Review: Suffers from hurry-up
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 06 16, 2014
Mr McElhaney needs an editor or someone who can really criticize his writing.  This story jumps into the middle of the circumstances of Ghosts, with no explanation of how we got there, and how we got there without any interference from the evil Pli.  Suddenly, we have a small galactic community, but it's falling apart due to some unspoken outside interference.  We have an evil weed that, when taken, causes us to see ghosts that try to occupy our body.  Some of the ghosts are really evil, but others are family that seem to be unable to help themselves.  The evil ones can shoot us with a mind controlling device while we are under the influence of the weed, and the weed has to be specially purged -- sometimes.  So Alastair's brother goes out to chase down his lost brother, Alastair, who disappeared trying to find the source of the weed.  Amazing, the ship that had Alastair comes back without Alastair having traveled many light years away (60?).  I still don't get the time references.  Well on the first trip out, Alastair's brother gets into a series of unexpected adventures while aboard his ship, and discovers he is to attack some place that is doing something, but it is defended by, wait for it -- Alastair.  Well we rescue Alastair, free him from his mind control and bring him home with everyone happy and satisfied.  Except me.  Mr McElhaney has a nice writing style.  His writing is not disrupted with spelling or grammar mistakes (except the use of the gerund without the possessive, and the use of the perfect tense).  The story has unique and interesting points.  He just needs to not hurry so much and develop his story line better.