A Peek into a Mind

I had a tooth extracted yesterday and was in pains. I’ve bought a book just to have something to distract me. I was half reading it half sleeping most of friday. Managed to pull through the day without taking any painkillers or anything. In addition to everything it was TERRIBLY HOT and the air contitioner in my room isn’t working. I had to stick with the ventilator. Bummer.

I’ll try to catch on some stuff I should have done yesterday.

but first, a little reviewof the book -

Warchild by Karin Lowachee

Official Synopsis: “When Jos’ parents are killed in an attack on their trading ship, the boy is kidnapped by his attackers and then escapes - only to fall into the alien hands of humanity’s greatest enemies. As he grows into a young man, Jos is brainwashed into becoming a spy against the human race. At every step, his choices are made for him - until the climatic moment when he takes his life into his own hands.”
(I thought the synopsis was much more boring then the book, btw)

I found the book to be very intersting. Quite a change from the type of SF books I usually read (Zelazny is my favorite, specially his Amber series, in addition to Asimov et al).

I think Karin Lowachee did a nice job here. The atmosphere was grim most of the time, people were just a pack of interests (while not being false it was still painted in a dark colors) and the overall feeling was of being trapped. The here, Jos, was just reacting to events instead of having any control.

One last remark on the book - The ending. It is very common to see endings that doesn’t fit it so comfortable. Many books, even of skilled authors, suffer from this problem. I found the ending of WARCHILD to be a little too… fast. The whole thing just took a second to fix - all that was needed was getting the two heads together (warboy and captain Azarcon). It should have taken longer and harder for both sides.

All in all it was a good book, and as a debute book of a new writer, I think Karin Lowachee is on the right path.

A much better Review from James Schellenberg
Another short opinion from Clew

Karin Lowachee Official website
Karin Lowachee online community

Amazon page of the book
The first Chapter
The Godcomm - Fansite about Karin Lowachee, Sci-Fi Author, and her books

Better synopsis I’ve found:
“The merchant ship Mukudori encompasses the whole of eight-year-old Jos’s world, until a notorious pirate destroys the ship, slaughters the adults, and enslaves the children. Thus begins a desperate odyssey of terror and escape that takes Jos beyond known space to the homeworld of the strits, Earth’s alien enemies. To survive, the boy must become a living weapon and a master spy. But no training will protect Jos in a war where every hope might be a deadly lie, and every friendship might hide a lethal betrayal. And all the while he will face the most grueling trial of his life…becoming his own man.”