Sufferstone

Dolvia Saga #1

by Stella Atrium

On Dolvia the women of the savannah serve under the burka, but Kyle Le was denied that covering by tribal leaders. Only her gift of second sight and the mortgage on her father's land protects her and her three sisters. Kyle Le meets Brian Miller, a Softcheeks who teaches her about offworld politics and accumulating wealth while she teaches him the words of power from Mekucoo. Working alongside the warrior Cyrus, they labor against the mining enterprise that robs the savannah of it mineral wealth and leaves the tribes with only the scarred and suffering land. ... an intriguing tale. The struggle to overcome oppression, to preserve a way of life, to maintain compassion in a cold and hateful conflict, is always interesting and involving ... Atrium has a flair for creating and maintaining an atmosphere of mysticism and mystery ... she stays true to the situation, never slipping out of the frame she has set. -- Lisa DuMond, online reviewer of science fiction

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

344 pages, Paperback

First published December 14, 2011

About the author

Stella Atrium is a cynical septuagenarian. She has spent a lifetime exploring female characters for real world reactions to obstacles. Often pushed into submissive and non-verbal roles, women really live in a world of networking among aunties, cousins, wives of husbands, convenient friends and neighbors. This rich world is largely unexplored.

“I grew up with all brothers, so I knew about women from stories and from school. What I found at school wasn’t anything like in the stories, so I set out to learn why.”

Reviews

[Bob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alrighty, totally honest review time here. Having been fortunate enough to win the book(through Goodreads First Reads), I feel that I owe a review in return...although in this case it certainly is no chore.

Now, the world of independently and self-published books is fraught with hits and misses, there really isn't any guaranty of quality. For many people, this uncertainty keeps them away from such publications, staying with the major publishing houses. Of course, even the best of authors can have a problem getting a break with a publisher and those are the authors and books that many people end up missing out on.

If you don't read independently published books, then you have not read Sufferstone. If you have not read Sufferstone? You are missing out on one of the best books that I've read in a while. I don't give out five stars for just any book.

The book itself is billed as Science Fiction, though I'd be more inclined to call it anthropological fiction set against a sci-fi backdrop. Readers will find no bug-eye aliens here, no starship battles, or anything of the sort. What Sufferstone delivers is [b]powerful[/b] human drama that unfolds from the viewpoints of several characters. The fact that it takes place on another world is almost secondary, merely a storytelling device than anything else. Simply put, the story just encompasses so many things, and is balanced so well that it doesn't even seem like fiction.

Author Stella Atrium does not needlessly rush, or prolong this story. Her sense of pacing is spot on perfect, drawing the reader in and holding them spellbound as she weaves a tale that is not alien on our own world... a tale of a corporation that seeks to subjugate the local natives and take the resources of the land. This type of story rings true because it [b]is[/b] true. One only need to look at the plunder of Africa's resources under colonial rule to find ample examples.

Yet, easy as it would be to just tell a story about an "evil corporation", Sufferstone is a tale of people; a story of their cultures, their philosophies, and their struggles. One finds themselves caring about them all, basking in their victories and bemoaning their losses. The author isn't afraid to mete the occasional emotional gut-punch to the reader either. This author has no fear, for the story seems to unfold as it must. It isn't forced, or cliche, it just...is.

Sufferstone goes far beyond a matter of me recommending this book. It moves to the area where I question why you have not read it. Read it, you cannot regret it.

[Mirrani · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a fan of sci-fi and someone who is interested in the various cultures the genre provides, I was excited to win Sufferstone in a book giveaway. While I was not disappointed in discovering a new culture, I found the book to be confusing and disappointing, not really delivering what I was expecting it would. I had hoped for a riveting story of the changes that happen in a new culture when humans come in Stargate-style and begin involving themselves with a culture that isn't their own. What happens when you teach a new people new things? I was intrigued when I discovered these desert people with their own cultures and beliefs were going to have those challenged by industry.

What I found was that because the story is told in the first person, from the perspectives of several different people it was difficult to get to know the characters or events in any given section, because there was no clear definition in the beginnings of each new section regarding who the narrator was at the time. Also, though it was wonderful to see the desert culture so well thought out, it was very badly described. Either the readers are supposed to already understand what is going on from some other medium or they are expected to flip back and forth from the story to the glossary of terms as they read, something I found to be very distracting.

Among the many distractions from the book is the fact that some characters go by multiple names, often these names change in the middle of a sentence. This is based on culture; you must refer to the person in the context of their actions. This is all fine and wonderful if you can understand the context of their actions. For me, it was not so much that one character had three or four names, but that each name represented something the person had done or related to how what they were doing affected their position in society. If the reader can't put an order to the character's actions, how are they expected to comprehend when each name is being used for the purpose it is intended?

Some of the other difficulties I had when reading is that things seem to happen for no reason and that time has no linear meaning within the pages of the book. You can read a page that takes place in a day or you can read a page that jumps months at a time between paragraphs with no real divider to explain that time has changed. While I enjoyed the perspectives changing from one character to the next and the story continuing that way to give us fresh insight as to the action and its consequences, if you can not understand why the action is taking place, it makes the plot somewhat muddy. You think to yourself "This is a wonderful story idea, but why is it all happening?" This is another big distraction as you are reading. What compels these characters to act as they do? What is the motivation in their going through their actions? Between this and the time jumps I found myself thinking I'd missed a good chunk of the book while I sat and read it.

After about half-way through I began to understand the storytelling process and the section told from the point of view of the desert people themselves explained quite a lot about why things were happening the way they were in some instances, which made for very good reading. I was not disappointed in regards to the new desert culture. Though it was complex, the culture itself was unique with just the right hint of familiarity to make it easily to see the reflection of life here on Earth.

Overall, the idea behind Sufferstone was a good one, but the execution made complete enjoyment of the experience a little difficult. It is possible that if the reader already had a background from which to base their reading on or if they were to read the book more than once, the story would easily grow in their hearts and minds and become something to treasure. As it is, this first book in the series is an interesting introduction to a cultural clash that I can only hope will improve in later continuations.

This is a book of science fiction and history all rolled in to a good story filled with family, conflict, struggles and love. It is truly as unique as it sounds and the experience of reading is even better. The characters shape their futures in ways that they would never expect.

There are not many stories of time travel where you /want/ history to change, but in this case it is all that you hope for as you read along. The reader becomes so caught up in the lives of the characters, in the hope of the future, in the dream of making a change that we forget what most sci-fi stories tell us about time travel; that changing what is happening in the past will alter our future unimaginably. This idea that it was somehow "meant to be" was refreshing and really helps the reader stay with the emotion and experience of the book itself rather than worry about the future timeline going awry.

I'm not a history nut, but the book seemed historically believable. I only questioned that perhaps it was a little too easy for the two main characters to become settled in a timeline that wasn't their own. The story itself pulls the reader in, bringing you into both the history of the situation and the emotional elements as well. It was wonderful to see a woman in the civil war era come to her own, find a way to go against stereotype and help to take care of her family, even if it was all done because she was from the future. I'm certain that there are more stories of that type to be told, since women /had/ to have a larger role once the man of the house was gone, but telling the story through time travel made it interesting and entertaining.

Kindred Spirits is a wonderful book that fans of time travel, history, and the family story will be unable to put down. It is both touching and uplifting, reminding us that we can always make the best of the situation put before us Certainly not one to be missed.

Note: Though this book was a free gift from the author, the content of my review was in no way influenced by the gifting. The book speaks for itself and my review would have been worded just this way even if I'd gone out and bought it.

[Jacquie Talento · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was very fortunate enough to win this book on a LibraryThing giveaway. Sufferstone is one of the most completely unique books I have ever read and I found myself wrapped up in it and unable to put it down. I’ve always hoped for some of the books I read to contain a glossary in the back of the book giving me some kind of description of the places and the people and I finally found one that added to my excitement. Ms. Atruim has created a masterpiece with Sufferstone. She is a wonderful writer and I found this was an exciting read for me. I hadn’t found any science fiction fantasy that kept my interest until I read this one. Her character, Kyle Le is very strong willed and someone you would want fighting on your side. This is one book I would love to see made into a movie. Wonderful job Ms. Atrium.

[Richard · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was intrigued by the synopsis of this book, and I was excited to read about a different and somewhat primitive culture and the effects of a technological rich human race had on them. The culture and concept was different to your average science-fiction story and I had looked forward to reading about them, unfortunately I was disappointed with the book for a number of reasons.

Firstly there was a lot of culture and world building in this novel, while I do enjoy reading about cultures made up by authors, especially if they are rich as they are in this story. In this case the author took it too far, I felt the heavy emphasis on telling the reader about the world came at the expense to the plot, story and characters.

There is so much culture in the book that it made it hard to follow and with so many unusual concepts in the world I was lost at times. When ideas are revisited they are not usually re-explained making it hard to remember what something was about.

The story jumps around a lot in time, sometimes a short time occurs between one paragraph and the next and sometimes weeks or months have gone by with no real description on what has happened in that time. There were plenty of times where we are not told why something is happening just that it is. This made me feel disconnected to the characters and the story.

The physical descriptions are also lacking, and it was hard to visualize what people and things looked like in the book. There might be a little description when a character first appears but whenever they come back we are not retold what they look like so it was hard to put a face to a name.

There is a large cast of characters in this book. The big problem with this is that characters are referred to by different names depending on who is talking about them and in what context. While this is a nice idea, it did make it really hard to know who a certain character is and how they tie in with the story. There is a glossary at the end of the book which tells you something about each character, but it has its own problems. Firstly characters only appear under one of their names, so if you don’t know their other names you may not be able to find them without looking through the entire glossary to find them. Secondly the glossary contains spoilers, such as who a person will marry later in the book, the children they have and even if they die.

The characters themselves I found to be fairly dull, there was nothing about them that really drew me to them or excited me. The story is told from first person, but the characters rarely reveal their emotions or inner thoughts to the reader making them feel cold and distant.

The first person style writing had problems of its own. There are a few POV characters and the story is always told from first person perspective. The first three parts each follow a different character. When a new part starts we are not given any insight on who the new person is, where they are, and at what time-frame their story is compared to the rest of the story. This confusion could go on for a few chapters before I had all the answers. The forth part of the book was the most confusing in this, as it follows one character, sometimes it seemed like it was following other people but I was never really sure. It wasn’t helped by the weak character voice, making it hard to know who you were reading about.

There are very few action/exciting scenes in the book. Most of the time they are told by characters after they have happened and it loses all of the tension and excitement at that point.

Overall while it is clear the author spent a lot of time developing the culture of their world, it didn’t come across to me very well as the reader. The story suffered as a result of the heavy telling of the culture. The characters seemed dull to me and I had a hard time connecting with them.

In full disclosure I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway.

[Christopher Gerrib · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some books are easy to review, whiles others, not so much. For me, SufferStone falls into the latter category. Stella Atrium, the author, is local to me (Chicago) and I think I’ve seen her around at various science fiction functions. I found out about the book via an email, and I asked for a copy to be sent to me. So, on one hand, I want to recommend this book. On the other…

Stella’s web page and back-of-book blurb says in part, “I began to wonder why the protagonist in a sci-fi or fantasy story was always a man, even when the writer was female.” This baffled me, since I’m a big fan of Elizabeth Moon, who writes books chock full of female characters. I suspect it would baffle Ms. Moon, who recently had a bit of a rant on the “missing” female characters. (Hint – they’re not missing at all.)

At any rate, when I started reading SufferStone, I was expecting a female protagonist. I was wrong – the first 91 pages are told from the point of view of a man, one Brian Miller of Earth. He also tells the conclusion of the story. This got me thinking about other world-building questions. Miller is from Earth, and works with / around the Company, an autocratic entity controlled by Chinese and given near-Imperial powers. Okay, fine – humans have colonized at least part of the galaxy. Miller is sent to Dolvia, a planet being colonized by humans. Except there’s already a large human presence there, which has been on-planet long enough to develop tribal customs and relationships with the planet. How did the humans get there?

Another factor which drives the book is a decision by the Company to mine uranium at a site sacred to the locals. In the book, the author has miners getting radiation burns from uranium. Well, here on Earth, naturally-occurring uranium doesn’t have nearly enough radioactivity to do that. In fact, the main threat of uranium mining is inhaling radon gas in closed mines, which will eventually cause lung cancer. Some of the other authorial decisions had me scratching my head. Miller is tasked with getting a local clothing mill operating on Dolvia. That dominates the first 91 pages, and once we get to more substantial events, all the action is off-stage. Lastly, Atrium has invented a native language in which the same character can have multiple names, sometimes in the same sentence, and I found myself struggling to keep track of who was who.

In short, SufferStone is probably not the book I would have written. On the other hand, I did find myself being drawn into the book. Based on what I had written above, I would have expected to not finish SufferStone. But finish it I did. I found it oddly fascinating, and something about the book kept drawing me into it. I think part of what pulled me in was seeing the patterns of imperialism playing out again. I also think that Ms. Atrium made me care about the characters, thus I cared what happened to them. So, I’m putting SufferStone down as an interesting read.

[Vee41dmb · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the first book I have won from Goodreads. I have decided to do my review as I read the book.
First of all I would like to say that it arrived VERY fast. Thank you!

First Impression: The cover art is horrible. I am sorry to admit this, but it is what helps draw you to the book if you know nothing else about it. Paired with the title this is a book I would pass by in a second. It makes the book appear dull and boring.

The back cover author note: The author states that she grew up reading Scifi and founds it upsetting that there are not women protagonists in the genre. She states that this is why she started writing. I find this intrigued and it made me more interested in reading the book.

The description of the story: I am new to reading scifi and the story sounds interesting. However, as I stated earlier if I saw this book sitting on the shelf in a bookstore there would be nothing drawing it to me.

The book itself:
I just started reading this book. I was VERY pleasantly surprised at how well it reads and how the story draws me in right from the beginning. There is a glossary in the back stating what places are, and who people are in relation to the story. I think this is a great idea for those who are not used to reading Scifi, however find it unnecessary so far. I'm enjoying the story and am glad I won it.

PART TWO :I just entered part two and have to say that it is MUCH better than part one. I was growing bored with the first part of the story. So far I wish the author had started with the main female character from the beginning. I understand the first part of the story was back history leading to the introduction of the main female character, yet I wish she had told it a different way somehow. All together so far it is okay. I do not feel deeply invested in the story. It still keeps me reading though and I am curious to see where it leads.

Okay so I made it halfway than gave up. Please forgive me, but I just lost interest too many times. I did give this book 2 stars, because it wasn't horrible. I don't want to say it was "bad", but instead simply not for me.
Thank you for sending me your book.

[George · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, I was not very impressed by this book. The worlds, societies, and cultures created are very rich, but the story and characters were very lacking. Overall I found this book more confusing than anything. It was relatively slow paced (even though at times months or years could go by in a matter of a few paragraphs). The abundance of characters with strange names, odd titles, and extra nicknames or honorifics made things very difficult to follow through most of the book. Some of the characters went by 2, 3, or even 4 different names and I'm not sure, but sometimes the name being used even changed within the same paragraph. And it wasn't clear at all why one name would be used over another. To make matters worse, I found it very difficult to visualize most of the characters. There are very few physical descriptions given and the few that are given are mostly superficial. Many of the characters were completely covered by burkas, but sometimes they were uncovered (leaving me confused as to when a woman was supposed to be covered and when they could be uncovered), yet I couldn't picture faces of anyone really. Once I resigned myself to the fact that I wouldn't be completely sure who was who throughout the story and just relied on generalities, I was able to follow the overall plot a little better. However even that story was muddled and difficult to discern. And then, just when it was starting to get interesting toward the end (at the 96% mark) it just ended. All the action that the first 320 pages slowly and gradually built up to were over in about 8 pages, including the line "And now I must finish my story quickly, for time is short." The novel would have benefited from a lot of editing and possibly a few rewrites. There is a good idea here, but it was poorly executed. If I hadn't won the second in the series I would have put this down after the first 60 pages or so. But I felt obligated to finish this so I could give the next one an hones effort, but I'm not really expecting much from HeartStone.

[Masquerade Crew · Rating 3 out of 5]

BEC'S REVIEW


Sufferstone is one of those stories told in multiple parts, with each part being a different first person perspective. As a result there were times when it took a few pages to work out whose perspective I was reading. Further, some of the parts start (and in one case finish) before the beginning or the end of the previous part, making it difficult to construct in your mind a linear progression of the story. As the story itself can move months, weeks or only hours in a few paragraphs, this task of trying to get a sense of time is made even more difficult. As such I never had an idea how long had passed between events in the story. This was not helped by long paragraphs with no visible gaps between events.

As a result there was a bit of confusing when reading Sufferstone. It isn’t until halfway through the book that you learn just what Sufferstone is, and I feel it isn’t really until halfway through the book that the story picks up or that I began to get interested in the story. The first part of the story, told from the perspective of Brian, was the one I found the most confusing in terms of time and what was occurring, and was one of the longer ones while doing very little to further the story from what I could tell beyond providing a lengthy background to the actual story. The confusion I felt in this chapter was not helped by providing terms and customs of the native people to the land that were not were not explained until a later chapter.

There were times when I did find myself not only understanding the events of Sufferstone but also enjoying it. Sadly though most of my time spent reading Sufferstone was spent in a state of confusion. I do feel there is a story under all the confusion somewhere and one that could be quite interesting if only the confusing aspects caused by time and aspects of the natives unexplained could be fixed. When I knew what was happening I was engaged in the story. It’s a shame that didn’t happen all the time.

[Frank · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book grabbed me right in the first paragraph and pretty much held my attention all the way to end; that really isn't the end. But note that you are told right up front that this is book #1 of The Dolvia Saga so don't expect a really great ending in this book. Still buy the time you get to the end you are ready for a break exhausted with all the suspense and work along the way. Although Miller talks about going to Montana to raise horses he is stuck in outer space struggling to find his nitch and survive a Universe that isn't all black and white. This is a person who works the angles and seeks out survival when it doesn't seem possible; never-the-less he is one who will also ride a white horse for a good cause. Following him around in the fronters of space and share the adventure and problems he gets into as he works with those being taken advantage of. It's a fascinating read.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won a signed copy of the book SufferStone through a GoodReads giveaway.

SufferStone is one of my very first science fiction books I have ever read and I was not disappointed in the least bit. It was not at all what I expected to be, I thought it would be a cultural/history lesson of the people which is was but it was also more than that and so it surpassed my expectations. At times I was confused as it seemed to jump time spans and points of view quite often but with that said, I loved the glossary located in the back of the book. The glossary explained different aspects, places, and characters in the book. This made it easy for me to follow and proved very helpful if I had questions, became confused, or simply needed to remember something to continue following the story. All in all I enjoyed SufferStone and would recommend it.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

At first this book was hard reading for me, it seemed like I was reading a history textbook instead of a novel; not what I was used to. Then, as I read more the realization came that the people are there to tell the tale, as Dolvia wills.

The story begins with the Company. The Company smiles. The Company gives and gives until greed springs its trap and the Company controls everything and the company wants everything of value on Dolvia. Dolvia is a planet. Dolvia's will controls the people, the ecology, everything that comes in contact with Dolvia. This is the tale of the struggle between the Company and Dolvia told by the people who were there.

I'm ready to read the second book in the series, HEARTSTONE. I can hardly wait to find out what comes next.

[Teressa · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was really hard to read, and honestly I didn't finish it. It's written in first person and the narrator jumps around from event to even without much segue that it's really hard to follow. The entire first part of the book takes place over a couple of years but you just get the impression of a few months.

I picked this book up because I won a copy of the second book in the series from a contest, however I don't believe I will be attempting to read the second book. I do apologize to Ms. Atrium for this, however if she would like her copy back I will send it back. Just message me if you do, Ms. Atrium.

[Kylie · Rating 3 out of 5]

What comes to mind first is that the style of this novel is Space Colonization meets Heart of Darkness. The writing feels very late Victorian which I enjoy but surprised me anew every time I sat down to read. The Sci-fi, fantasy, and tribal elements of the story balanced very well, I especially enjoyed Kyle Le's reaction to seeing photographs of her planet from space. The end felt a bit rushed but still wrapped up well. Overall, I wouldn't go out of my way to recommend this to a friend but if a friend picked it up I wouldn't discourage them either.

*This is an honest review of a book I won through Goodreads giveaways*

[Lesley · Rating 2 out of 5]

How can so much time go by in just paragraghs??? I don't know I guess this one didn't sit well with me. I won this through goodreads and so wanted to like it but I got bored and would read a chapter here and there. It literally took me from getting this in August 2012 to tonight Jan 29 2013 in reading this. In fairness at times I would go a whole week or two before trying more of the book. The goodreads paragragh to sign up for the book wad so appealing but just wasn't for me. Though to be honest I will read anything but scifi is not top of my list.

[TS · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received this book some time ago from a Goodreads giveaway and recently pulled it off of my to-read shelf. I am sad to say that I put it back on my to-read book shelf. I got maybe halfway through and put it back for a later time. I just could not keep up with the names and the name changing and who's who. This book was very confusing for me. I would have to reread some parts because I felt as if I were missing something. Time seemed to flash by in a matter of sentences or paragraphs. I don't usually stop books mid way through, and maybe I will get back to this, maybe not.

[Josie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a signed copy through a Goodreads Giveaway.

I got sucked into the story pretty quickly although I was very confused for a long time. There was so much information to try to process, but at the same time I couldn't put the book down. It just kept drawing me in and throughout the book all my confusion was cleared up. I definitely enjoyed this book.

[Natalie · Rating 1 out of 5]

***Review Copy***

Honestly I could not read another word. The book is written as though it were an advanced calculus textbook, you have to work at figuring out what the writer is even talking about. I got fed up after the 4TH Chapter and called it a day.
Nothing against sci fi but this book was just too much for me.

[Phoenix Carvelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Won on Goodreads.com on 2-9-12.

Very descriptive and great character development throughout the book. A wonderful job was done differentiating the various tribes and character groups. I look forward to the next book in the series.

[Felicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book from GoodReads first reads. I liked this book mostly. I thought that it was confusing at times but the story was good. Futuristic and being on a different planet- different cultures .

[Lulu]

I won this book from the first reads giveaways and I am so excited to read it. Thanks.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book. Enjoyed it from start to finish. Great attention to detail in both characters and setting. Held my attention well. Looking forward to the next saga.

[Riley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very good book and I enjoyed it very much.