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Wednesday, September 14, 2011

A Completely Different Book

Seven Point Eight: The First Chronicle (Volume 1)So a couple weeks ago I responded to a request for reviewers on Bookbloggers, a site where a bunch of authors, readers and book bloggers connect and read each other's stuff.  A few days later I got an email, and then a book in the mailbox to review!  It's like the magical book fairy visited!

The book that I received  is called Seven Point Eight.  It is Marie Harbon's first book in a planned series.  You can see her web-site at: http://www.marieharbon.com/, along with more reviews, and information about her and her work.

Seven Point Eight has been compared to Dan Brown's style of adventure writing, with a more fantastical spin..  It is a fantasy / sci-fi adventure told from several different characters' perspectives.  The cast of characters is sprawling, as are the various settings, jumping between England, New York, and outer-space while also springing between the minds of the main characters: Tahra, Max, and Paul. It can be a bit confusing to follow all the leaps from mind to mind and non-linear year to year.  However, this confusion can also add to the sci-fi mystique and the feeling that perhaps the experiments the characters are undertaking are not quite in their control.

The independently wealthy Max Richardson is the sponsor for the research that anchors the characters together.  It begins with an interest in quantifying the human soul using elector-magnetic fields, dabbles in psychic powers and their sources, and culminates in consciousness projection into other worlds.  Many different characters jump in and out of the narrative around the mane trio, who form a bit of a love triangle.  Max is the womanizing playboy with an interest in science.  Paul is the scientist and scholar whom Max has pulled into the world of big money and research sans consequences.  Tahra is a younger woman with psychic powers who is destined to become the lynchpin of the project. 

Seven Point Eight is a sci-fi soap-opera of sex, tangled into a wild plot line that may remind you at various times of Sliders, Avatar, Flat-liners, X-men, and Star Trek style inter-dimensional space travel, all wrapped up in a research saga.   It ends in classic sci-fi style, with perhaps more questions than answers.  If you fall in love with Harbon's world, you will no doubt want to follow the whole series to chase down the missing answers.

1 comment:

  1. This sounds like a wild and interesting story. The title caught my attention right away. Nice job on the review!

    I found you through Book Blogs and signed up to follow you. When you have a chance- please stop by and follow the blog for my middle grade novel that I am hoping to get published. http://thesecretdmsfilesoffairdaymorrow.blogspot.com/

    Take care-
    Jess- although I may show up as Fairday, the main character from my novel. I can't figure out why that happens sometimes and I can't fix it. :)

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