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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Tense and Disturbing,
By
This review is from: The Hidden Worlds (Paperback)
My one word description of THE HIDDEN WORLDS? Tense.
The novel starts when a ship is lost at sea, thus dooming Linnea's village that depends on it for its survival. Linnea and her family evacuate the village, going to an overcrowded city where jobs are scarce. Then, Linnea's sister tells her of a family secret in the form of a mysterious cylinder. Linnea takes the secret to a government bureaucrat with whom she has become friendly, and together they hatch a scheme to use the secret as leverage against the Pilot-Masters to compel them to renew a trade contract with her world. In short, she wants to bribe them. Well, it turns out that the government bureaucrat has just the thing she needs to get to Nexus, and it has been waiting for someone in her family to claim it for years. It is a labor contract. With Iain. Who has no idea of its existence. By the end of the novel, I was still not sure of the motives behind the labor contract storyline. But then, neither does Linnea, so I can hardly quibble with that. I found Landon's prose utilitarian, in keeping with the gritty story. Her writing was entirely transparent and her dialog flowed effortlessly. I would call it a character-driven story, except that term usually relates to the protagonist and his or her motivations. The characters who drive this story are definitely the villains. Throughout much of the story, the protagonists seem like driftwood in a maelstrom, almost powerless to resist the forces around them. Through the self-sacrificing actions of those around them, they finally find a way to prevail, at least in a small way. Some nits: the Pilot-Masters live under a set of birth restrictions that I found unrealistic. The plot does address this discrepancy, but it still leaves much a mystery. I can hardly find fault with that, since this book is the first of a series. I must be patient. I'm also interested in finding out why a society of men would agree to the restrictions that they live under, not to mention why women would agree to be shut out, entirely. And as other reviewers suggest, the brutality was often difficult to get through. However, the absolute excellent pacing of the writing made the novel dang-near impossible to put down, and it earns this review four stars. As for the contents of that mysterious cylinder? At the end of the novel, it is still a mystery.
17 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Top Notch Science Fiction Adventure with REAL characters,
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Hidden Worlds (Paperback)
What a joy discovering this book was! I enjoy good science fiction, but frankly it is hard to find works in this genre that don't come off as shallow and/or formulaic. The Hidden Worlds is most definitely neither! It is very rare to find a science fiction story that provides real insights into the human condition, but Kristin Landon has done so in spades. All the characters are three-dimensional; even the villains have levels and depth to them. The hero, Iain, is flawed but noble; appealing yet frustrating. But it is the heroine, Linnea, that really holds your attention. There are no trite happy endings here, and yet the reader is left with the sense that Linnea represents the triumph of the human spirit over all odds.
What is really remarkable is that, for all that depth, The Hidden Worlds is a page-turner of the highest magnitude. I lost several nights of good sleep because I just HAD to find out what happens next. Indeed, I still feel that way, and I greatly look forward to what Landon comes up with next. Finally, I have to give big kudos to Landon's imagination. It is not easy to invent worlds that seem vivid and real, particularly worlds in the future. So often when reading science fiction these days the reader is left with the sense of "been there, done that." Believe me, you will not feel that way while reading The Hidden Worlds.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Pedestrian,
By
This review is from: The Hidden Worlds (Paperback)
The thing that stands out the most for me in this book was the underdeveloped character motivation. She's brought to his home as (essentially) a slave, sleeps with him, and then suddenly there's a bond so strong they'll sacrifice all that has mattered to them up to this point in order to share an uncertain future. There was plenty of action/activity, but emotionally, there was no build-up in between to get us from Introductions to Self-Sacrificing Soulmates. It felt like there was a huge chunk missing.
The characters' ages also struck a discordant, inconsistent note for me, in particular Iain. He was surprisingly passive, dependent, and naive for someone in their mid-30s. I couldn't see why she'd be interested in a guy who seems a little high-maintenance. And at 19, she seemed like she'd be a little young for him, so it also felt a little...uncomfortable. Since this is the only book of hers that I've read, I'm guessing that some of the undescribed details of this dystopia (like the Cold Minds) are explained elsewhere in another book. Sadly, this book didn't leave me motivated enough to find out.
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