Review: Needs a little polishing
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 01 5, 2013
Ping begins with one of those great fears of humanity - a super virus runs rampantly through the population in a short period of time and 99.99% of people die a horrible, painful death. Kate, who lives a normal life with her husband, also contracts the virus but manages to pull through, finding herself utterly alone in a world devoid of people and animals.As she struggles to survive, alone but surrounded by the ghosts of her husband and neighbours, she starts to hear voices - a young boy, a nameless woman, in her head, and after months of isolation, sets off to the south in search of her telepathically connected friends.The idea behind the story of Ping is a good one, but it needs some work. There are huge jumps in time, which are OK, but they aren't noted with headers like 'three months later', it's a sudden and disconcerting shift that only reveals itself a few paragraphs into a new chapter.When it comes to characters, they are pretty standard - Kate is not exactly outgoing or brave, and tends to fade into the background, particularly after she meets up with the woman she has been telepathically connecting with - although that particular character says 'sweetie' so many times it becomes grating.I understand that this is Ms. Lowry's first book, and it is a good attempt - with some polishing it could have been an excellent story.