Phil Geusz

Arrr....

Suspend my disbelief...

Right, there will be space travel one day. We have it now of course, but travel between the stars will happen, even if it is only generational ships.

But very large, Alice in Wonderland Mad Hatter size bunnies, cognizant and able to act as a ship's Engineer?

No...

This is not a great tale. First because of the bunnie issue, which is a euphemism for race relations around the era of WWII in the US Navy. Blacks could only be stewards in the mess, and peel potatoes. They were not to be anywhere else.

Then we have the issue of death and how a son reacts to their father's demise. The hero of this story really does not react at all. He is on the hop, as it were all the time and so does not think of that, yet has a great deal of character development time to think of everything else, such as the issue of society and class.

And just to grease the wheels, the little bunny that could, saves the next King so he can become the richest bunny their ever was, and get all he wants as well. I said this was a fantasy, I mean Science Fiction... Amazon's recommendation system kept throwing this at me, since I buy and read many Sci-Fi's.

If the author had thought a little more about what he presented, for instance an older protagonist who would have enough knowledge to survive, instead of presenting one who had barely any training, as well as one who had the emotions of loss, it might be a compelling tale. As it is, I can't suspend my disbelief to read any more in the series.… (mehr)

A Left-Handed Sword is set in modern Earth, with the addition of the disease Lokiskur. This mysterious virus kills the vast majority of its victims, and those who survive are mutated into varying degrees of anthropomorphic animals. Still contagious, they must be quarantined in government-funded colonies for the rest of their lives. Tom Hill, a rabbit and a well-known novelist, acts as mayor to one of these Lokie colonies -- and then newcomer Kip helps him face the fears he's been running from.

I loved the quiet positivity of the story. The Lokies have lost so much, but they try to focus on looking after each other and maintaining some semblance of a normal life. Everyone works together and looks after the less able. It would be easy for a story like this to wallow in melodramatic angst, but Tom's pain is matched by awareness of how fortunate he is to have what he does, and how the smallest of gestures can make a person happy. There's also a key discussion of how people's lives aren't really that different on the Outside; we all have barriers and fears and things we don't want to think about.

This is an excellent example of a quiet story where not much technically happens. The biggest excitement in the Lokies' lives is their weekly bingo game, but the colourful characters are easy to sympathize with and they provide a lot of food for thought. A Left-Handed Sword stayed in my mind whenever I stopped reading, and I highly recommend it.… (mehr)