Arty Calls

A seed contained within

I picked up Christian Cantrell's debut novel free on Kindle so I didn't have any great expectations but it was sci-fi. I love sci-fi. Don't I? Do you?

Initially I struggled with this book and it reminded me that good writing is highly readable in any genre and you should base your choices on that. I'm not really a great fan of genres anyway and would much rather bookshops were simply arranged alphabetically so that you could come across delightfully weird surprises in sci-fi and fantasy sandwiched between the ghostwritten 'autobiography' of a footballer and a guide to making chocolate crepes.

One reason I struggled until nearly half way through this book (and I always finish a book I've started) was some wilful description of technology for technology's sake (and I speak as a fellow geek). There was also too much focus on a smart ass male lead (and I speak as a fellow smart ass male) who was difficult to care about and consequently excluded the rounded development of other family members and group characters. Then there was the claustrophobia of the setting - a colony struggling to survive in a harsh alien environment which is fine as long as you introduce a dash of gallows humour and you can then feel comfortable in their company. 

But this book deceives on a number of levels and you have to take it in the context of it being a fairly short novel by a writer just starting out with further adventures of the "Children of Occam" already written which address pretty much all of the shortcomings of this debut. If you accept that, and you have a natural predilection for the genre, then this is definitely worth a look. Now many of us are living digitally you get to see the evolution of a writer online and that can be a satisfying progress to follow from the beginning. Also check out his Star Wars toy comics - it will help you in not taking it too seriously as high literature and to enjoy it for what it is - a fascinating idea imperfectly told.