Review: A quiet story of character.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 19, 2013
The set-up in this novella is simple--a man's sister has been missing for three years, her car found beside the road, with her missing, vanished. This eats at her brother and he continues going to the roadside site and looking for answers where there are none. A neighbor girl reminds him of his sister. A genuine person, a good person. She's in an abusive relationship with her boyfriend and Jeff, the main character in PEOPLE PERSON, warns the big guy once. What he does the second time you'll want to read to find out.As a writer myself I want to mention something about this piece of work that may or may not be useful to the general reader. If you read for pleasure, this telling tale is more than worth your time. For a writer this tale could be a textbook example of pacing. It's quiet and the footfalls are soft. It comes in a plain wrapper, but there are chains that bind to keep you reading, turning the pages. Zelazny doesn't need fireworks The pacing is brilliant. Not a great many writers even understand pacing or what it has to do in a story, some write it naturally (which is what I suspect Trent Zelazny does), and some can never get the hang of it at all, making their fiction flawed. This piece of work is perfectly done. Yes, the story is great, the characterization is exactly right and believable, and as a whole the story works like a well-oiled engine. But the pacing, that's the most fascinating thing about this story, the feeling of a circle being completed, the notion that life goes around and events are connected and in the end the story is greater than its parts. I highly recommend you read this and anything else this author writes. When you hear this from a writer, take it seriously. Generally we don't so highly recommend our peers, but I do it with joy and I genuinely mean it. Reading Trent Zelazny is a treat and an honor.