Review: Tremendous accomplishment and announcement!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 08 22, 2010
Part science fiction horror novel, part lush period-piece romance; A Place of Rest is a tremendous accomplishment and an announcement. The author shows the ability to write in very different styles with equal strength. He takes us into a post apocalyptic world of viruses and animated corpses and then back in time to a playful plantation era romance.My one complaint would be that the transition between these eras was a little disorienting. I found myself worrying that there could be something wrong with my file and that I wasn't actually reading the same book that I started with! I would look forward more to a future science fiction novel by this author which stayed in that era and genre. But that is a reflection of my taste rather than his skill.The separate threads do come together later in the book, and the different voices of narration do become more similar late in the story. There is a payoff! Once I, as a reader, understood the kind of story I was reading and settled in, I began to enjoy it immensely.In fact, I found myself wondering if I should go back and re-read. As the story went on the writing became stronger and stronger, and I wondered if I just hadn't paid close enough attention on the first pass? The best part was when the stories came together, and they did, into a satisfying and extraordinary conclusion.Luke Spychalla is an author I will look for in the future!