Sound of Starfall by Scott Palmer
A SFINCS novella
As I drink my tea and pen the ink that is no doubt going to end up in your mailbox in all it’s spammy glory, I had the privelege of reading this book for SFINCS, and I have one book to go over left from my personal pile but this was one that stayed with me.
This is a novella, so it’s shorter and one shouldn’t delve into multiple POVs because it often leaves too much to be desired as you don’t spend enough time with characters to get a feel for who they are and what they’re all about. While not perfect, it did this well in my opinion and it balanced it out. With a back drop of a rebellion, some complex slave dynamics, and even a magic system. Palmer proves you can have a complex system, have rules and balances in place, and doesn’t require hundreds of pages of exposition. Brandon Sanderson could stand to learn a thing or two from him.
This is fast paced. You have to pay attention or you’ll lose your way and you might lose out on something important to help appreciate what is happening. There’s even some science fiction drama coupled along with it which doesn’t feel out of place. The characters were realistic and well done, mostly. There was the case of the supposed protagonist who seemed to be quick to abandon his friend and then concerned about another friend’s honor. This wasn’t consistent enough to me, but I understand that plot has to move forward.
Though, as short as it was it in theory could have been shorter by removing the first scene and it wouldn’t have detracted from the story itself, BUT this is a prequel and the prequel may have the sci fi element play a very important role, so depends really. But that’s my two cents. No, I am not rich.
The prose was strong. it was colorful but it didn’t take away from the seriousness of the themes discussed nor the narration of the story.
I thoroughly enjoyed this experience and highly recommend it.
Someone has come to me why I don’t share universal links on other authors’ works and the answer is I do not have them. It’s an easy enough fix by changing the Com to co/uk or so forth.
Check it out Here