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/
August 2, 2014
Mystery On A Spaceship
A Review of
Pauline Creeden Abiding Flame (Create Space, 2014)
342 pp $11.69 ISBN: 978-1500225575
Reviewer: Forrest W. Schultz
Most of this tale unfolds in a spaceship having cabins for its passengers which are reminiscent of those in the Pullman Railroad cars in their heyday, and the intrigue of the tale is reminiscent of the mysteries from days of yore which were set in those trains. But the spaceship and its crew and passengers are ultra-modern, and the demon who is hitching a ride also behaves like demons often do in modern tales, where he is more a figure of amusement than horror, although he does have a nefarious goal in mind -- he is the unseen unknown terrorist! And the writer is a modern Christian who knows how to tell a tale and to do so not just for entertainment, but also for edification, the main point being that humans are not the only actors on the world stage -- there are also unseen beings at work: demons and God, who is both a character and the Author.
The framework of the story, which shall remain unmentioned here lest this be a "spoiler", was, to me lacking in verisimilitude, so that it would have been preferable, as Creeden did in Sanctuary, to have left it unknown and mysterious. And, although Lynette Lamb is a woman of great faith, I much preferred the exciting Jennie in Sanctuary -- there is no one like that in this story. Abiding Flame has interesting features but lacks the pizzazz of Sanctuary.
