deaconist's review
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
jayshay's review
4.0
This is a long short story, a novella that has the tight focused flavour of classic sf - before the bloat. I was sort of expecting not to have the encounter at all but when it happened there was enough of an interesting idea that I didn't mind. The female main character is almost a meta-commentary on the older male sf characters - I like the psychology used to create this modern version.
I read this as a part of the Writer and Critic Podcast on self-published ebooks (episode 24)and, apart from "Paintwork" by Tim Maughan which I haven't read yet, it was by far the best of the lot. That Roberts was the ringer of the group, a writer who has been through the traditional publishing process before trying this experiment of putting this story out by himself, MAY speak volumes about what kind of additional skills and quality that are added by working with editors -- or he may just be the superior writer of the bunch. So no definitive lesson from the experience, but interesting data. I will certainly try more work from Roberts.
I read this as a part of the Writer and Critic Podcast on self-published ebooks (episode 24)and, apart from "Paintwork" by Tim Maughan which I haven't read yet, it was by far the best of the lot. That Roberts was the ringer of the group, a writer who has been through the traditional publishing process before trying this experiment of putting this story out by himself, MAY speak volumes about what kind of additional skills and quality that are added by working with editors -- or he may just be the superior writer of the bunch. So no definitive lesson from the experience, but interesting data. I will certainly try more work from Roberts.
More...