A New SF Adventure

Crystal Rain by Tobias S. Buckell reminded me of a Tootsie Pop. While the hard candy coating isn't bad, you know it's covering the gooey chocolate center you'd rather be eating. Which is why I always bite into those things instead of waiting for the candy coating to be licked away. I know, that's a strange comparison to make, but let me explain. We're given a strong hint of the fascinating SF backstory on the back cover flap, and then only vague or fleeting references until two-thirds of the way through the book. While the adventure story is well-written and certainly enjoyable as it vividly describes a blended Caribbean culture under attack from an Aztec-like society, it didn't hold my interest as much as that frustratingly brief and rare glimpse of the backstory did. And, just like the Tootsie Pop, once we were thick in the backstory, it was over much too quickly. But I'm certainly invested in the primary characters now and am already looking forward to the next book.

One of those characters is Pepper. As I struggled to get to the gooey SF goodness of this book, Pepper's chapters kept me hooked. Buckell did an excellent job of making him a distinct and enjoyable voice, even if the subject matter of Pepper's thoughts wasn't so pleasant. While Buckell creates a fabulous and compelling conflict toward the end when John deBrun recovers his memory and must marry the two distinct lives he has lived, Pepper is the more complex and natural of the two. I'd recommend this book for Pepper alone.

Even though I wanted the last third of the book to be drawn out more, to delve more into the information and emotion and detail once the backstory is revealed, I still enjoyed the read. Maybe not as much as I could have, but enough to get me drawn into the Buckell's world. Should be a lot of fun to read more adventures in the setting that Crystal Rain introduced.

This book will be released in hardcover next week. If you'd like to read the first third fo the book before you commit to the $25, click here.

UPDATE: For unique DVD-like bonus features (author commentary, deleted scenes, short stories in the Crystal Rain universe), click here.