Caliban

As other people have said, it was a little difficult to picture the characters. I feel that connecting in that way is integral for the reader to really be involved in the story. I'm hoping the author will go back and beef up those sections a little more. There are a lot of good things in this book, some beautiful language and ideas. It is certainly a lot different than much of the sci-fi offerings currently available and that in itself is encouraging.

I think with a little polish, this could be quite beautiful. The author certainly has shown she is capable of crafting an engrossing story. Now just to build the world around that a little more, part the curtain, let us see more of what's around our protagonist.

This book follows the journey of Tine, a strong, courageous, determined Caliban to the enlightenment. A journey of an eye opener to his understanding of the world, life, and existence in his solar system.

Tine is the most well developed character, a nonhuman with strongly felt emotion and his way of thinking that's easy to follow. However, I still found it difficult to picture him and other nonhuman characters physically.

This story has a complex and bizarre concept of environment which needs sufficient details to give the readers enough picture of it and help them get into the story better. Unfortunately, this element is not so well executed in this story.

The plot is very slow and feels like dragging in the beginning. But it gets better show more and more intriguing as the story advances.

Additionally, I think it's better if there's some kind of references for characters, places, and other necessary information for this story. That way the readers will form a picture about what they're going to read.

An enjoyable, intriguing SciFi/Fantasy read.

**I received a free copy of this book in accordance with the terms of Librarything Early Reviewers program.** show less

This is a very unique read, which I enjoyed overall but there was some material I was not totally comfortable with. There is a scene involving sex between an alien in human form and a very un-human alien that was just baffling, leaving me with lots of questions. However, the rest of the story was interesting.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I tried to read this book, I really did. It's really unusual for me to not be able to, but I was 10% into this book and I had no real idea of who the characters were, or what was happening. It wasn't compelling so much as confusing.

This isn’t to say that the story isn’t salvageable. If the author put down the thesaurus and worked more on ordering character introductions and world-building in a more logical way to the reader, I know it would make for a compelling read.

The tone is also inconsistent in some points, we pass between ephemeral susurrations down to shit-shows and fart jokes. I’m a huge fan of humour in fiction, but there’s a time and a place show more and they were both off in this story.

I don't think this book was quite ready to be published, but with a few workshops and discussions with readers to find out what's easy to understand and what doesn't follow, it would be well worth the read. As it stands, it's incredibly confusing.

Two stars show less

An intriguing novel to begin with, but the author's style simply did not hook me (personal opinion only.)