My final book for 2017, a year in which I read and reviewed eighty books on Goodreads and a fair number here on my blog. So did the year end with a bang? Fuck yes! This is a great read from debut indie novelist Paul Grover.
I am not a fan of science fiction. I find much of it relies on military conflict and weapons for the action and plot. Neither are exactly my thing.
I have read some books in the genre that I have loved. Books by Octavia E Butler, Margaret Atwood and Ursula K Le Guin, all female writers, and now I can add Paul Grover to that short but sweet list, and if his photo is anything to go by, this writer is male.
So why do I love this book so much?
I fell in love with the main female character - Mira Thorn. She's my kind of woman, strong yet deeply flawed, lesbian and is driven by an unwavering moral compass.
In addition to Mira, although she was enough to make the book work for me, there is a mix of mysticism with the futurism in Ark of Souls, which I find compelling. Legends and creation stories provide a backbone that makes the machismo of Hard Sci Fi and Military Sci Fi rather redundant. Both subgenres do get a look in here, but they are secondary to the main plot. In fact, like Lilith's Brood (Butler), and Oryx and Crake (Atwood), Ark of Souls is probably most accurately described as Science Fantasy. The magic is science based, but it stills feels like magic. Maybe that's why I love it. That and the lack of jargon in the language Grover uses. This novel is accessible to non Sci Fi readers because there is no need of a glossary as you trip over unfamiliar terms.
The story (or more accurately book one of the story) ends with the promise of a face off between light and dark, good and evil, The Blackened and The Pharn. With this huge Space Opera style story arc I am reminded of books like Barker's The Great and Secret Show, and King's The Stand, or possibly more appropriately Star Wars.
Was there anything I didn't like?
It had a few strange editing issues. Two pages are repeated in full at the end of one chapter that gave me a weird sense of deja vu before I realised what was happening, and perhaps due to late changes in the editing process there is a peppering of misplaced prepositions that appear to have been abandoned at some point. But the story is so compelling this is easily forgiven.
It might be a personal bias, but I think the story could have been told from Mira Thorn's point of view throughout without losing anything of value. While Ark of Souls has a number of diverse and interesting characters who narrate the various chapters and subchapters I am so "Team Thorn" that I barely remember the other heroes and villains.
Why not start 2018 with some great Science Fantasy and pick up a copy of Paul Grover's Ark of Souls? I eagerly await the second instalment. 5/5 stars.
Comments