Review: This was one crazy sci-fi romp.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 09 25, 2013
I received a free copy of Next History in exchange for an honest review.Okay (releases a breath). This one may be a tough on to review, but here goes:Next History contains: time travel, missiles, premonitions, murder, murder investigations, whales, codes, songs, dreams, a pop singer whose face is removed, paternity tests, pentagrams and pentagons, patriarchy, demons, angels, religion, spirituality, sexuality, sex, restaurant menus, conjuring, scented oils, tactical maneuvering, potential hallucinations, video conferencing, scientific research and analysis, a guy with a bike, some hotties in a hot tub, snipers, force fields/temporal distortions, mommy issues, daddy issues, all other kinds of parent-child issues (did I mention whales... yes, sorry), members of every component of the U.S. Government and its independent contractors, corpse reanimation and all those things mixed together in varying combinations.Whew! Did I miss anything? Oh yeah, and a miniature winged green demon who likes to masturbate (I kinda loved this guy).WTF, you say? It's bizarre, but not nearly as bizarre as it sounds. In fact, Baldwin combines all these elements at once into a science fiction tale that is cohesive, wildly imaginative and deftly original.The story focuses on a nineteen year-old girl, Tharcia, looking for closure with her deceased mother. In doing so, she tampers with powers beyond her comprehension, setting into play a conflict well beyond her personal "demons." But is she the puppet or the puppeteer? Can the two ever have equal footing?Meanwhile, a being in the shape of a man appears in the Pentagon's courtyard. He is surrounded by what appears to be a force field. His intentions are unknown, and, of course, his appearance gets the government all hot and bothered... or at least bothered.Meanwhile, whales are converging in the Pacific. They have writing on them. This, obviously, raises a few eyebrows. Unfortunately, it has nothing to do with those loveable hippies from Whale Wars.Baldwin does an excellent job of webbing together and keeping straight various seemingly unrelated plot lines, and sub plot lines, and sub sub plot lines to craft an intricate novel teeming with spirituality, sexuality and philosophy, culminating with a strong socio-harmonic message. Okay, so I made that word up, I think. Socio-harmonic (TM)Given the number of characters and plot lines, the novel did at times feel a bit disjointed. I was still meeting new characters at 75% into the novel. The author's writing style is too, at times, disjointed (perhaps like my ability to review). It works for the scenes where a curt detective is interrogating a suspect, but the fragment to fragment, short crisp sentences gave me a difficult time at the beginning with respect to flow. This problem disappeared as the novel progressed, however, with either me getting used to it or the style becoming more conventional. The only other issue for me was the switching point of views within chapter, but giving the omniscience of some of Baldwin's characters, perhaps an omniscient POV was appropriate.What really impressed me about the novel is Baldwin's attention to detail. Either Next History was fanatically and expertly well researched, or Baldwin can fake his knowledge better than a seasoned hooker fakes it after hours on a Saturday. If Baldwin never worked in the Pentagon, I'm convinced he has spies there. Hope the FBI's not monitoring this review.So, overall, Next History is definitely something different, a worthwhile read. The ending was perhaps a little over-preachy in its message for someone who readily accepts that message, but I wouldn't be surprised if the novel made some church-inspired banned list. A lot of provocative science fiction does. Check it out!