Benny investigates the mysteries of Tollips World which could hold the secrts of the extinction of humanity.
1 Comment
Tom Swift
on May 9, 2016 at 2:38 AM
The Tree of Life
There seems to be a trend emerging in the Bernice text range. The short stories and novellas seem to be taking advantage of the shared world of the Collection. With their limited word count it’s a useful way of slotting the story into a larger whole, and using the opportunity to draw out some of the back characters in the series.
The full length novels though, with room to explore completely new themes and worlds, take full advantage of the chance to drag Bernice away from home and build something completely new around her. Previously ‘The Big Hunt’ delighted in showing off a bold new world, a story where the cast struggled to assign human thoughts and logic to a natural (yet synthetic) process. The Tree of Life heads in the opposite direction, boasting fewer bold visual treats but much stronger characters. In fact, conversely, it applies human directions onto other people. Here the will of the characters controls nature, and other people. Hugo Tollip has control over most of the cast because he owns them. Bleize has control over some because she’s a natural leader, albeit one who learns very quickly to adapt as that control is wrestled out of her grasp. The villain, Assapartemya takes control directly of his victims, copying his thoughts into their heads. This story represents an ongoing power struggle, of not just character versus character, but one where different ideals and emotions taking prominence over others.
Mark Michalowski doesn’t have as much epic vistas to offer as the previous novel. Whereas Lance Parkin surprised the readers with the appearance of a new, surprising type of robot, Mark goes for a more subtle character revelation or plot twist. His action is blunt and to the point, in fact until the end the level of violence is maintained relatively low. This helps keeps the few deaths the novel has genuinely tragic.
Joseph returns to prominence as Bernice’s do-all assistant, although his main role seems to be a communicative version of the Sonic Screwdriver in new Doctor Who. He is there to ensure that locked doors don’t impede the plot moving forwards, and that secrets that need to be revealed can be given out at appropriate moments. Mark turns this on its head towards the end though when Bernice casually reveals that she already knew everything he had to say, and gives him a few new pieces of information to mull over as well.
Back on the collection only Clarissa Jones really makes an impact, in fact her slight (but well intended) snub towards Bernice drives the whole plot forwards. Although Adrian, Peter, Jason and Brax are mentioned, its nice to see that Ms Jones hasn’t been forgotten, her developments in Life During Wartime were excellent and it looks like we’ll be seeing more of her soon.
All in all The Tree of Life is a refreshingly relaxed adventure that breaks away from most of the ongoing storylines and takes its chance to tell something new. It boasts strong characters and some good surprises throughout, and a much slower more contemplative pace than most of Bernice’s other books.
The Tree of Life
There seems to be a trend emerging in the Bernice text range. The short stories and novellas seem to be taking advantage of the shared world of the Collection. With their limited word count it’s a useful way of slotting the story into a larger whole, and using the opportunity to draw out some of the back characters in the series.
The full length novels though, with room to explore completely new themes and worlds, take full advantage of the chance to drag Bernice away from home and build something completely new around her. Previously ‘The Big Hunt’ delighted in showing off a bold new world, a story where the cast struggled to assign human thoughts and logic to a natural (yet synthetic) process. The Tree of Life heads in the opposite direction, boasting fewer bold visual treats but much stronger characters. In fact, conversely, it applies human directions onto other people. Here the will of the characters controls nature, and other people. Hugo Tollip has control over most of the cast because he owns them. Bleize has control over some because she’s a natural leader, albeit one who learns very quickly to adapt as that control is wrestled out of her grasp. The villain, Assapartemya takes control directly of his victims, copying his thoughts into their heads. This story represents an ongoing power struggle, of not just character versus character, but one where different ideals and emotions taking prominence over others.
Mark Michalowski doesn’t have as much epic vistas to offer as the previous novel. Whereas Lance Parkin surprised the readers with the appearance of a new, surprising type of robot, Mark goes for a more subtle character revelation or plot twist. His action is blunt and to the point, in fact until the end the level of violence is maintained relatively low. This helps keeps the few deaths the novel has genuinely tragic.
Joseph returns to prominence as Bernice’s do-all assistant, although his main role seems to be a communicative version of the Sonic Screwdriver in new Doctor Who. He is there to ensure that locked doors don’t impede the plot moving forwards, and that secrets that need to be revealed can be given out at appropriate moments. Mark turns this on its head towards the end though when Bernice casually reveals that she already knew everything he had to say, and gives him a few new pieces of information to mull over as well.
Back on the collection only Clarissa Jones really makes an impact, in fact her slight (but well intended) snub towards Bernice drives the whole plot forwards. Although Adrian, Peter, Jason and Brax are mentioned, its nice to see that Ms Jones hasn’t been forgotten, her developments in Life During Wartime were excellent and it looks like we’ll be seeing more of her soon.
All in all The Tree of Life is a refreshingly relaxed adventure that breaks away from most of the ongoing storylines and takes its chance to tell something new. It boasts strong characters and some good surprises throughout, and a much slower more contemplative pace than most of Bernice’s other books.
8 / 10