NEW SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY REVIEWS
Reviews Of Recently Published Science Fiction And Fantasy Books
Reviewer: Forrest Schultz schultz_forrest@yahoo.com 770-583-3258
Blog Address: http://newsciencefictionandfantasyreviews.blogspot.com
May 1, 2013
A Surfeit of Surprises & Complexities & Characters in Sue Dent's "Richard" Novel
A Review of
Sue Dent Forever Richard, Part Two of Thirsting For Blood (Black Bed Sheet Books, 2011)
$16.95 307 pp ISBN-10: 0-9769947-71 ISBN-13: 978-0-9769947-7-0
Reviewer: Forrest W. Schultz
I am a bit late as a reviewer of this book, which has an advantage because I can refer you to the accolades found in reviews already written (which I need not repeat here) so I can add to them my own "take" on this wild story. (Please see the reviews by Lost Genre Guild Founder Frank Creed on Amazon.com and The British Fantasy Society's review by Maryann Boo.) Sue Dent's story deserves these accolades BUT there are so many characters and surprises and complexities that the apparent wealth becomes a surfeit. Christina Lockstein is the only reviewer I have seen who appears to be aware of this. Reading this book is like trying to read Doctor Zhivago -- a good story, shows how bad Communism is, etc., but too many characters and too complicated. Dent, like Pasternak, is a good writer, but, ironically her very skills lead to the surfeit noted. Apparently what has blinded the christian reviewers is that they are so excited in finding a christian writer with excellent skills, that they focus so much on that that they overlook the problem I have noted. I am reminded of a great line from an old ad: "Be careful how you use it!". Let's not overreact to the (real or imaginary) simplistic Christian fiction of the past by a surfeit of complexity!! While reading "Richard" I felt like saying "Will the Complexity Never Cease"! I have a great respect for Sue Dent -- she is a tough gal, so I am sure she will be able to take this criticism!! And I hope that the hyper-complexity will be found No More in her future books!
For info on Sue Dent go to http://www.authorsuedent.com/
Aw, there's certainly a lot going on in my Thirsting for Blood Series and lots of characters. I do want to make sure and point out that I'm not a Christian author in the sense that I write for the "Christian" market which in publishing is the audience served by evangelical publishers such as Thomas Nelson etc . . . My stories have been enjoyed by many who read books published by these primarily "evangelical" publishers. I'm proud to have impacted these readers but not so happy to be lumped into that market. That market doesn't even recognize me as a writer save for Eric Wilson who popped a review of Never Ceese up on Amazon "once upon a time." Bottom line, I write stories. Most think they're really well-written, as Forrest seems to ;) and most enjoy the journey. I'm excited everytime someone thinks this. So long as folks enjoy what I put out there, I'll keep putting it out there. When that stops . . . so will I.
ReplyDeleteUh, Frank Creed also had a review on Amazon, as I noted.
ReplyDeleteI like Never Ceese completely, Forever Richard partially, not completely for the reason noted, i.e. the hypercomplexity. I assume you know that surfeit means too much of a GOOD thing -- complexity is good, but overdone -- not good! As an example, I compared you to one of the top novelists of the twentieth century, Pasternak, who, thought very talented, messed up Doctor Zhivago by having way too many characters -- maybe I should not have chosen that -- maybe a lot of younger people today do not even know about it. Anyway, that was the first example that popped into my mind, and he was not the only one -- many other Russian novelists also had way too many characters. Well, anyway, for me, in Richard, after a while the thing got so complicated I could no longer keep up with it. I hope you never cease writing, but that henceforth your motto should be hypercomplexity no more!
surfeit is defined as something bad because it means TOO MUCH of a good thing, e.g. if you eat too much ice cream you may get a stomach ache, etc.
OK, here is another way to look at it, based on what you said about the publisher wanting a short book. Actually what all you had in Forever Richard may have been OK if you introduced each thing gradually in a book of maybe 1000 pages or so. Spread it out and slowly introduce each thing to the reader and let him get used to it before bringing in the next item. Here the analogy would be like taking a can of concentrated orange juice and drinking it straight instead of diluting with water as you are supposed to do. Looked at in this light what you had was a surfeit of concentration or a surfeit of speed -- too much too fast.
Sincerely,
Forrest