Customer Reviews

Warp Angel

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

 

 

I loved this book! The creativity, character development, and knowledge of Judaism was so impressive for a first time author. I can't wait to see what this immensely talented author will create in the future. If you are capable of reading this review, you have to read this book. Magen, the books protagonist, practically burst out of the page as she stuggled to do what was right. The fact that it was told in the far future made it a Science Fiction lover's dream. I can, however, tell you that I don't usually enjoy the Science Fiction Genre, but this book truly broke down all bounds. I strongly recommend you read it.

As a rabbi I found this book fascinating because the author brings into this futuristic novel an intimate knowledge of Judaism. To my knowledge this is the first time that an author has done this in a Sci Fi novel. It is an outstanding book for a first time author.

Warp angle was one on the best and worst books i have ever read and read it twice just to decide the plot and setting is pure brilliance. giving a look and feel to a whole new group of worlds giving you exalant scenes and lots of action. Making warp angel on of the best books i have read. The characters are not up to the same level. they are more in line with a big budget film script and not a novel with odd changes in behavior and several major figures you can not find a real main character but 2 or 3 take the place of what could possible be one making it on of the worst novels. final word is this is be a great read for any one new to SCFI or those not up for reading the wheel of time cover to cover. It would also make a great summer film.

This is such a great book! Stuart Hopen has written a wonderful futuristic science fiction novel that everyone from nine to ninety will love. Well, maybe not for nine year olds, but this is one great book!

This book opens with a MILF-type woman, wearing nothing but silk scarves, attending a rave on an abandoned ship. Ships shoot tinsel, everything is sparkling, amazing, awesome, or awesome.

Really, there's not much to say. It goes downhill from there.

Stuart Hopen did not exactly burst onto the scene in 1995 with "Warp Angel". Since then it's unclear what he's been up to. I've managed to track down obscure references to another book called "Daemon Mask", which appears to be out of print. Beyond that, he languishes in obscurity. Which is certainly a shame, because "Warp Angel" is one for the ages. It is the "War and Peace" of crud. It is bad. How bad. This bad:

Peeling off his shirt, he felt waves of dry, oppressive heat on his skin, the ship's climate controls straining against winter. Weighted by his hologrammed belt, Chev's pants hit the ground. Carefully, he unwrapped the tongs of his scrotal shield and flung it aside. It landed near the knife, clattering in the Devil-haunted shadows.

''He told himself, There is no stopping now. If she can see the future, she knows what will happen next. He took her face into his hands. Surrounding her mouth with his own, he took a deep taste.

She choked as she pulled away, wiping crusts of dried blood from her lips.

"I'm sorry," he said. Her underrgarments twisted in his fingers as he jerked them loose.

Ivor nested closer, trying to sample Chev's desire.'' (p. 206)

"Warp Angel" is not a good book. It has been remarked that with a master, you can take just about any passage and finds examples of his or her brilliance. Similarly, most any page of "Warp Angel" coughs up a sample of atrocious prose. Hopen simply has no clue how to write. He bounces around using the wrongs words, wrong sentences, wrong organization. One hardly knows where to begin in cataloguing the blows that the English language suffers here. Names. The world this story occurs here is called Draconian - so much for subtlety - a city is named Dante and is built in circles, ooogh. Nothing is worse than an author with faux pretensions to cleverness.

I could try explaining what this book is about, but if I did you would likely question my sanity. It has something to do with slavery and a women fighting to rescue her husband. Beyond that no one can say, least of all the author. He can't even decide who the main character is. One candidate, Magen, swings back and forth between being a child and an adult. Characters turn on their friends for no reason, betray or simply ignore their supposed ideals. Ideas are dropped, never to be mentioned again. And the books doesn't end. It merely stops in mid-scene, mid-act, mid-conflict.

When treating with a book so utterly incoherent, there's nothing I can say that accurately conveys what's wrong with it. What were they thinking? Did Tor publish this stinker (in hardcover!) without even reading it? Did no one notice that you can't pull the slightest hint of a story out of this thing? What's going on here? I can make one observation about something staying consistent throughout the whole book. Every female character, at every time, wears absurdly skimpy and revealing clothes. I think that's our answer. After all, science fiction is all about sex, right? It just a bunch of pimply twelve-year-old males reading for gratification, no? That's certainly what Tor seems to believe. Uuurgghhh. This is the sort of book that give science fiction a bad name. I hope Hopen enjoys his spot on the shelf next to Jim Theis, Robert Newcomb and Pel Torro, cause he certainly deserves it.