Shivering World by Kathy TyersGraysha Brady-Phillips has travelled to the burgeoning world of Goddard for two reasons - the money, and the chance that the colonists there might fix her faulty genes. But this kind of genetic tampering is illegal and her mother is notoriously against it. Graysha soon becomes a target of the people whose help she seeks. And meanwhile, the planet itself might be dying... Ooh this is such a hard book to rate. It's incredibly problematic (if I made a list of all the issues, it'd be at least 10-20 pages long), but it's also a fascinating glimpse into the social changes occurring at that time (late 1980s/early 1990s). Tyers comes sooo close to discovering the pitfalls of rape culture here, but her work ultimately falls victim to it. I will say that this book is leagues above her preceding novels, as it's more complex and grapples more confidently with particular issues. It's obvious that much of Shivering World covers territory that is very personal to Tyers. But it's not a great book. It gets bogged down in setup for more than half the page count and only hits its stride in the last few chapters. The rampant sexism, racism, and ableism I've come to expect from Tyers' work are hard to overlook. The religious overtones have also become tiresomely repetitive. This all said, I might hang on to this battered secondhand paperback... the premise was intriguing and the copy I found is signed.
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Crystal Witness by Kathy TyersMing Dalamani has no memory of the crime she committed, which was punished with twenty years of suspended animation, a mind wipe, and now a collar that can kill her if she doesn't do what her jailers demand of her. Ming must work as a calligrapher so she can get close enough to certain parties to spy on them. She desperately wants to earn her freedom - but is there another option available to her? Whew, there was a lot going on here; perhaps too much for a single book. But the premise was so fascinating, and the unravelling of events so engrossing, that I was able to overlook certain issues. I enjoyed Crystal Witness. And that's despite it suffering from being a product of its time. Ahem. Fair warning: this book is steeped in - nay, drowning in ableism (with a sprinkling of fatphobia). Fusion Fire (Firebird #2) |
#3 - The Big Switch (unpublished)
What a shame this book was cancelled, because it's lightyears ahead of the first two. An engaging plot and an Imperial villain! I'd have bought it in a heartbeat.
Judging by the outline for book #4, that one would have been the worst instalment. Easily. |
Alyce Caswell, when she isn't drinking her way through a giant pot of tea, can be found dabbling in multiple genres and writing forms. She has self-published several titles in her space opera family saga, which is divided into two series: The Galactic Pantheon and The Pantheon War. Her most recent book is The Shadow of the Gods.
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