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3.0 out of 5 stars
Decent, but desperately needed to be longer for better character development., December 25, 2008
This review is from: Awesome Lavratt (Paperback)
Ann Wilkes is a member of the California Writers Club, a positively ancient "club" that has been around since 1909 and apparently has been involved in the lives of such literary greats as Jack London, John Muir, and even the first California poet laureate, Ina Coolbrith. This group has seventeen branches across the state, which is rather impressive. Wilkes is from the Redwood Branch.
Awesome Lavratt, a 93-page novella, follows the "adventures", or perhaps mind altering experiences (pun intended), of Horace (a spaceship pick'n'pull owner), Aranna (a woman with more than a few tricks up her sleeve and a hankering for mind control), Gurmt (a scientist with a hidden past), and, of course, the Lavratt (which has a crazy mind of its own). Each of these characters finds themselves not only connected to the Lavratt, but also manipulated by it as it switches ownership over and over, bringing down the people who try to use it. Here's my version of the synopsis:
Aranna is a bit of a thief with a desire to rule the galaxy. To do so, she needs the Lavratt, because it's mythical mind control powers may very well lend her the abilities she needs to manipulate and adjust people in power for her own needs. Her search takes her to Horace's shipyard, where the Lavratt has been hiding for a long while. But she's not the only one looking for it and before long she is jumping across the galaxy with Lavratt firmly in hand and Horace sitting at her feet. Only one problem: the Lavratt has a mind of its own and it gets what it wants.
Wilkes' novel is a whole lot of the pulp era tossed in a genre salad with bits of romance and technological intrigue. The overall story reads like a fast paced introduction to a universe populated by aliens and humans alike, pointing directly to the good things about the pulp era: the adventures. It's hard to say too much about the story simply because it is incredibly short. It's not like a novel where you have a much larger frame to work in and thus can complicate matters to the nth degree. Here Wilkes is working with an incredibly short form to tell a very big story. And it works, for the most part. The story is entertaining in an adventuresque way. The pace never lets up and it just plows right the end, with a nice little twist.
Probably the biggest issue with the story is that it is too short. The tale it is trying to weave is very complex, but you lose a lot of the detail in such a short format. Some things simply can't be explained, such as the relationship between Gurmt and Salmig towards the end. Granted, Wilkes does attempt to give you the impression that the Lavratt is constantly fiddling with people's minds, but their relationship seems to have some substance, yet we never really get a glimpse into it. For most of the story we follow Aranna and Horace, and then it turns to just Aranna up until the last little chunk where Gurmt and Salmig take over. If this story had been spread out over another two hundred pages with adequate time to establish each of the characters in their own storylines I think the overall feel would be better. The book left me wanting more, but only because there was so much missing. Aranna is such a central character, but the story doesn't start with her; it starts with Horace. Likewise, the Gurmt/Salmig storyline, however brief, is very important because it gives the final ending of the book as a bout of jealousy and betrayal, but not with enough of a buildup.
Basically, Wilkes should consider expanding everything about this story. Doing so not only will allow her to truly develop her Star Wars-ish universe, but also will give her ample time to develop all her characters in separate story lines that converge in the end. It's a good story, and definitely interesting (the idea of mind control and some of the other ideas I don't want to ruin by divulging information about them), but they could be infinitely more so with further development.
Wilkes' style is easy to read, which is a good thing for the type of story this is. Her characters do come through loud and clear, but they never slap you over the face like a cartoon character. Instead, we get a general idea who these characters are, except, perhaps, for Gurmt and Salmig, who really need more time to themselves (which is probably a clever pun on my part). There are a couple spelling errors in the manuscript, but nothing so drastic as to be unforgivably annoying.
All-in-all it's a good story, but I hope it is expanded to novel length instead. It deserves novel-length treatment. A good story is a good story (that's my worldly wisdom for the day).
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4.0 out of 5 stars
A wonderful space opera in one act, April 7, 2010
This review is from: Awesome Lavratt (Paperback)
Ann Wilkes, if you're reading this review, we (that would be me and my tapeworm) would like to read more of this adventure.
As it is, it's an operetta of one and a half acts - normally, that wouldn't get such a strong review from this reader, but Ms. Wilkes' style is so engaging and she has such a flair for mixing genres in novel, funny ways, that the pleasure of reading the story transcended my frustration with the fact that it wasn't more fully developed. There's a whole universe here waiting to be explored.
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