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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
She did it again,
By "sarahmouse" (Toronto, ON Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Shockball: A Stardoc Novel (Paperback)
A word of caution: Shockball is not a book that sits back calmly and allows you to read it. Shockball is a book that seizes you violently in its jaws, shakes you like a hyperactive terrier, and slams you against a wall several times before letting you go, leaving you confused, exhausted, exhilarated, and not quite sure what just happened to you save that it was really cool and you can't wait to do it again. Shockball is the fourth novel is S.L. Viehl's Stardoc series, and fans won't be disappointed. Cherijo's past finally catches up with her, and she and Reever are taken back to Terra, where things don't go quite as either Cherijo and Reever or Joseph Grey Veil planned. Viehl's combination of medical knowledge and imaginative extrapolation create a host of alien creatures so believable that you'd swear she'd operated on them herself. The majority of the action in Shockball takes place on xenophobic Terra, so there isn't as much xenobiology in this book, but Viehl still manages to fit in an entirely new alien species, complete with architecture and art forms, as well as giving us a disturbing look at what has happened to the human race. The appeal of the Stardoc books lies partly in the extensive worldbuilding and the medical believability, but I find that most of it is due to the characters populating the books. They are sometimes funny, sometimes annoying, and come complete with a host of strengths and weaknesses. The heroes aren't perfect. The villains aren't wholly despicable. In short, they're real. Sure, Cherijo is a genetic construct tooling around the far reaches of the galaxy, but she's real enough to be my neighbour down the hall (who I also wouldn't trust with a dermal probe when she's in a bad mood). It's very, very easy to get attached to these people. Which is when Viehl goes into maniac mode and puts them through hell so fast that you have no choice but to hang on for the ride and hope you make it through. She's an expert at distracting you with something bright and shiny so that you don't see the punch coming until you're flat on your back. Viehl isn't content to wrap everything up in a neat little package for the reader, so the Stardoc series consists of a number of deftly-woven threads which connect each book and may come back to haunt you at any time. No one is safe, nothing is sacred, and you never know what she's going to do next. I've laughed, cried, and screamed out loud reading these books, sometimes within the course of a single chapter. These books are fun. Roller-coaster, breathless, heart-pounding kind of fun. Just make sure you start reading early, because they'll keep you up long past your bedtime.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
?,
By
This review is from: Shockball: A Stardoc Novel (Paperback)
What happened to the series??? Yes, there's a plot, yes, we get new stuff revealed about Cherijo, but...it feels like nothing major happened. It feels like I've been stuck in a big hole in the ground the entire novel. There is no real forward progression of characters, of ideas, of feelings. It is the same stuff again, but this time on Earth. Where it's evidently a lot more boring.There was a lot of potential in Cherijo dealing with her father. And it is mostly wasted. I can't tell you how disappointing it is to discover that she's not so unique. And soon after getting into the lab, she escapes, and spends a good chunk of time underground. Jules Verne did a great science fiction book about being underground. He was able to pull it off. Most writers since then have realized it's pretty hard to make that interesting. And, Wow, Ick! I *don't* want to hear about vivid descriptions of rapes and child molestation. I read novels for enjoyment, and enlightenment. Not to be disgusted. There's a fifth book out there in the series, which reveals the final details about Cherijo's life, beyond what her father did. I'm not going to bother to buy it. At this point, I've been too disappointed, and too bored, by the last two novels. The investment I made in the character in the first two novels doesn't carry me over into any further interest in her.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
If angst is what you're going for...,
This review is from: Shockball: A Stardoc Novel (Paperback)
Let me start with the fact that I loved the first Stardoc Novel. The next was good, but less so. The same with the next and now we get to Shockball. For a scifi book, there is a startling lack of your typical space saga while human alien hybrids and a fictional sport seem to be the only reminders that the book is set in the future. Cherijo manages to find a disease that has long since been extinct, which of course means it is a current day disease.
I liked Reever the best in this novel compared to the other three books, however, that was not enough to save the book from overall repetitive storytelling. I personally have had enough of the angst. We get it, Chreijo has a awesome immune system so can be tortured and recover. It seems all that happened in the last book was that she was tortured and then escaped. The same happens here. The characters have potential, but instead we are treated to the soap opera angsty life of Cherijo.
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