some half seen other place. Perhaps Jay suffered the indignity of having the original voice distorted rather than clarified by the edit. The book is well-worth reading, though not so much with the expectation of romance, but rather as a quasi-religious dialogue in wh...

I enjoyed this read very much. There are all the usual elements of the whodunit murder thriller, with a good range of twists and blind alleys. I particularly like the main character, the early retired academic trying something a bit different. He seems to me to be a very plausible stoical, rather than heroic, figure that I had a natural affinity with. The heavy hand of the law, the presumptions of guilt or innocence and the tensions around the distribution of family money are the bread and butter of the crime genre. These elements and others are very well employed with varying degrees of originality. There is enough in the plot for one to be able to get shadows of the ending and yet still be surprised. Agatha Christie, eat your heart out. Here is a modern writer with a similar flare for building plot that encourages the reading into stereotypical thinking and assumptions, only to then turn many elements on there heads. I will be intrigued to see whether Mackey can maintain the art o...