Customer Reviews

The Tea Goddess

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

 

 

Let me start by saying that I very rarely ever wish for a book to be longer; shorter maybe; but never longer. Now, keeping that in mind, this was novel that barely capped the 90 page mark and could have very easily blown past 500 without even batting an eye.. and that one fact alone made it even more intriguing to me.

Before I get started on the more boring aspects of this review, let me set the scene for you... Think "Babylon A.D." think "Mad Max" think "Concrete Jungle" got it? Great! Welcome to "The Tea Goddess."

Remy and Darling don't know each other (or at least that's what they thought) but when a very odd turn of events (Remy has a mild panic attack and takes it out on a mailbox, and Darling jumps from a moving boat) thrust them together they realize they have something in common...they used to be married, oh yeah.. and they can see the future. After days of endless question and dream analysis the duo suddenly realizes that THINGS aren't always what they seem, and even worse...neither are the PEOPLE they are with. In a race to save a dying world can they save themselves in the process or will their pasts come back to haunt them?

This novel, even though it's length was lacking, was (I have to admit) wildly entertaining; tackling a point of view that is not often thought of. Action Vs. Reaction. Here's an example to help you understand what I mean. I'm sure most of you have heard of the "Butterfly Effect' (no... not the movie, the theory) it is said, that a tiny butterfly can flap its wings and change the course of nature..setting off a tsunami thousand of miles away simply because the smallest amount of air generated from it's wings changed a ripple in the ocean. Now... think of this on a larger scale (this is how this novel works) What if you could see the future? What if you saw that a drought was going to kill hundreds of villagers in Africa, so you change it... made provisions so it didn't actually happen. However...now that you have changed the course of nature (Africa is nice and green) you have inadvertently shoved the planet off of it's axis and 3 months from now there is going to be a earthquake killing thousand in Iceland. Would YOU keep trying to change things or would you leave them alone and live the life you dealt?

"Dreyer" did what nobody does...he created his own genre, called it "Ecopunk," and then wrote a novel with such captivation that I read it in 1 sitting. His ability to describe a torn world and then have his characters see the beauty in it was stunning, however with the good comes the bad. It was a little hard to get emotionally connected to the heroes of the novel (and their battles) due to sloppy character development (I'm about 98% certain this would have been solved if the novel was a tad longer) and there were a few moments (dreams) of repetition I thought were completely unnecessary. (Once was enough.. we get it... Armageddon is coming.)

But at the end of the day...when it comes right down to it... this book was a good one. It was fast, it was well plotted, and most importantly it was entertaining.

My suggestion? If you need a quick read (on a plane or in a train for example) This novel is just what the doctor ordered.

Happy Reading my fellow Tea Goddesses and remember: Everything you do effects someone else... so remember to put down the toilet seat.

The environment will continue to be walking a thin line years in the future. "The Tea Goddess" is an eco-thriller that blends new age spirituality and the urge to get by and pit them against an all powerful government that seeks to control the world. With plenty of exciting characters and an original message for today's world, "The Tea Goddess" is an intriguing and fast paced read not to be missed.

NOTE: This review was originally posted on Red Adept Reviews on April 7, 2011.

Overall: 4 1/4 stars

Plot/Storyline: 4 1/2 stars

The novella was set a few decades in the future, in an era when city dwellers had solar power, rooftop gardens for food, and moving walkways for transportation. Outside the cities, even in the US, it was like the third world, with farmers having nowhere to sell their crops, since the cities were now self-sufficient.

The story involved three strangers who were thrust together under very unlikely circumstances to unravel a mystery that may affect the entire planet. Soon, for reasons unknown to them at the time, they were on the run from bad guys who would stop at nothing to capture them. For the three strangers, learning who they were and completing their mission formed the heart of the story.

There was a lot of action packed into only 128 Kindle pages. The story included an old murder mystery, wild chase scenes, shoot-'em-ups, precognition, reincarnation, and a touch of Buddhist philosophy.

In the context of the story, the ending was logical and satisfying.

Characters: 4 1/2 stars

Remy Porter and Darling Daniels, plus the mysterious Clint, were the main characters. At first, they appeared to have no relationship to each other, but as the story developed, it became increasingly clear that some kind of bond existed between them. As the truth emerged, Remy and Darling came to realize that they had a mission to complete, despite the efforts by Clint to control them. Were their shared nightmares just bad dreams, or was there a meaning to them? And why did some people call Darling "The Tea Goddess"?

Writing style: 4 stars

The madcap, almost surreal style of writing, particularly in the first half of the story, while the plot is coalescing, reminded me a bit of the style of Douglas Adams' classic Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Also, the book was narrated in the present tense, which gave it more the appearance of a movie script than a novel ("Remy chugs the last of the bottle and falls flat against his mattress, eyes closing."). These are not criticisms - the style worked - but I had to mentally shift gears from a more typical style of writing.

There were some minor plot holes, such as when the three fugitives managed to leave England and suddenly show up in the western US despite having the bad guys and the police on their tail, but in the spirit of the story and the author's writing style, these had little effect.

Editing: 3 3/4 stars

For such a short book, I found a few too many typos and misspellings. The Kindle formatting was very good.

This was a very fast-paced book and I was never bored! It didn't feel it dragged or lagged with slow dialog. "Tea Goddess" makes you think about actions and their consequences a lot. I really hope to see a movie of this one day because it's a very visual book and its got an awesome message.

I bought the Tea Goddess after reading and enjoying Dekker Dreyer's anthology "Parasite". This book is a departure from that one's horror undertones. The action is great. It's a novella, so the read is on the short side, but it's longer than other novellas I've read like Shop Girl and Who Goes There. I had a good time seeing the story unfold in my head. The writing style is very descriptive. I liked the romance elements, the spy elements, and the way that the author grounded the spiritual elements in a realistic way.

I liked it so much I'm giving it 4 stars because I wished it was novel length.