Customer Reviews

Solstice

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

 

 

If you enjoy great science fiction novels you'll love SOLSTICE.
The author has developed a modern day Sci-fi Adventure you can't put down. This story is filled with vibrant descriptions of advanced technology and story twists as it unfolds. The pages will disappear as you read it, trust me. Here is just a bit, but, not enough to ruin it for you. His SunDog weapon ranks right up there with "The Borg", "Gateway (Heechee Saga)" by by Frederik Pohl, and works by Maurice Cotterell.
{Note to author} Please do another Sci-fi Tek, dripping lightning ball, SOLSTICE MANIA book :)

This is the worst type of science fiction - recycled plot (evil folks use secret weapon to effect sun & temperature), incredibly bad characters (not a soul is memorable or realistic from the black GOP President to the sunspot scientist to the crazy villian), horrible dialogue (written in "bookese" - that language that only those in bad novels speak). The structure is hap-hazard as it jumps from DC to Siberia to science labs to military bases without a shred of coherence.

I mean, this thing is 530 pages long!!! Now, that statement should be followed with caveats - the print is VERY large and there are 59 chapters with wide areas of blank space. But the real problem is that at least 3/4 of the book is pure drivel with the usual fallacies books of this type have. Someone with evil intentions uses a secret weapon for their own purposes, thus outwitting the entire spy and intelligence folks. Hard-working scientific folk and a few unselfish public servants struggle to save the world from disaster. In fact, it's almost like a James Bond movie except without the witty dialogue, hot babes, fancy gadgets and polished effect. There is no "hero" or "heroine" as such. Instead we get a ridiculously long parade of nonentities that come and go at will with all the authenticity of a Hollywood marriage. Needless to say, this one rates an F-.

Having just finished this novel, my overall impression is disappointment. It started off with a lot of promise but quickly deteriorated. If Hewson had stuck with a story of just the damage that could be caused by heightened sunspot activity, it could have been not only credible, but fascinating. However, the eco-terrorism angle (carried out by a hippy-like commune called "The Family", no less) seemed so preposterous, I found myself barely scanning the sections dealing with their terminally ill (yet still sex-crazed?) genius leader, Charley. Worse yet, was the dialog. It was as bad as it gets. Many of the statements throughout the book made absolutely no semantic sense to me, yet the characters participating in the conversations got their gist perfectly. I wondered initially what I was missing (or if they may have been communicating telepathically). Unfortunately, it didn't take me long to realize this book just wasn't very well written. Don't waste your time on this one unless you have nothing else to read.

During the Reagan administration, millions of dollars were spent insuring that the Sundog satellite was fully operational. Scientists Charlotte "Charlie" Pascal and Michael Lieberman thought the project was to bring cheap solar energy to the world. However, when Michael learned that he was constructing a major weapons system, he quit. Charlie became a major mover and shaker in its' development.

In the final analysis, the government disbanded the project because the system proved unpredictable and unstable. Mike moved on to become a leading authority on sunspot activity. Charlie, who is dying from cancer, becomes head of the Children of Gaia cult, a group who believes that the only way to save the planet is to destroy it. Sundog is their weapon of choice. Sunspot activity has reached an apex not seen in many a century. This will enable Sundog to perform even more efficiently and effectively. The government turns to Mike, who knows about both subjects to stop his former colleague before she begins Armageddon.

In SOLSTICE, eco-terrorists have the power to destroy jets, cities, and most communications with a Reagan era "Star War's" satellite weapons system. Though the funding, in reality, never occurred, the current crisis of China obtaining nuclear secrets makes one speculate on the feasibility of this plot. However, the real frightening thought remains the fact that the eco-terrorists, for the most part, are conscientious, intelligent individuals whose underlying philosophy takes them down a nasty path of destruction. David Hewson is not condoning terrorism, but making the reader look behind the act into the heart and soul of the activists. Thriller fans will enthusiastically enjoy this exciting tale.

Harriet Klausner

This doomsday thriller is reminiscent of Michael Crichton, but Hewson isn't the craftsman Crichton is, so we're left with a book that could have been better. SOLSTICE unravels a plot of both natural and man-controlled disaster. A series of violent sunstorms on the surface of the sun threaten to cause severe damage on planet Earth. This is further complicated by the presence of renegade physicist Charley Pascal and her cohorts, a group named Children of Gaia. This group feels man is destroying the earth on its own and that it is up to them to bring things back to a more natural rule of things. This involves the use of a supersatellite (Sundog) which was put into space as an aid to manking, but now Pascal is planning on using this satellite to add further destruction to the sun's wrath. While Hewson gives us a broad range of characters in the novel, few of them are exceptionally engrossing, and the elimination of some key players only serves to show how empty the rest of the people have been. SOLSTICE would probably work better cinematically, so that the endless dull spots would be eviscerated in favor of high tension action scenes.

Some hippie fruitloops get conrol of "Sundog" which is "Star Wars" type weapon and decide to destroy all civilization. Well, Okaay. I guess, I could stretch my imagination that far. Enter self-righteous, tree hugging "scientist" who is supposed to save the world because he knows a lot about "Sundog". How? He used to work on developing it until he realized it would be a weapon. After that he walked away from it. Oh, yeah, I could really see myself getting all sympathetic and teary eyed over it. Big bad goverment, how dare they to build a weapon to defend their country. Boo-hoo. Sarcasm aside, this is a very boring book. Story drags on and on without much excitment. I love sci-fi and natural(and unatural) disaster stories but I suggest avoiding this one at all cost.

The premise of this novel is closer to reality than science fiction which makes it a scary read. The characters were interesting and the story moved along. It was quite difficult to put down at times. This is one of the better stories I have read this year.

I have already read Lucifer's Shadow and the Seventh Sacrament, and loved them. I was delighted to find Solstice at my local library, because I love Hewson's writing and his habit of layering different points of view and juxtaposing the present with the past. I love the moral dilemmas he sets his characters. I started to read this novel, and was unpleasantly surprised. The style of writing, for one, made no sense coming from Hewson. Where the two novels I loved read like they were written by an intelligent British author, this one read like something produced in a hurry by a second-rate American writer. I actually had to get online to make doubly certain that Hewson did, in fact, write this novel.

The writing is not the only problem. The plot is all over the place. There are too many characters. I know that sounds like a ridiculous thing to say, and too many characters would not be a problem in a Dickens novel, but it is a serious issue here, as the characters are, one and all, unbelievable and unlikeable, to say the least. Their motivations are bizarre. Their needs are a mystery. The dialogue makes no sense. Nothing about this book makes sense.

Forget all evidence about authorship. I am convinced that Hewson's evil twin wrote this thing.

If you're a fan of Hewson's Nic Costa novels, save your money on this one. The premise is interesting -- a period of intense sunspot activity coincides with eco-terrorists getting control of a sort of "Goldeneye" satellite that can make people spontaneously combust. But we never really know what the protagonist, Lieberman, wants, only that he is p.o.ed about the military-industrial complex having turned his idea for creating unlimited solar energy into a weapons system. In fact, it's hard to get into anybody's head here -- they're all pretty dimensionless.If you read "A Season for the Dead" along with "Solstice," you'd never in a million years believe they came from the same author. Just goes to show that a determined writer can make the leap from so-so to brilliant with talent and determination.

Perhaps the last 1/3 of this this book is good but after wading through the first 2/3 I gave up. Maybe the science is accurate, but I prefer non-fiction over cardboard characters. The dialog is also unbelievable. If the author knows people who communicate this way, then I hope they are in counseling. My advice? Find someone who read it cover to cover and ask them what happened.