Review: Imaginative Story
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 03 11, 2013
Karen A. Wyle has created a whole new world in Twin-Bred. In this futuristic novel, humans are now living on a planet called Tofarn where they must co-exist with the Tofa species that was already there. Of course this is never an easy thing to do, particularly when there are communication issues and huge biological and sociological differences. The main character, Mara, is a human who comes up with a plan to try to get humans and Tofa to understand each other better. The Project is then born, where both human and Tofa host mothers carry twins in utero--one human and one Tofa.While I found the story to be very creative and unusual, I honestly had some trouble getting into it at first. The book spans a long period of time starting at the beginning of the Project and then showing the twins as they grow up into adolescence. There are so many characters presented that it was hard for me to really get to know any of them. However, Mara was definitely an interesting character, being that she still talked to her twin who died in utero. There were some characters that I wanted to see more of, such as Laura and Veda, and I also found it was hard to distinguish the personality of one Tofa from another. Just as they looked like each other, they all seemed to act the same as well. Each scene was so short that it felt like it was over almost as soon as it had begun so it was difficult to invest in what was going on.That being said, I still believe that Karen A. Wyle is a very talented writer. Her descriptions of the world and of the bizarre characteristics of the Tofa were nicely done. It was a mainly dialogue driven novel that did not have an overabundance of detail, which I enjoyed since dialogue is usually my favorite aspect of reading.While it took awhile for anything of major significance to happen (after the Twin-Bred were born), there were some intense moments later on in the story. Prior to that, I was just waiting for something to go wrong. How could anyone possibly think this Project would work out as planned?If you are looking for a fast-paced sci-fi novel with lots of action, then this not the book for you. But if you are interested in reading an imaginative story that shows how difficult it is for anyone different to live peacefully among others, then this might be one you'll want to pick up (or download)!