I recently finished reading an Advance Review Copy (ARC for short) of a Sci-Fi novel written by a trio of authors, one of whom I discovered on Twitter.\u00a0 Before I begin my review, I feel the need to disclose a couple of things:\u2013<\/p>\n
First, Amira Makansi was kind enough to review my novel \u201cBeltamar\u2019s War\u201d on her blog {you can find her review here<\/a>}.\u00a0 I enjoyed Amira\u2019s review so much that I offered to review her novel.\u00a0 {Tit-for-Tat\u2026 oh no, I won\u2019t play that.}<\/p>\n Second, I am biased.\u00a0 Not in favor of Amira, but against novels written by more than a single author.\u00a0 You see I\u2019ve always held that writing is an art, and art is the creation of an artist, not a committee.\u00a0 Stacked atop that bias is my previous experience with such works, which I won\u2019t name but which live in infamy in my memory.\u00a0 When I discovered \u201cThe Sowing\u201d is actually the result of co-operation between not two, but three people, my trepidation increased\u2026<\/p>\n Ok, disclosures complete, onward to the review!<\/p>\n You\u2019d think by my age I\u2019d have learned a thing or two about stereotypes, and indeed I have.\u00a0 Sadly, stereotypes generally do hold true.\u00a0 However, occasionally they don\u2019t \u2013 and it\u2019s the don\u2019ts we remember, more than the dos.\u00a0 I\u2019m happy to inform you that \u201cThe Sowing\u201d, is most definitely a \u201cdon\u2019t\u201d.\u00a0 I could not distinguish the individual styles of its authoresses.\u00a0 You might think this means the writing lacks the vital, yet intangible quality known as voice \u2013 you\u2019d be wrong.\u00a0 Throughout the novel, the style is easy and effortless.\u00a0 From its slow beginning to it climactic end, this smooth flowing tale is a joy to read.\u00a0 Nothing jars, except of course the plot elements intended to put you on high alert \u2013 and those occur with an ever-increasing frequency as the world unfolds.<\/p>\n Set in a dystopian future, \u201cThe Sowing\u201d is neatly cast as Utopia.\u00a0 Paradise lost, regained, and now guarded by people with only the best interests in heart.\u00a0 Unfortunately, as the story unfolds it becomes clear that \u201cthe best interests\u201d held are not those of the people, but of themselves.\u00a0 Even Utopia has a seedy underside.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Sowing\u201d presents the viewpoint of two characters, their teen romance sundered by circumstance.\u00a0 Remy, is a young lady working in the Resistance.\u00a0 Vale is a young man working in the Okarian Sector.\u00a0 After several years apart, they find themselves directly at odds as each struggles to understand the inexplicable choices of the other.\u00a0 Remy wonders how Vale could possibly stay within, while Vale wonders why Remy has betrayed everything their sector has worked for centuries to accomplish.\u00a0 Will teen romance wither and die, or simmer and flare?<\/p>\n In essence, \u201cThe Sowing\u201d introduces a classic premise \u2013 Evil Empire under attrition from a fledgling Resistance.\u00a0 Although the story raises old questions, it manages to frame them in new ways.\u00a0 Little is as it first appears, yet the authors retain their integrity through multiple plot twists and turns.\u00a0 There is no gratuitous, random nonsense whose only purpose is fulfilling an editor\u2019s perceived need for something that really has no part in the story.\u00a0 No bumps appear to jar you from the path of this speeding tale.\u00a0 Every new revelation renders the world more real, while ramping up tension and vesting you deeper in the developing characters.\u00a0 Every time you think you know what comes next, the plot takes an unexpected, but believable twist.<\/p>\n Your hopes for the main characters are constantly threatened, but the authors manage to tread the tripwire of suspense with aplomb.\u00a0 Disaster looms, yet never quite consumes.\u00a0 Even with the villains unmasked, their motivations remain hidden and leave the reader in a wonderful limbo \u2013 can something mitigate their actions?\u00a0 It isn\u2019t often villainy is portrayed with such subtlety you find yourself hoping something might excuse abhorrent behavior.\u00a0 That type of sympathy abounds in \u201cThe Sowing\u201d.\u00a0 If you like your heroes pristine, and your villains cast in midnight black, then look elsewhere \u2013 in \u201cThe Sowing\u201d, every character is\u2026 well, human.<\/p>\n So what is \u201cThe Sowing\u201d?\u00a0 It\u2019s a little bit of romance, a heaping helping of Sci-Fi, and a generous dose of metaphor.\u00a0 It is today, cast in the future.\u00a0 It is a simple tale which leads you down a complex path \u2013 personally, I think the path begins right here, right now, and that we might be its villains, which may account for why I feel sympathetic to those within the tale.<\/p>\n Now, I don\u2019t know about you, but for me one of the things I most enjoy about fiction is being surprised.\u00a0 \u201cThe Sowing<\/a>\u201d doesn\u2019t stop surprising.\u00a0 Enough said?<\/p>\n {Now, while you’re here please take a look around, you can find samples of my writing<\/a>, my tweets<\/a> and even another review<\/a> I wrote for an amazing love story by February Grace, another Twitter friend<\/a>.}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I recently finished reading an Advance Review Copy (ARC for short) of a Sci-Fi novel written by a trio of authors, one of whom I discovered on Twitter.\u00a0 Before I begin my review, I feel the need to disclose a couple of things:\u2013 First, Amira Makansi was kind enough to review my novel \u201cBeltamar\u2019s War\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[27,416],"class_list":["post-2915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-amira-makansi","tag-the-sowing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2915\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}