Pieces on Speculative Fiction

5 stars out of 5. Perfect Circle is brilliant story about ‘Dead’ Kennedy, who can see ghosts and has to embrace his talent for a living. It’s a small story, sad story and story with hope. 243 pages packed with hot goodness that everyone should read.

Will ‘Dead’ Kennedy is in his thirties and got fired once again. He can see her daughter only occasionally, because her ex-wife has the custody. Out of the blue a cousin offers him thousand bucks to check his garage for ghosts. From there on everything gets more complicated for Will.

Stewart has a talent for writing great characters, who haven’t really succeeded in life in conventional terms. In other words, Stewart writes about normal people.

Three stars. Passion Play is science fiction murder mystery in Christian fundamentalist America. A great actor is found dead and detective Diane Fletcher is called to investigate, who is the protagonist. She is a shaper, she can read people’s emotions and emotional patterns after some interaction. Sadly her ability is explored only perfunctorily. The interesting parts of the book discuss people’s lives in fundamentalist society.

What I liked the most in the book was describing fundamentalists as quite normal and real people, not cardboard cutouts, their motivations are realistic, even if not to my liking. In this respect the books ending leaves something to be desired. I liked the descriptions of Diane’s professional problems in a phallocentric world, where she was doing what was considered a man’s job. The clashes between her job and social life is quite good.

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My favorite fantasy novels in no particular order:

• David Gemmell - Legend
• David Gemmell - Waylander

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