Review: Lifting The Veil On A Great New Writer
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 20, 2013
"No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true."― Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet LetterWhen Will Swardstrom sent me The Veil to beta-read it, I was in the middle of his own novel Dead Sleep and enjoying it. However, I had no problem taking a break, as he wanted to release his silo story the following week.I opened the file, sat down, started to read. Two hours and a half later, I was done.I'm not saying this to tell you it's short. Or to make you think I'm a fast reader - this was not a race. I'm telling you this because it means that for two and a half hours nothing else existed for me but Mary's story in Silo 13.I had no idea, no preconception before I started reading. I didn't know where Will wanted to go with The Veil. And I believe it would be best if you did the same. I hope other reviewers won't spoil it for you, because the pleasure of this story lies in the not knowing too much in advance.In other words, I can't lift the veil. You'll have to do it for yourself.All I can say is that Mr Swardstrom seems to improve day after day as a writer: Dead Sleep was great, but it looks as if placing his new narrative within the confines of Hugh Howey's Universe granted him superpowers.The Veil has something of a classic to it, like The Scarlet Letter meets The Silo kind of thing: Will Swardstrom managed to develop a very human, universal plot in a sci-fi background. Each word, each sentence feels right, each turn of event leaves you astounded, shaking your head in disbelief.Congratulations on this remarkable entry in the Wooliverse, Will. And please give us some more.