Impakto

by Richard Calder

Rebuilt after a plane crash, like some kind of Six Million Dollar Man, Raul Riviera and his artificer, Maximillia Marques, journey through unknown regions to destroy both the lords of his own Impakto world, and the King of Heaven who created them.

Genres: Science Fiction

Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Dark-Draco · Rating 3 out of 5]

Weird, yes - I can't say that I understood all this, but found the story strangely impelling. I was a bit bored by it, too much 'talking' by the main character, but found myself returning to the story until it was finished. Like the whole thing, the ending was just a bit confusing and not very satisfying. Still, it didn't put me off enough not to seek out the author's other books, as the world and characters created were interesting.

[Sorcha]

This started off well, with a different premise to normal, with a human being infested with demons and being pulled into a demonic world being threatened with destruction by God and his angels. The newly infested demon and his controller are set up to kill their demonic superparents, and take their place as the new progenitors of the demon space[return][return]Got about half way through and I flagged, skimming the rest of the way. Agree with other Amazon reviews in that it was overwritten and if only it had been streamlined a little, then it would have perked up and been easier to complete

[Nicholas Whyte]

I find Calder's writing overblown and opaque, and couldn't finish this.

[Stewart · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Richard Calders Lexicon of Theology" ...would be a very fitting alternate title to this book. Impakto is actually too well written- with just a little more flourish the whole thing could have been turned into a very good epic poem. Instead, with his editor sitting back and saying 'yeah Richard, that sounds good' what we have here is a very good story which has been stretched almost to breaking point with far too much emphasis on style over the admittedly good content.
This book is more a fantasy novel than a science fiction one as it deals with demons and angels, heaven and hell and the confusing place of a 'human' from both. The simple fact that there's a 'space ship' in the story does not make for science fiction, in my opinion.
There are very good points in the book about the nature of good and evil, some subtle bits of theology, a few good scraps and a bit of strange romance as well. But with so much time spent in the lead characters poetically-speeched head, you end up skimming through sections to get on with the story.
Could have been a great action packed novella, goes on a bit as it is.