Review: An unusual read but a good one
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 09 22, 2012
I can't remember the last time I read a book told in first person present tense. Maybe this is the first because it's certainly unusual enough. First person OR present tense, yes. But both? Kirby certainly set himself a task but I have to say that he was up to the challenge.Told in very short chapters - there are 100 - it's not a long book, maybe 60,000 words.In categorising it I would have to slot it under Science Fiction, but it's fairly borderline. There are plenty of Thriller and Suspense elements too. So why SF? Let me give you a taste of the story.Raymond Bridges has it all. A successful writer living the good life with a gorgeous girlfriend he adores. But only after he's survived finding himself starkers in a shopping mall with no idea who he is and being manhandled off to an insane asylum where he's 'treated' with electric shock therapy or, as he describes it, tortured.So where does the SF come in? Well, Bridges arrived on Earth on the back of a solar flare on which beings from another planet, destroyed long ago, slip down to earth and take over the bodies and lives of us here on earth. Perturbations, it's called. And what happens to those humans who've been perturbed? They perturb someone else. It's a domino effect, although in the story we only meet the first and second occurrences.Not having any memory he doesn't know what his mission on Earth is to be, but he's got to survive the torture and the further perturbation into a criminal wanted by the police and find out.The pace of the story doesn't waver much; the present tense keeps it moving. There's a bit of jumping backwards and forwards as Bridges reveals more about himself and therefore the plot line and if you're not paying attention you can find yourself confused. But nutter or hero I liked Bridges. I also liked his gorgeous girlfriend Victoria. I wanted them to win. I wanted Bridges to succeed in his mission, once he discovers what it is.