Customer Reviews

Preternatural

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

 

 

I haven't even finished the book yet, I don't read quite as much as I used to anymore, but this book has me right back to loving to read. I don't need to synopsize it for you cause there are already plenty of those above. But if you like Star Trek and enjoy any kind of narrative complexity, or if you *hate* Star Trek and just love a good read, this is a really fun book. Kind of reminds me of a similar book, about a fantasy writer who got involved with the reality of her fantasy, someone email me with the title and author if you can remember it, that one was also literary-experimental and still easy-to-read. About ten years ago, I think the author was Kathryn something. In-something...

A science fiction novel about a science fiction writer who writes a novel about a race of extraterrestrial telepathic jellyfish, the Egyptian pharoh Akhenaton, a female cousin of Jesus Christ, theories of creation and evolution, characters based on William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and Shirley McClaine, alternate universes, a dying artist, and the librarian of the ancient city of Alexandria (all of which may or may not really exist)!! If this sounds like a confusing mess, it's not. Margaret Wander Bonanno whips us through this crazy novel like a rickety metal cart speeding through an amusment park thrill ride, keeping her steady hand on the controls all the way to the end. If Bonanno's next work improves on this one, she'll be an easy favorite for a Hugo or Nebula award. This is the kind of writing for which the phrase "tour de force" was invented! Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy read!

PRETERNATURAL is so oddly delightful There are tons of inside literary references, and I suspect the more widely read one is the more of these will surface. A suspension-of-disbelief reading attitude helps, and patience is well rewarded. I was pleased to note that this is only the first book. S

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Karen Rohmer Guerreri is writing an SF novel -- working title,
"Preternatural" -- by taking dictation from telepathic ET jellyfish in
her head. "Talking jellyfish!" sneers her soon-to-be ex-husband
Ray. "You'll never sell this!"

Ray's a jerk, but he's understandably upset -- he's been seeing
jellyfish too. As have most of the characters in the book. It's not
the sort of thing you, um, share with family & friends...

More plot summary than this really isn't going to help --
think "Wine of the Dreamers" meets Phillip K Dick, with all
*kinds* of genre, literary and TV/cinematic references
and in-jokes (I'm pretty dense about picking these up --
you'll likely catch more than I did). In the world of Academic
Lit. this is "self-referential deconstruction" and a Big Deal --

-- but in plain language it's an astonishing juggling act. Round and
round, up & down they go: autobiography, the writer's craft, how
your kids grew up while you weren't looking, Trekkie fangirl turns
pro, midlist writer goes to SF conventions, Hollywood business
deals ("trust me"), exposition by transposing characters to alternate
timelines(!), crystal healing, bilingual puns (the aliens' Linnean
name is S. oteri: sound it out & groan...), a Capt. Kirkish actor who
can't get it up & blames the jellyfish...

"If PRETERNATURAL has a flaw, it is that the reader must be
willing to keep so many balls in the air, trusting that the author
will eventually reveal how each fits into the pattern. Let me
assure you that Ms. Bonanno is worthy of your trust. She makes good
on all her promises, wrestling her puzzle to a satisfying draw..."

-- Gerald Jonas, NY Times, whose excellent review prompted me to
read this book. You should read it too [G00gle]

The jellyfish are a bit much at times
and the ending may be oversweet (though perfectly-fitted
to the cinematic subplot). Hey, nobody's perfect -- but Preternatural
comes pretty darn close.

Ms. Bonanno is the most prolific SF author I'd never heard of -- in
the past 20 years, she's written 2 Star Trek novels, 7 other novels
(some SF/F), and a biography of Angela Lansbury.

I have no idea why PRETERNATURAL has attracted so little
attention. This is a remarkable book, an "audacious act of
imagination that goes far beyond the merely clever. The puzzle that
she poses has to do with the nature of language. Why, in reading
fiction, do we suspend disbelief so totally as to care about the
fate of characters whom we encounter only as sequences of words
on paper? Why do we laugh or cry when the writer manipulates her
word-puppets into a simulacrum of personal growth?"
(G. Jonas, op. cit.)

Don't miss it. Trust me.

Review copyright 1999 by Peter D. Tillman
First published at SF Site

I guess it's true that there's no accounting for taste. Some people apparently liked this book a lot, but I found it a confusing, boring mish-mash of ideas that failed to jell (or jellyfish) for me.

The multiple points-of-view, timeline-manipulation and fourth-wall-breaking can work, but not in this book. In fact, I have the distinct impression that the author got her hands on a copy of Diderot's "Jacques the Fatalist" and decided to reprocess some of her half-baked ideas into a similar work. If so, it pales into transparency compared to Diderot brilliant work.

The author's love-hate relationship with her characters (and readers, I think) pushed and pulled me from paragraph to paragraph, and left me cold.

It's clear that the author of this book was attempting to be clever with her allusions to various Star Trek-like actors. Unfortunately, it comes off as painfully precious. I have a hard time even describing how much I disliked this book. It is, hands down, the worst book I have read in years...boring, boring, boring.