Shimmer

Albatross #2

by R.A. MacAvoy, Nancy Palmer

In this sequel to Albatross, a physicist learns to manage his special powers while under scrutiny from a world that once believed him to be a terrorist.   Despite the most ruthless attempts of the US government, Dr. Rob MacAulay is not a refugee. Absolved of all crimes, which he never committed in the first place, Rob is still very much in the limelight, albeit on new soil.   Only this time, Rob’s husband, along with two headstrong horses, a young neighbor girl, and the faculty of the Harvard physics department all pull him in unfamiliar directions. Teaching, researching, or harnessing the physics of the universe and controlling his tendency to “flinch.”   But Rob’s strange power has an unintended effect on those around him.

362 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 15, 2018

About the author

Roberta Ann (R. A.) MacAvoy is a fantasy and science fiction author in the United States. Several of her books draw on Celtic or Taoist themes. She won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 1984. R. A. MacAvoy was born in Cleveland, Ohio to Francis and Helen MacAvoy. She attended Case Western Reserve University and received a B.A. in 1971. She worked from 1975 to 1978 as an assistant to the financial aid officer of Columbia College of Columbia University and from 1978 to 1982 as a computer programmer at SRI International before turning to full-time writing in 1982. She married Ronald Allen Cain in 1978.

R.A.MacAvoy was diagnosed with dystonia following the publication of her Lens series. She now has this disorder manageable and has returned to writing. (see http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/non...)

Reviews

[Ian Banks · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to love this book more than I did. The authors have created a lively, highly-readable story that feels stronger than the first novel in the series, largely by virtue of being a world they know with characters they have come to love. However, this story feels wild and undisciplined and not in a good way. There are far too many callbacks to the first novel so that someone who comes to this novel without being aware of the first may feel lost. I’m aware that in this day and age that is a poor excuse for not enjoying a novel that is part of a series but I’m of the generation (dear God: I’ve just said, “I’m of the generation that...”) that believes you should be able to come to a novel in a series and not be too discombobulated about the events that follow. That said, it is a fun read but it does feel like a wish-fulfilment fantasy rather than a soft-SF novel about a man and his developing psi powers. Flawed but enjoyable.

[K.V. Johansen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second part of the story begun in Albatross -- a satisfying, excellent conclusion.