When Clarissa Jones disappears there are fears that the security of The Collection may have been compromised.
1 Comment
Tom Swift
on May 9, 2016 at 3:17 AM
Parallel Lives
The Serpents Tooth
Rebecca Levene edited several Bernice Summerfield books back when the range was handled by Virgin, and so she knows the character very well. This comes across quite clearly in a somewhat oddball story that almost entirely ignores the ongoing part of this loose trilogy and forges ahead into new, and somewhat dark territory.
The world Rebecca Levene crafts goes beyond sexism as we know it, painting a pretty terrible picture of a world (and society) that started from medieval ideas of chivalry and partnership and ran in completely the opposite direction of our own. For half the novel Bernice pretends to be a man and we get a detached ‘observation’ of the plight of this society. Half way through, inevitably, she casts aside her disguise in a momentary decision to sacrifice herself to aid someone else, and strangely, its from that point on that we actually start to get inside the characters heads.
Rebecca Levene is smart enough not to paint any characters as just ciphers, and the majority of the characters actions, though immoral by most standards, are well reasoned and backed up. In fact if the story has any failings it’s that only one woman in the society is actually exposed at all, and we only get a glimpse at gossip behind closed doors from the other servants. Although it would be nice to think they are, Bernice’s experiences alone with the emperor are probably not typical of most marriages on Atwalla.
There’s also a pleasant tieing together of what we had assumed to be a side plot (the alien Thiss and his crew planning to kidnap the princess) and the main story. Coupled with some very dark imagery (the pit of dead children for one thing) and a mythological tilt to the proceedings this is a very strong opener for the book
8 / 10
Hiding Places
After the initial success pairing Adrian and Bev together had been in short stories, Stewart Sheargold tests them out on something with a little more meat to it. This story seems intent on exposing all their dark parts and getting it out there, Bev with her previous life in crime, and Adrian apparently has some links back to the terrible events in Dr Who story ‘Arrangements for War’. Although plaudits for the shock value it is a surprise.
Hiding Places ties in slightly more neatly into the ongoing storyline, with the passing of Miss Jones and Peter still having a clear effect on the hotels remaining inhabitants. With a cast of just five (including Bev and Adrian) Sheargold finds plenty of time to flesh out his creations, drawing neat parallels between Adrian and Henry, Bev and Henrietta, and then Jacob and the elusive Peter. He tells a story about the characters struggling to repress their dark sides, however unlike the Mirror Effect which made glorious use of illusion, nothing here is abstract at all.
Although it moves a little slower than the previous story, Hiding Places is full of tension and character driven drama, Sheargold taking his time to slowly rack up the tension before rewarding the reader with an excellent, if violent, ending.
8 / 10
Jason and the Pirates
Dave’s Stone’s short story has all the strengths of his prior works (fast, energetic, frantic, amusing, ridiculous narration) although at some points it does start to fall flat for repetition. The reappearance of several characters who’d had a cameo or made an appearance in his last Novella contribution (Zardox Break) gave me a strong sense of déjà vu throughout.
To be blunt there isn’t really a story going on here. Or rather, there’s a story within a story, and the ratio between fiction and fact is left entirely in the hands of the reader. This fantastic fiction lives up to its name, wilfully trying to incorporate as much mayhem, destruction and humongous imagery that it should be. As such, rating it is difficult.
In the nicest possible way, your opinion of this fairytale probably depends on exactly how much crap your beginning to put up with. A high tolerance threshold would give it 10/10, but I’ll settle for:
6 / 10
—
The previous three stories are linked together by the conclusion of Miss Jones storyline. After an amazingly promising revelation in Life During Wartime, only Joseph Lidster seems to have actually been interested in picking her up since, so I suppose it makes sense for her to be dropped from the range.
I was surprised by the way it was suddenly put out there that she’s from the future. This does appear to be blatant foreshadowing, as its not actually relevant to the plot in any way. In fact, it may interfere with her prior romance with the Axis officer Moskoff, which was a fantastic parable about two people trying to forge a life despite the different worlds they live in. If she knew the axis were going to be thrown out, then why did she do it? Or, if she was from the future and realised history had changed, why wasn’t this flagged?
We’ll never know now though. What is important is that Bernice has started to realise where she’s going wrong with Peter. Will we start to see things rectified in future? And who exactly is it who’s died?
Overall?
Parallel Lives
The Serpents Tooth
Rebecca Levene edited several Bernice Summerfield books back when the range was handled by Virgin, and so she knows the character very well. This comes across quite clearly in a somewhat oddball story that almost entirely ignores the ongoing part of this loose trilogy and forges ahead into new, and somewhat dark territory.
The world Rebecca Levene crafts goes beyond sexism as we know it, painting a pretty terrible picture of a world (and society) that started from medieval ideas of chivalry and partnership and ran in completely the opposite direction of our own. For half the novel Bernice pretends to be a man and we get a detached ‘observation’ of the plight of this society. Half way through, inevitably, she casts aside her disguise in a momentary decision to sacrifice herself to aid someone else, and strangely, its from that point on that we actually start to get inside the characters heads.
Rebecca Levene is smart enough not to paint any characters as just ciphers, and the majority of the characters actions, though immoral by most standards, are well reasoned and backed up. In fact if the story has any failings it’s that only one woman in the society is actually exposed at all, and we only get a glimpse at gossip behind closed doors from the other servants. Although it would be nice to think they are, Bernice’s experiences alone with the emperor are probably not typical of most marriages on Atwalla.
There’s also a pleasant tieing together of what we had assumed to be a side plot (the alien Thiss and his crew planning to kidnap the princess) and the main story. Coupled with some very dark imagery (the pit of dead children for one thing) and a mythological tilt to the proceedings this is a very strong opener for the book
8 / 10
Hiding Places
After the initial success pairing Adrian and Bev together had been in short stories, Stewart Sheargold tests them out on something with a little more meat to it. This story seems intent on exposing all their dark parts and getting it out there, Bev with her previous life in crime, and Adrian apparently has some links back to the terrible events in Dr Who story ‘Arrangements for War’. Although plaudits for the shock value it is a surprise.
Hiding Places ties in slightly more neatly into the ongoing storyline, with the passing of Miss Jones and Peter still having a clear effect on the hotels remaining inhabitants. With a cast of just five (including Bev and Adrian) Sheargold finds plenty of time to flesh out his creations, drawing neat parallels between Adrian and Henry, Bev and Henrietta, and then Jacob and the elusive Peter. He tells a story about the characters struggling to repress their dark sides, however unlike the Mirror Effect which made glorious use of illusion, nothing here is abstract at all.
Although it moves a little slower than the previous story, Hiding Places is full of tension and character driven drama, Sheargold taking his time to slowly rack up the tension before rewarding the reader with an excellent, if violent, ending.
8 / 10
Jason and the Pirates
Dave’s Stone’s short story has all the strengths of his prior works (fast, energetic, frantic, amusing, ridiculous narration) although at some points it does start to fall flat for repetition. The reappearance of several characters who’d had a cameo or made an appearance in his last Novella contribution (Zardox Break) gave me a strong sense of déjà vu throughout.
To be blunt there isn’t really a story going on here. Or rather, there’s a story within a story, and the ratio between fiction and fact is left entirely in the hands of the reader. This fantastic fiction lives up to its name, wilfully trying to incorporate as much mayhem, destruction and humongous imagery that it should be. As such, rating it is difficult.
In the nicest possible way, your opinion of this fairytale probably depends on exactly how much crap your beginning to put up with. A high tolerance threshold would give it 10/10, but I’ll settle for:
6 / 10
—
The previous three stories are linked together by the conclusion of Miss Jones storyline. After an amazingly promising revelation in Life During Wartime, only Joseph Lidster seems to have actually been interested in picking her up since, so I suppose it makes sense for her to be dropped from the range.
I was surprised by the way it was suddenly put out there that she’s from the future. This does appear to be blatant foreshadowing, as its not actually relevant to the plot in any way. In fact, it may interfere with her prior romance with the Axis officer Moskoff, which was a fantastic parable about two people trying to forge a life despite the different worlds they live in. If she knew the axis were going to be thrown out, then why did she do it? Or, if she was from the future and realised history had changed, why wasn’t this flagged?
We’ll never know now though. What is important is that Bernice has started to realise where she’s going wrong with Peter. Will we start to see things rectified in future? And who exactly is it who’s died?
Overall?
8 / 10