Review: Even Better Than the Real Thing
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 01 11, 2014
I loved Jane Eyre.  The book, and the musical.  I never did see the movie or TV treatments, and I don't usually, with books that I love. Seeing the film always ruins it for me.  The illusion has been destroyed.  I didn't even go to the Harry Potter movies, or The Hunger Games.  I want to keep the characters in my imagination, where they belong.  The movies are always disappointing.I like LK Rigel, and loved the Space Junque series.  So, I checked out what else she had, and was instantly grabbed by the description of this series.  Jane Eyre retold, but taking place in a semi-dystopian USA, after some portion (it's never really specified) secedes from the mother country and forms a new one, New Judah, formed  around conservative Christian doctrine.  This new society eschews the internet and computers, most vehicles, and provocative clothing.  (Think Amish here, but without their kindness.)  The use of electricity is rare, and expensive.  Clothing and furniture mimic Victorian styles.  It's a strange combination of steampunk and Margaret Atwood, in the Handmaid's Tale, but without steampunk's love of gadgetry.Rigel fleshes out this world thoroughly, despite each portion of the series being somewhat short.  She does this efficiently by having relatively few settings that are well described.  One aspect of the story that I loved was that she mixed up cultures.  Her creation is primarily Victorian, but the outside world (the rest of the US) is still wired, and in the one train that travels back and forth between the two countries, she has the opportunity to describe this.  Passengers are divided between the harsh, conservative New Judeans, and the modern Americans, with their tablets, garish fashions, music, and so forth.  The contrast is exciting.Her characterizations and dialogue are pure genius.  I read all three parts of the series that are available currently back to back, over a day and a half.  I literally couldn't put them down.  Now, I know the story of Jane inside and out.  I love that story.  So, I know what's going to happen.  And, Rigel pretty much plays it straight in this respect.  Nevertheless, the setting and the concept was so unique that I felt like I was reading the story for the first time.I have just one caveat: the dialogue, which I absolutely loved, could possibly be daunting to those who are unused to reading the classics.  Rigel has captured all the nuances and stylistic quirks, and the flowery prose, of Victorian England.  She has done an amazing job of this.  I  don't always like this technique, because it's rarely done all that well, even by the English, but Rigel has  done a masterful job.  And, every so often, she'll toss in, as part of the characters' ordinary conversation, references to modern life that we all know.  There is a hilarious scene in which the houseguests discuss the merits of two vintage movies -- "Where The Boys Are" and "A Summer Place".  I couldn't get the images of Connie Francis and Sandra Dee out of my mind for awhile afterwards.Anyway, just try it.  I think you'll be hooked.  It's currently FREE, for Part One, on Kindle.  A no risk peek at what you'll get.