Customer Reviews

Flesh and Silver

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Where can I start in describing this book?

Good characters? Check.

Good concept? Check.

Good ending? Check.

The author resists the impulse to make the story too heavy-handed, and the characters are idealists that don't always suceed just because the plot demands that the good guys win. Although the good guys win, and man and woman are together, and the plot of the bad guys is foiled.

But along the way, we see that the characters are fallable. Not in that annoying anti-hero sort of way - that manages to triumph against all odds. In the way that you and I are fallable. In a way that sometimes, we overcome our failures and rise above them.

To look at the review, it would seem to be another story about another set of people that has a happy ending. While this is certainly true, I find that I lack the words to explain why I read this story as quickly as I could. Perhaps because it is balanced. Trying to put it into words makes the story seem weaker than it is.

Perhaps it is the simplicity that is appealing. A simple story about a man that overcomes his weakness. A man that crawls out of a bottle and makes something of his life. Perhaps not too plausible, perhaps a bit to neat and happy an ending, but certainly one that I read toward, and enjoyed.

And that's all one really needs to say about a book.

Buy it!

This book contains the two major elements that make a story memorable: a good, original plot line and characters that you actually care about. The book starts with an interesting premise and pulls you in very quickly. The plot becomes more convoluted as the story progresses and is nicely revealed/resolved by the story's end.

The characters are original,believable, and come to life vividly with Burns' writing. This was a page-turner that pulled me in enough to really care how the characters fared and how the story ended.

This is a great first novel, well worth the read, and I look forward to his next effort.

Stephen L. Burns had a great concept, then executed it with style, wit, and charm. His prose is sturdy, his cultural references rich (though not overbearing), and his characters well-fleshed. Though I picked this book up in my local library, it was so good that I had to come to Amazon right away. He has gained a steadfast fan with this book--may his writing career be long and fruitful.

I got this book from the Chaplain's tent while I was deployed, and read it cover to cover as fast as I could. I immediately found his other book, Call From A Distant Shore, and read it just as hungrily. These books speak to the heart of heroism, the willingness to stand up after life knocks you down, and face the worst odds you can imagine, not for personal gain, because it's the right thing to do. These are both very satisfying reads, with intriguing characters and interesting worlds. I can't wait to read more from this author.

I enjoyed this book. I recommend it to anyone who liked Stardoc!

Dr. Georgory Marchey is a Bergmann Surgeon, an extremely talented physician who sacrificed his hands in order to do miracle surgery that saves lives no one else can save, but at at a terrible cost to both doctor and patient.

He is treated as a machine, and feared by all due to the strange nightmarish psychological effects of this new way of doing surgery. Now he drinks his life away as he is shipped from planet to planet like a piece of equipment at the whim of the powers that be.

Until he is abducted by an armored Angel, Scylla, and taken to be the personal physician to her psychotic master. This evil man has slowly and terribly transformed a small, isolated, peaceful religious colony into his own personal slice of Hell, with the conflicted Scylla, brainwashed since her childhood, as his unquestioning enforcer.
Will Marchey pull himself together in time to save the colony and Scylla?

A sci-fi book with good character development and enough mystery to prevent you from putting the book down. The intense character development and backflashses slowed the book down, but it's a quick and easy read. Good, strong ending, if a bit predictable.

I found the concept of Bergmann Surgeons quite intriguing, that the "ghost" pains of an amputated limb might be the clue to an extended realm of sensation and action.

This forms the basis of the complex and involving journey of Dr. Georgory Marchey back from his life of drunken escape to total involvement in his new world and friends.

I found the characters very strongly realized and I was kept up well beyond my usual bedtime as I read on to the the gripping and somewhat sentimental conclusion. (I actually had tears in my eyes - that's how sweet it was!). The evolution of Angel/Scylla and the relationship between her and Marchey pulled me onwards as did Marchey's mental combat with Brother Fist.

My gripes are few: I felt that the repetitive descriptions of Marchey's drinking were a bit heavy handed, and Brother Fists contribution to the total outcome seemed a bit simplistic.

Despite these qualms, I highly recommend this read to all who love seeing a GOOD idea worked out with strong characters who eventually triumph.

A great book, well-written, finely-crafted. Characters you really care about. The protagonist is sympathetic, likeable, aggravating, and appealing. He makes you root for his success, and his happiness. I'm hoping for a sequel, so I can see how he fares in his new life, and newfound happiness.

Terrific concept! This is a must read! The ideas are not only possible but the effects of such a boon to and on medicine and society distinctly likely. Besides all that, a rockin' good-time!