Review: Mythic science and complex imagination
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 02 16, 2011
The plant Stritonly has purple mountains, squat acidel slaves, and a rich Czar whose royal son has secret plans. It has a carefully documented and measured population too, well-regulated manners, fully described, and an important position in the galaxy. The imagination behind its creation is detailed and intricate, though complex descriptions and changing viewpoints and time make for a faltering start to The Eye of the Storm.There's gentle humor and irony in relationships, human and acidel, described as the storm approaches. There's disconcerting confusion too; time slips sideways, blackness, revival, secrets told far more slowly that the detailed back-stories... Repeated beeping reminds readers of T.V.s Life on Mars and perhaps the well-remembered Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. Good and evil take on complex guises, guarded by the universe and the mysterious Konig (whose back-story includes some fairly entertaining concepts). Everyone is named, everyone given their history, and the wheels of a plan start to turn. A life for a hope; a people for a life; or a god guarding pre-destined futures that clash with the will of man? Faith in the unseen battles with science of the seen, while the lesson is learned that no-one can know everything.A surprising ending brings the time-lines together and is followed by a curious epilogue; more tales of Stritonly are promised in further volumes, and the "science" behind the novel's theory is given it's future explanation. An odd tale, of mythic science and scientific imagination, The Eye of the Storm has a wealth of interesting concepts for future volumes and readers to explore.Disclosure: I received an ecopy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.