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Simian's Way: A Terminus Series Novel
Simian Wynwood opened “Simian’s Gate” by recording first contact with alien intelligence. This so-called SETI-Store remained in an incomprehensible state until a young savant used outmoded analog processing equipment to decode it all in a weekend.
After he freely released his groundbreaking switch into the public domain on Sunday, “Bright Monday” quickly followed. Interest exploded. Within weeks, technophiles all over the world began producing countless “inventions” from automated “black-box” factories.
Civilization rapidly changed. Renewable energy, resolved. Global pollution, remediated. Cancer, cured.
Eighteen months later, six-and-a-half billion people lay withered in death, victims of a technological Trojan horse and all murdered at the hands of family, friends and neighbors. In the aftermath, survivors divide, hunter and hunted. Extinction looms. No one will survive Simian’s Way unscathed.
After he freely released his groundbreaking switch into the public domain on Sunday, “Bright Monday” quickly followed. Interest exploded. Within weeks, technophiles all over the world began producing countless “inventions” from automated “black-box” factories.
Civilization rapidly changed. Renewable energy, resolved. Global pollution, remediated. Cancer, cured.
Eighteen months later, six-and-a-half billion people lay withered in death, victims of a technological Trojan horse and all murdered at the hands of family, friends and neighbors. In the aftermath, survivors divide, hunter and hunted. Extinction looms. No one will survive Simian’s Way unscathed.
188 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 16, 2019
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 31, 2020
I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!
Network (film)
Abandoned at 55%.
It's not often I abandon books, but this was just too much. The author proudly proclaims his Rules of Fiction as:
1) Endless pursuit of flawless syntax
2) No sermons and no judgments
3) Limited profanity, no use of f-word
Pity he doesn't pay more attention to punctuation. To be fair, punctuation in the story itself was okay, but not in his rules.
Now in his endless pursuit of flawless syntax, I found the first two chapters perfect. They were enjoyable to read and full of promise. Alas, things went downhill fast. Syntax and diction became so bad, that I just couldn't understand much of the character's dialogue. Maybe mr huff has used a lot of local dialect that might be lost on us hapless Aussies, but it made following the conversation difficult. It seemed to me that, on several occasions, he couldn't think of an appropriate adjective, so just inserted a word that sounded impressive, but was ultimately, confusing.
As for 'No sermons and no judgments' - well I detected a distinct anti-religious undertone to the first, and probably second half, of the book. The author's constant use of God's name spelled without capitalisation was grating, and seemed to imply some sort of irreverence, but then he would correctly spell Jesus with a capital in the same sentence. Hmm. God's name is a noun-proper mr huff and should be capitalised, but hey, it's your book.
Then we have his, 'limited profanity and no use of f-word'. Yes, 'fuck' did not make an appearance in the book, but there was a shitload of sexual innuendo and violence. I suppose violence is unavoidable in a post-apocalyptic world, but the language and imagery used was decidedly R-rated (or X-rated in the USA) and the occasional f-word would have made it no worse, or better. I sound like a bible-bashing prude. I'm not. I just thought the author was displaying a wee bit of hypocrisy. ALSO, one of mr huff's other book titles is, Fucking the Devil so that last rule of his has obviously gone out the fucking door.
On the plus side, the whole concept of this story was imaginative and original, albeit very unlikely, but kudos for that anyway. For me, the writing style just became so irritating, I gave up. 1.5 stars.
Network (film)
Abandoned at 55%.
It's not often I abandon books, but this was just too much. The author proudly proclaims his Rules of Fiction as:
1) Endless pursuit of flawless syntax
2) No sermons and no judgments
3) Limited profanity, no use of f-word
Pity he doesn't pay more attention to punctuation. To be fair, punctuation in the story itself was okay, but not in his rules.
Now in his endless pursuit of flawless syntax, I found the first two chapters perfect. They were enjoyable to read and full of promise. Alas, things went downhill fast. Syntax and diction became so bad, that I just couldn't understand much of the character's dialogue. Maybe mr huff has used a lot of local dialect that might be lost on us hapless Aussies, but it made following the conversation difficult. It seemed to me that, on several occasions, he couldn't think of an appropriate adjective, so just inserted a word that sounded impressive, but was ultimately, confusing.
As for 'No sermons and no judgments' - well I detected a distinct anti-religious undertone to the first, and probably second half, of the book. The author's constant use of God's name spelled without capitalisation was grating, and seemed to imply some sort of irreverence, but then he would correctly spell Jesus with a capital in the same sentence. Hmm. God's name is a noun-proper mr huff and should be capitalised, but hey, it's your book.
Then we have his, 'limited profanity and no use of f-word'. Yes, 'fuck' did not make an appearance in the book, but there was a shitload of sexual innuendo and violence. I suppose violence is unavoidable in a post-apocalyptic world, but the language and imagery used was decidedly R-rated (or X-rated in the USA) and the occasional f-word would have made it no worse, or better. I sound like a bible-bashing prude. I'm not. I just thought the author was displaying a wee bit of hypocrisy. ALSO, one of mr huff's other book titles is, Fucking the Devil so that last rule of his has obviously gone out the fucking door.
On the plus side, the whole concept of this story was imaginative and original, albeit very unlikely, but kudos for that anyway. For me, the writing style just became so irritating, I gave up. 1.5 stars.
Displaying 1 of 1 review