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Book Review: The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

cover art for The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno Garcia

The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Del Rey, 2022

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0593355336

Available:: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook

Buy: Bookshop.org |  Amazon.com

 

 

This reimagining of The Island of Doctor Moreau takes place on the Yucután peninsula in 1871 against the backdrop of the Yucután Caste War. A hacendero, Joseph Lizdale, hires the adventurer Montgomery Langdon, a functional alcoholic with a special set of skills that include hunting, taxidermy, and working with dangerous animals, as mayordomo for the isolated estate occupied by Doctor Moreau, who is researching creating human/animal hybrids as replacements for rebellious Mayan workers, his daughter Carlota, and the more successful hybrids.

 

Six years later, Montgomery is content in the company of the Moreaus and their hybrids and Carlota has grown into a young woman. Lizdale’s funding is drying up, and the doctor’s research is stalled. Eduardo and Isidro Lizdale arrive without the elder Lizdale’s knowledge demanding men to help chase down Mayan rebels. Carlota defuses the confrontation by inviting them in. She and Eduardo fall in love and he asks her to marry him. Change, and revelations, are coming.

 

The point of view alternates between Carlota and Montgomery. I really liked Montgomery’s voice and enjoyed his character. Carlota frequently grated on me probably due to her naivete and meekness, but she was kind and loyal. Watching their relationship develop was interesting- he was a more thoughtful man than he often appeared.

 

The monstrousness of Moreau and his work is evident to the reader early on but it’s only as Carlota realizes it that we really see it. The monstrousness of the hacenderos, even one as handsome as Eduardo, is easily revealed. The hybrids, who appear to be monsters to the humans, are less monstrous than their creator and those who wish to exploit them.

 

This is a fast, engaging, easy read. You don’t have to be familiar with the source material, but it did enhance my reading experience.

 

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

Posted on January 24, 2024 by , Reply

Book Review: Kiranis: Pawns of the Prophet (Kiranis #2) by Ronald A. Geobey

cover art for Kiranis: Pawns of the Prophet by Ronald A. Geobey

Kiranis: Pawns of the Prophet (KIranis #2) by Ronald A. Geobey 

Temple Dark Books, 2022

ISBN: 9781838259464

Available: Paperback, Ebook

Buy: Amazon.com

 

The saga continues…

 

The second volume in the Kiranis series, Pawns of the Prophet contains all of the elements that made Gods of Kiranis a breathtaking (or maddening) tale, depending on perspective.  If you enjoyed the first book, there’s nothing in this one to dissuade readers from continuing the journey through one of the most unique sci-fi sagas ever written.  New readers: you must read the first one before the second: you’ll be utterly lost, otherwise.  

 

The story takes place 100 years after the first book, but ties into those events, and the scale of the story has widened further into the galaxy.  Once again, it’s incredibly well written, with a multi-layered, extremely complex plotline.  It’s split into large sections, each focusing on a particular group, but unlike last time, the parts run in a more linear fashion.

 

Enjoying the book will depend greatly on the reader, and HOW you approach it.  There are some readers who will breeze through this and comprehend all the details and plot tie-ins with one shot, but they will probably be the minority, you’d almost have to have an eidetic memory.  There is no fluff or filler, everything is written with a purpose, with items that show up halfway through the 400+ pages relating all the way back to the prologue.  The details are important, but they are often quite spread out in how they relate to each other.  That’s what makes this book a little tricky to read.

 

My personal approach?  I’m a reader that likes to understand all the story links in the chain, I want to know how A connects to B, to C, all the way to the end.  So, I read a few chapters, then read them again and took notes on what I considered important.  No joke- I ended with 20 pages of notes, plus a list of characters with rough descriptions, it ran over sixty characters.  It was a lot of extra time, but it helped immensely with connecting the plot points, I used my notes often for story comprehension.  As a result, for me the story all made sense from beginning to end.  Most readers probably won’t need to do this, but that’s what it took for me to fully enjoy the book, and it was well worth the extra time.  This just helps to illustrate how intricate the plot is

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Don’t let the above scare you away-there are plenty of readers who will read this for pure enjoyment, zip through and enjoy it to the end, although they might not know exactly how they got to the end, or what just happened.  Fully grasping the author’s vision will likely take more time and thinking then it would for most books.  

 

Bottom line: highly recommended: there really isn’t anything out there like this, and the journey’s barely begun, since there are supposed to be at least 4 more volumes.  Do yourself a favor and take a chance on the series: epics like this are rare and deserve a look.

 

Recommended, highly so for lovers of elaborate stories.

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

Posted on January 20, 2024 by , Reply

Book Review: Gods of Kiranis (Kiranis #1) by Ronald A. Geobey

Gods of Kiranis (Kiranis #1) by Ronald A. Geobey 

Temple Dark Books, 2021

ISBN: 9781838259419

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

Buy: Amazon.com

 

Gods of Kiranis isn’t just a sci-fi novel.  It’s an achievement, and a very notable one.  The book has an unbelievably dense and complex plot, on the level of the Game of Thrones novels, and it’s impressive with the scope and imagination of the science fiction elements used..    Most importantly, it provides entertainment and leaves you wanting more.  Readers looking for a truly unique novel in terms of universe building and scope won’t want to miss this one.  It’s probably a bit much for readers who just like straightforward sci-fi, a la Buck Rogers.  

 

The book begins with a large metal cage suddenly arriving from space and being placed around Earth, and ends with a large battle (among other things) near the planet Kiranis in another part of the galaxy. It all connects to a genetic cross-breed experiment performed centuries before on humans and Garrans, one of the alien races involved.  Between those two events is a multi-layered story of lies, backstabbing, and shifting alliances between mankind and various alien races, as each race tries to come out on top, or just survive.

 

The story format is unique, and gives the book its unusual flavor, but it also may make it off-putting to some readers.  The four sections of the book essentially cover the same events in the same time period, but each is done from the point of view of one of the four species: human, Jaevisk, Garran, and Kwaios.  During the first and second sections, many elements are inserted into the story with no background, so the reader doesn’t know how they relate to the story, or why they are present.  Context is provided later in the other sections, but it can be confusing at times.  There is a LOT going on in this book: it’s one of the most layered stories I’ve ever read.  Almost everything makes sense in the end, but the journey getting there can be difficult at times.  The book would have been helped by adding a simple “cast of characters” appendix to keep all of the names straight.    

 

Worth noting is the outstanding job the author did of world building, particularly with the Garran homelands.  It doesn’t go into every little detail, but it’s enough to make you feel like it’s an actual place, not just a figment of the author’s imagination.  All the science fiction elements (the cage, space vortexes, etc.) are used well, but the author avoids going the “hard science” route of Kim Stanley Robinson or Neal Stephenson.  The main focus is the characters, not the science or the devices.  Did I mention this book has dragons in it as well?  That’s not an element normally found in sci-fi!

 

Bottom line: it’s an amazing story, both in terms of interest level, creation, and complexity.  There are plenty of unanswered questions at the end, but considering this is the first of a planned seven books, there’s plenty of time for answers.  It will be interesting to see where it goes: we just might be looking at the science fiction equivalent of Jordan’s Wheel of Time series.

 

Recommended, highly so, for lovers of elaborate stories.

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

 

Posted on September 15, 2023 by , Reply
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