Lisa Wylie's "Burning Suns"

Title: Lights Spark

“Burning Suns Book One: Conflagration” by Lisa Wylie

Reviewed by Shelby Jo

6/27/16

5:00 p.m.

Burning Suns Book One: Conflagration by Lisa Wylie tosses tough, back-talking space captain Jennifer Bronwen and her unlikely companion, straight-laced politician Keera Naraymis, into an intergalactic adventure of political intrigue. The story alternates primarily between the two women’s perspectives as they team up in order to maintain peace as they know it.

The largest pitfall of the fantasy and science fiction genres is “plot for plot’s sake,” and Conflagration provides no relief from this trope. The inciting incidents are delicately arranged like a stack of dominoes to throw the main characters into the action of the book, rather than the incidents occurring naturally out of character-conscious decisions.

The characters of Conflagration may make this difficult, however, because they are not especially dynamic or well defined. The powerful female duo that leads the story is refreshing and entertaining, but unfortunately inconsistent. Jen and Keera have great potential to contrast and complement each other, once their characters are more thoroughly developed.

 Wylie cleverly includes planet Earth amidst the other fantastic and fictional galaxies in this space epic, without the planet serving as “home base” for any characters, a decision that significantly advances the world building and easily helps to ground the reader in the story. Wylie’s prose finds a comfortable, and enviable, middle ground; the story reads like fantasy or sci-fi without sounding contrived.

The author’s attempt to tell part of the narrative from the point of view of a cyborg character muddles the story. This was a bold move on Wylie’s part, and it does provide a unique perspective; however, she also attempts to relay intricate political complications in these sections that simply cannot come across to the reader with the stream of consciousness formatting.

I give “Conflagration” 3 out of 5 stars.

Happy Reading!

Shelby Jo

Heather Couch's "Reciprocal"

Title: First Draft

Reciprocal by Heather Couch

Reviewed by S. Davis

November 27, 2015

9:30 p.m.

Reciprocal by Heather Couch is a young adult novel about a high school student, Alicia, and the whirlwind she is thrown into when an alien race, Peregrinus, crash lands into her hometown. She falls in love with Stephen, a member of the Peregrinus, just when a war breaks out amongst the humans and the aliens. Reciprocal is a typical modern science-fiction novel set in an alternate universe that has become so popular within the last decade.

The idea for the novel is original and promising. However, the version of the novel I read was not worthy of anything but a first draft. There were multiple grammatical mistakes, words missing, and run-on sentences. The author also pulled definitions in the foreword of the novel from Wikipedia, which is extremely unprofessional. The novel was not yet ready to be published by any means.

There were also a lot of events happening within the novel that made it hard for the reader to distinguish what was happening, when, and to which characters. Too many overarching themes were crammed into one novel that made the content seem more cliché than clever. There was no linear plot that the reader could follow because the novel jumped around from one event, character, or timeframe without warning. The characters themselves were tremendously inconsistent as if they were not yet fully developed by Couch. The author also does a lot of “telling” rather than “showing;” she takes the time to explain every little detail rather than letting the actions of the characters explain itself.  

Once again, Couch has a really good start for a novel, but the action needs to be spread over multiple books so that the reader doesn’t feel rushed while reading. Couch also needs to go back and line-edit every sentence she wrote in the book and try publishing again.

This version of Reciprocal was a good first draft of the novel, but it definitely needs to be worked with more in order to be taken seriously.

I give Reciprocal 1 out of 5 stars.

Until next time,

S. Davis

Peter Bailey's "Walk in the Flesh"

Title: Nanobots Gone Wild

Walk in the Flesh by Peter Bailey

Reviewed by S. Davis

September 29, 2015

4:00 p.m.

Walk in the Flesh by Peter Bailey is a science-fiction/action thriller that will keep the reader on the edge of their seat throughout the duration of the novel. The book follows Neil, a troubled, ex-military man who has become the government’s secret weapon in order to carry out tasks that no individual could do. The very essence of Neil’s being has been “imprinted” into nanobots, which are then planted into the minds of different individuals to carry out specific tasks. However, once these tasks start to go awry, people on the outside of the government start to notice, including an Iranian pathologist named Ariana.

The novel centers on a futuristic World War III that begins with the bombing of London. The reader goes along with Neil as he carries out top-secret missions in various bodies, or “hosts,” in order to help his country win the war.

Bailey keeps the reader hooked right from page one and keeps the pages turning all the way until the end. One never knows what will happen next in the novel, as is proven by the ending which is left open for a possible sequel to the book. This read is not lacking in the action or graphic descriptions departments. Bailey offers the reader his specific visions of all of the gory details so that the reader can easily step into the story. Bailey also did not disappoint with medical and technical terminology throughout the novel, which pushes Walk in the Flesh into a higher intellectual category of science-fiction. It reminds the reader of old books and movies in which the impossible has become reality.

There were, however, many technical errors. The story itself was good, but it was shadowed by the mistakes.   

I would give Walk in the Flesh 3 ½ out of 5 stars.

Until next time,

S. Davis