Review: High Treason is an excellent book
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 8, 2012
High Treason is an excellent book. It is exceptionally well written and the plots within are very interesting. The whole book has so much going on all the time it's hard to put down once you have started.In a make believe world on fictitious planets the author creates the most believable society.They are corrupt, incestuous, driven by class system, the love for money and status. Social comments are everywhere in this book and a grim picture emerges that mirrors the real world.This is entertainment however and there is such humor throughout the book that the horror is offset.The story begins with a party held for the son of the Emperor and straight away the tension begins. There is a magician entertainer at the party who uses a guillotine in his act, and the reader is drawn into the suspense of the trick feeling all the time something is going to go wrong.The action is thick and fast, horrifying, bizarre and completely engrossing.Amongst the main plots of murder, subterfuge, rape, and attacks are the sub plots of love affairs and court jealousies. The book has you horrified for the wrongly accused Cassia, laughing at and with the character Hammer, who has been waiting twelve years for the woman in his arranged marriage to have sex with him. You become desperate for Mysior who really does love Hammer to have a chance with him and watch the case perverted against an innocent girl with growing unease, knowing that the powers that be hold all the cards.There are some hilarious happenings and phrases. Amongst my favorites is when Hammer visits a woman he knows to give her news of a dead friend; his motives are not entirely pure and the scene is made funny by the woman calling him Hammy his response, "Hammer or Hamm please" he said in disgust. Another funny comment was made by the magician when interviewed by the lawyer Mysior, he asks her if she had ever considered being a magician's assistant after looking at her great legs.This society's irreverent attitude to sex is hilarious and even though there are some raw sexual moments in the book, they are very funny.The way Hammer has to be stunned by his faithful employee Slops is fun even though there is social comment behind it because Hammer loses his temper at the ill treatment of others. I am still chuckling at the way Hammer shoots at a furnace.This is such a good book, if you are looking for action, adventure, intrigue, romance, and fun amongst some serious threads this is the book to choose. It has to be a five star book.