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The "Lisa Herbert" Series #1
Lisa's Way
Teenager Lisa Herbert lives in the small town of Mountain View on the planet Fairfield. The "Savage Rain" decades earlier shut down the hyperspace gate and isolated her world. A casual remark from her sister gets Lisa to ask a simple question: "If life was better before the 'Savage Rain,' why couldn't it be better again?" That question starts Lisa on a journey. She re-activates Fairfield's "H-gate" and travels to the three worlds nearest her own: White Rocks; Big Springs; and Lone Star. She finds that each planet offers her a chance to improve everyone's lives, by hard work, trade, or making friends. She relies on her brains, her compassion, and a little sneakiness to solve the problems she faces. But Lisa realizes that the more she accomplishes, the more she has to do to answer her question. "Lisa's Way" presents a heroine more interested in reasoning than fighting, and more concerned with doing good than looking good. It's a science-fiction novel for readers tired of the usual "blast 'em up" or techno-babble, yet it's no weepy romance or surrealistic experiment. "Lisa's Way" is a solid story crisply told. Perfect for pre-teen, teen, and young adult readers!
204 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
1 person is currently reading
43 people want to read
About the author
Robert Collins
223 books43 followersI write science fiction and fantasy. I've sold over 100 short stories. I have multiple novels and series available.
I try to live minimally. I'm hoping to one day live in a tiny house.
I try to live minimally. I'm hoping to one day live in a tiny house.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 24, 2012
When Earth's colony planets start fighting amongst themselves, the portals that connect them are closed. Generations later, Lisa Herbert finds herself wondering why they couldn't be opened again, and trade between the colonies re-introduced. She reactivates the local portal and decides to travel to the colony planets with the intention of sharing the knowledge she's gained from the books in the town library.
Lisa's Way appears to be an attempt by Robert Collins (a fiction and non-fiction author) to create a story that appeals to and inspires teenage girls to step outside their traditional roles. This is a fine aspiration, and he might have pulled it off if he had dealt with the following issues:
1. Collins underestimates every character except Lisa; she's the only one in several worlds who tries to change the status quo and is capable of creative ideas--is this really plausible? No. The only reason Lisa is a hero is because everyone else are idiots.
2. He leaves out important characterization. Readers don't realize that Lisa has feelings for Little Wolf until the end of the book. She spends most of the book travelling and interacting with him, but it's only at the end that the reader finds out that she had been fantasizing about a relationship with him.
3. Everything goes right for Lisa and her companions. There's never a backfire. There's never a failure. There're no opportunities for Lisa to grow and change. She's the same person at the end as at the beginning; in other words, she's a flat character.
4. The dialogue can be boring and is sometimes employed only to share narrative information with other characters--information that the reader already knows and is not interested in hearing again. That being said, it doesn't have that robotic, cliched sound that bad dialogue can often have.
5. There's no subplot. Lisa just moves from place to place, trying to help people. The reader doesn't learn about anything else, and nothing from the outside worlds seems to affect her and her companions.
6. This book teaches that the end justifies the means: Lisa uses violence, kidnapping, and threats to make people come around to her way of thinking.
Structural and stylistic issues aside, the book is cleanly written. Either Collins has impeccable sentence-writing skills, or he employs a copy editor. That being said, if you decide to read this edition, be prepared to ignore some typos.
In Lisa's Way, Collins's attempt to create an inspiring character is a success: Lisa is a boundary-pushing woman. But his attempt to create an inspiring book fails, because there are no other female characters that play a significant role in this book. Lisa surrounds herself with men, and seems to consider herself the exception the rule when it comes to breaking out of the traditional female role; in this book, it really is only Lisa's way.
To read more of my reviews, visit my blog StarLit.
Lisa's Way appears to be an attempt by Robert Collins (a fiction and non-fiction author) to create a story that appeals to and inspires teenage girls to step outside their traditional roles. This is a fine aspiration, and he might have pulled it off if he had dealt with the following issues:
1. Collins underestimates every character except Lisa; she's the only one in several worlds who tries to change the status quo and is capable of creative ideas--is this really plausible? No. The only reason Lisa is a hero is because everyone else are idiots.
2. He leaves out important characterization. Readers don't realize that Lisa has feelings for Little Wolf until the end of the book. She spends most of the book travelling and interacting with him, but it's only at the end that the reader finds out that she had been fantasizing about a relationship with him.
3. Everything goes right for Lisa and her companions. There's never a backfire. There's never a failure. There're no opportunities for Lisa to grow and change. She's the same person at the end as at the beginning; in other words, she's a flat character.
4. The dialogue can be boring and is sometimes employed only to share narrative information with other characters--information that the reader already knows and is not interested in hearing again. That being said, it doesn't have that robotic, cliched sound that bad dialogue can often have.
5. There's no subplot. Lisa just moves from place to place, trying to help people. The reader doesn't learn about anything else, and nothing from the outside worlds seems to affect her and her companions.
6. This book teaches that the end justifies the means: Lisa uses violence, kidnapping, and threats to make people come around to her way of thinking.
Structural and stylistic issues aside, the book is cleanly written. Either Collins has impeccable sentence-writing skills, or he employs a copy editor. That being said, if you decide to read this edition, be prepared to ignore some typos.
In Lisa's Way, Collins's attempt to create an inspiring character is a success: Lisa is a boundary-pushing woman. But his attempt to create an inspiring book fails, because there are no other female characters that play a significant role in this book. Lisa surrounds herself with men, and seems to consider herself the exception the rule when it comes to breaking out of the traditional female role; in this book, it really is only Lisa's way.
To read more of my reviews, visit my blog StarLit.
July 15, 2012
BEC'S REVIEW
Lisa’s Way is a science fiction story told from the perspective of a young woman who wants more from her life. With the only possibilities on her planet teaching or motherhood, she decides to reactivate the portal, which is reminiscent of the Stargates from the television show of the same name, and travel to other worlds to see how she could make a difference. Each of the worlds is recovering to an event that was hinted to many times, the Savage Rain.
Lisa’s journeys into the other worlds for her are an adventure, though for the reader this book can be a little slow going at times. There are no big action fights or battles (though admittedly there are some small fights), and little of the climatic scenes that some science fiction novels have, as most of the problems in the book are solved by cunning and reasoning. Having read a lot of science fiction there were times when the slow nature of the book proved distracting and I had to take a break. I also wondered at times whether some of the other characters, especially some of the mayors, would realistically put so much trust in a strange young girl from off world, should such a situation really exist, and this question of the plausibility of the action of the characters provided another distraction from the story itself.
However at the same time there is a fair bit to like about this book. It is interesting to read a science fiction book that is set in worlds where the future technology that most of these books have is out of use and instead there is a simple society. The solving of problems in this society can’t be done with some whizz bang gadget but is done by Lisa and her reasoning. While there are supporting characters, Lisa is the main character in this story, it is her brain and reasoning that sort out the problems, which will make this book appeal to young female readers who are often neglected in the science fiction realm. Lisa is a strong female character that a young girl could look up to. Overall this is a good read, though a little slow for one well versed in science fiction, with a strong young female character. For this reason I recommend this book for teenagers as opposed to adults.
Source: The Masquerade Crew (http://s.tt/19Ep1)
Lisa’s Way is a science fiction story told from the perspective of a young woman who wants more from her life. With the only possibilities on her planet teaching or motherhood, she decides to reactivate the portal, which is reminiscent of the Stargates from the television show of the same name, and travel to other worlds to see how she could make a difference. Each of the worlds is recovering to an event that was hinted to many times, the Savage Rain.
Lisa’s journeys into the other worlds for her are an adventure, though for the reader this book can be a little slow going at times. There are no big action fights or battles (though admittedly there are some small fights), and little of the climatic scenes that some science fiction novels have, as most of the problems in the book are solved by cunning and reasoning. Having read a lot of science fiction there were times when the slow nature of the book proved distracting and I had to take a break. I also wondered at times whether some of the other characters, especially some of the mayors, would realistically put so much trust in a strange young girl from off world, should such a situation really exist, and this question of the plausibility of the action of the characters provided another distraction from the story itself.
However at the same time there is a fair bit to like about this book. It is interesting to read a science fiction book that is set in worlds where the future technology that most of these books have is out of use and instead there is a simple society. The solving of problems in this society can’t be done with some whizz bang gadget but is done by Lisa and her reasoning. While there are supporting characters, Lisa is the main character in this story, it is her brain and reasoning that sort out the problems, which will make this book appeal to young female readers who are often neglected in the science fiction realm. Lisa is a strong female character that a young girl could look up to. Overall this is a good read, though a little slow for one well versed in science fiction, with a strong young female character. For this reason I recommend this book for teenagers as opposed to adults.
Source: The Masquerade Crew (http://s.tt/19Ep1)
April 23, 2012
Lisa's Way follows a young woman named Lisa. She lives a pretty good life with her father, but her society pushes women into secondary roles. The highest she could hope to rise is a teacher. To Lisa this is totally unacceptable, she has dreams and an impressive intellect that is being wasted. Her father is an important person and has coddled her a bit allowing her access to the family library which feeds her displeasure with her future role.
One day in the library she finds a book that talks about the portals that have been deactivated for a long time. In times long past people could travel between worlds opening them up to new experiences and trade. Learning to use the portal she decides that she is going to go through them and see what lies beyond. Thus starts the biggest adventure anyone has had in hundreds of years...
The book has a good solid feel to it. Lisa is a good character that it is easy to relate to. She just feels that her dreams cannot be realized without significant change, so she sets out to change them. The biggest issue with her is her lack of change through the book. Despite having tasks she is set to accomplish at each stop on her journey, she never really runs up against any seemingly insurmountable odds. What she needs to happen generally happens with a brief conversation and maybe a little trickery.
The worlds she visits are all relatively similar to her own, each with their own series of problems that can be traced back to when the portals were shutdown. There are some good people that she meets along the journey that do add to the depth of the story. Overall I think the book was decent and the premise solid, but the lack of any real twists to the story limited my enjoyment level a little bit. Still this is a good book for a younger audience to show the value of determination is overcoming obstacles.
Review copy provided by the author.
One day in the library she finds a book that talks about the portals that have been deactivated for a long time. In times long past people could travel between worlds opening them up to new experiences and trade. Learning to use the portal she decides that she is going to go through them and see what lies beyond. Thus starts the biggest adventure anyone has had in hundreds of years...
The book has a good solid feel to it. Lisa is a good character that it is easy to relate to. She just feels that her dreams cannot be realized without significant change, so she sets out to change them. The biggest issue with her is her lack of change through the book. Despite having tasks she is set to accomplish at each stop on her journey, she never really runs up against any seemingly insurmountable odds. What she needs to happen generally happens with a brief conversation and maybe a little trickery.
The worlds she visits are all relatively similar to her own, each with their own series of problems that can be traced back to when the portals were shutdown. There are some good people that she meets along the journey that do add to the depth of the story. Overall I think the book was decent and the premise solid, but the lack of any real twists to the story limited my enjoyment level a little bit. Still this is a good book for a younger audience to show the value of determination is overcoming obstacles.
Review copy provided by the author.
May 1, 2012
I enjoyed the story, but would have enjoyed more at the start of the book concerning the several decades of "the Savage Rain" that closed all of the gates that traveled from one world to another. Except for the typos this is a well written book.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews