The Ophelia Prophecy by Sharon Lynn Fisher

Published by Tor Books on April 1, 2014

The Ophelia Prophecy is more akin to a trashy romance novel than a serious work of science fiction. It isn't what I expected from a reliable publisher like Tor. The novel might appeal to fans of romance who are willing to overlook its shortcomings. It didn't work for me.

Asha St. John, an Archivist who studies information that was collected by a crazy survivalist named Ophelia before the Bio Holocaust, lives in Sanctuary near Moab, Utah. One day she finds herself at the reservoir -- with no memory of how she arrived there --- where she meets Augustus Paxton (Pax), a member of a genetically engineered race called the Manti that conquered humanity. Pax and his sister Iris are the product of a mixture of human and insect DNA. Pax grabs Asha and makes off with her in a Scarab. A Scarab is a living mixture of plant and insect DNA and Artificial Intelligence that flies. Scarabs routinely patrol the skies to contain settlements where the human survivors of the Bio Holocaust dwell. The settlements are in inhospitable places like Moab and a bog in Ireland. A human resident of the bog named Beck is leading a resistance movement. Why don't the Manti just kill the few remaining humans and be done with them? Because then there would be no story. The residents of Sanctuary, being none too bright, believe the bugs are afraid of rock formations (!) but the real reason remains a mystery for the first third the novel.

The rest of the novel involves Pax's conflict with his father (who happen to be the transgenics' ruler) and Asha's conflict with her mother (who isn't very nice) and Asha's attempt to reunite with her father (who is encouraging a quarrelsome splinter group of transgenics). The novel's primary focus, however, centers on Asha's feelings for Pax, who for much of the novel is holding her captive and resisting his instinctive urge to ravage her (an instinct that perhaps explains why mosquitoes want to be near us). Eventually the plot devolves into "Can a human girl find true love with a bug-like transgenic?" Asha's stomach flutters (and not because she wants to vomit) whenever Pax says "we" or "us." Sometimes her heart quivers or "the machinery of her brain" locks up when she sees him. This sounds like a medical condition, but Asha is apparently so desperate that she's falling in love with a bug-boy who is constantly battling his urge to rape her. I suppose there's a severe shortage of eligible bachelors in Sanctuary, what with humanity being almost wiped out by transgenics, but still.

The Ophelia Prophecy is not a novel of praiseworthy prose, so any merit it has must be found in the story and its characters. Unfortunately, there is little worth finding unless you are a fan of dull, predictable romance novels. Long-winded arguments between characters are too often relied upon to advance the plot. A scene that requires Aisha to choose between Pax and her father is resolved too conveniently. The concept of trangenics raises profound ethical questions and while The Ophelia Prophecy purports to explore them, it does so in simplistic terms. For the most part, philosophy is secondary to a contrived plot that pits "science as religion" against "anti-science as religion." The secret of Sanctuary's survival is hard to swallow, but that can be said about much of this novel, including the reason for Asha's memory loss. The Bio Holocaust isn't carefully explained. There was, of course, a plague; fortunately it produced no zombies. We're told that "garage labs" created transgenics like giant wasps that threaten not only humans but other transgenics but how any of that happened is left for the reader to imagine.

The Ophelia Prophecy is probably meant to be a metaphorical novel in which people separated by their differences reach out to each other, bridging the gap because they understand their fundamental similarities (including sexual desire). I think the story is also supposed to be a metaphor for oppression, particularly of native peoples (with, for instance, "trail of terror" substituted for "trail of tears"), and the rebel movements that oppression breeds. I give Sharon Lynn Fisher credit for having big ideas but they aren't well developed. Had more attention been given to building the story's background and less to describing Asha's fluttering stomach and quivering heart, this could have been a better novel. Even then, I would have difficulty accepting Asha's love for Pax, which seems to be based on nothing more than "he wants me."

NOT RECOMMENDED

The Bear by Claire Cameron

Published by Little, Brown and Company on February 11, 2014

The Bear was inspired by an actual event that occurred on Bates Island in Algonquin Park, Ontario. A bear attacked and killed two adult campers. In Claire Cameron's version of the story, the adults are camping with two children. Told from the point of view of one of the two kids, Anna Whyte, The Bear is a poignant and startling novel.

Writing from a child's perspective is no easy task. Childlike prose will rarely hold an adult reader's interest while eloquent prose seems artificial when it comes from a child. The trick, deftly executed here, is to show the reader an adult world from a child's eyes, assembling the simple language that a child would use in ungrammatically interesting sentences that reflect the imagination and confusion of a child's existence. In Anna's mind, a cooler named Coleman is her friend, an octopus helps her battle armies of fish, a bear is a big black dog, and how her father's tennis shoe ended up on a big chunk of meat is a puzzle.

The first section of The Bear is written with horrifying realism, making a compelling story all the more intense. The beauty of the story is that an adult reader, who understands what is happening, is more disturbed than Anna, who is too young to appreciate the gruesome and terrifying reality that surrounds her. Immaturity makes children vulnerable but it also protects them emotionally. Anna's immaturity, in turn, protects the reader from gut-wrenching descriptions of loss and pain.

The problem with opening a novel with such intensity is that once the reader's fear dissipates, the rest of the novel feels anticlimactic. There is, in fact, a lull in the middle section of The Bear. While the prose continues to capture a child's perspective, it is a less interesting account of two lost kids.

The novel's final section is stronger. It offers additional insight into a child's world, as a therapist who has no understanding of how Anna is processing reality is determined to help her work through feelings she doesn't have, perhaps doing more harm than good. The sadness inherent in the story as a whole is offset by the humor in Anna's relationship with her brother Stick and by the simple joy Anna experiences when hugging her teddy bear or playing with a neighbor's dog. While it is clear that, as Anna gets older and begins to understand her memories in a different way, her experience on the island will always trouble her, it is also clear that children are resilient and adaptive. At the same time, the epilog (set 20 years later) is both sweet and a little heartbreaking. The Bear isn't always an easy novel to read but it is a novel worth reading.

RECOMMENDED

Runner by Patrick Lee

Published by Minotaur Books on February 18, 2014

A girl named Rachel is running from six armed men and it is Sam Dryden's bad luck (or maybe it's not) to be walking on the boardwalk near his beach home, in a position to rescue her. Rachel can't remember why she's running, but Martin Gaul -- the kind of omnipotent bad guy often found in Thrillerworld, who can make a phone call and gain instant access to top secret military satellites -- knows that Rachel will eventually recover her memory. He wants her dead before that happens. Farfetched? Yes, but not nearly as farfetched as the reason Rachel is on the run.

Runner is a conspiracy thriller with some science fiction elements. Its internal logic is consistent and, if you're willing to suspend disbelief (as science fiction demands), it is more plausible than many conspiracy thrillers. This one twists the formula a bit by pitting two defense contractors against each other. Rachel is caught in the middle.

As its title implies, pace is the key to The Runner. The novel is fun and easy to read because it moves so quickly. That's essential because if the action stopped to take a breath, the reader might be put off by how unlikely the story is. There isn't much character development (Dryden is a clone of dozens of other ultra-competent heroes with military/clandestine training) and to the extent that Rachel was given a personality, I didn't quite believe it. The story won't prompt deep thoughts, but this isn't that kind of book. As fast moving entertainment, it succeeds. The ending is predictable but it's the ending I wanted, so that's nothing to complain about.

RECOMMENDED

All I Have in this World by Michael Parker

Published by Algonquin Books on March 25, 2014

The literary device that binds the characters in All I Have in this World is a Buick Electra. The reader first encounters it at an assembly plant in 1983. A year later, the first black car salesman hired by a Cleveland dealership sells it to a math teacher. Subsequent owners include a doctor in Kansas whose son drives it to Austin and a rancher's widow. Slices from the life of each car owner (as well as an assembly plant worker and the used car dealer who sells it last) are dispersed throughout the novel. The book's structure -- the use of the Buick to tie together lives of disparate people who share universal traits -- is part of its appeal.

Twenty years after it drives off the Cleveland lot, the Buick ends up in Pinto Canyon, Texas, where it brings together Maria and Marcus, the novel's principle characters, each of whom is embroiled in a family drama. Although the novel bounces around in time, it begins in 1994, when 17-year-old Maria enters adulthood in the wake of a tragic experience (for which she is unfairly blamed) that solidifies her desire to leave Pinto Canyon. She does not come back for her father's funeral but returns to Pinto Canyon in 2004. Her mother, with whom she has rarely had contact, has inherited a motel and claims she is too tired to run it by herself -- a claim that Maria credits, given that her mother took care of her dying husband and her dying lover before finding herself alone.

Marcus, having discovered that there is no profit in founding a nonprofit educational center dedicated to flytraps and having lost the land he owned jointly with his sister, packs everything he owns into a pickup truck and drives until he reaches Pinto Canyon, where his truck is stolen while he's hiking near the Mexican border. From then on he is (Maria thinks) trying to find "a way to live his life with somewhat less shame."

In part, All I Have in this World is about people who try to get back the things they once had -- love, family, self-respect -- but never the Buick, although it does help Marcus and Maria recover some things they were missing. In part, the story is about the need to put the past in the past, and the difficulty of reconciling the past with the present. Maria knows she did the right thing at seventeen but still has trouble living with it, while Marcus, knowing he did the wrong thing in his recent past, has the same problem. In part, the novel is about the difficulty of forgiveness (choosing not to forgive makes the world smaller and easier to understand) and of learning to live without it. And in part, the novel is about the difficulty of sharing (a car, a life, a lover).

As you might expect, the novel's larger theme is reflected in its title. Nearly everything Marcus owned is lost. Maria's losses are less tangible but just as real. All they have in the world isn't much. But the point of All I Have in this World, as seen in the story of Maria and Marcus and in some of the lives of the Buick owners, is that making a list of your losses is not the best way to measure what you have in this world. That isn't a new idea but it is illustrated here in an engaging story that avoids moving in an obvious direction. The story combines subtle humor with low-key drama and treats the reader to a convincing portrayal of damaged characters who are looking for a way to live with less shame.

RECOMMENDED

Missing You by Harlan Coben

Published by Dutton on March 18, 2014

Detective Katarina (Kat) Donovan's friend Stacey signs Kat up for an online dating service and who should come up as the perfect match but Kat's former fiancé Jeff Raynes, who is now a widower and raising a child. Well, after all, it's been 18 years since Jeff left her and disappeared so it's not surprising that his life has changed. It is surprising (and ultimately farfetched) that Jeff's picture surfaces during Kat's search, but I can accept one farfetched coincidence for the sake of a good story. Kat experiences considerable anguish over the course of the novel for having a foolish heart (she just can't get over Jeff's tender kisses), a trait that defines Kat's personality and makes her the least interesting character in the novel. Fortunately, Harlan Coben builds greater interest into the bad guys and some of the collateral characters, including Kat's cross-dressing homeless yoga instructor and a female victim who (unlike Kat) doesn't depend upon old boyfriends or an NYPD badge when she needs to muster strength.

The missing boyfriend storyline soon merges with the story of a missing mother. The young man who asks Kat to find his mother has rather improbably located her through her dating profile after concluding that Jeff Raynes is responsible for his mother's disappearance. That setup leads to the twinned mysteries that drive the plot: what happened to the missing mother and where has Raynes been for the last 18 years?

As if that isn't enough drama for one thriller, hit man Monte Leburne is dying of cancer and still refuses to tell Kat who hired him to murder her father. The truth about her father's death (and life) is a secondary mystery that provides occasional diversions from the primary plot. Both the primary and secondary storylines are clever, twisting familiar themes (the danger of online dating, a child's discovery of a parent's hidden past) to make them seem reasonably fresh. The revelation concerning Kat's father's secret is plausible if a bit contrived (I can imagine Coben thinking "What do I need to do to shock my readers?") but is written with sensitivity and compassion.

To the extent that Missing You tries to work as a romance involving the torch that Kat has carried for Raynes, I didn't buy it, in part because that aspect of the story is notable for its cheesiness. In the end, the cheesy romance is tolerable because the rest of the novel works quite well. The pace is suitably brisk and the villains are suitably villainous without becoming over-the-top caricatures of evil. Coben creates satisfying tension near the novel's end that builds to an exciting climax. The mystery surrounding the person responsible for Kat's father's murder reaches a satisfying resolution. In short, while I wasn't thrilled with every aspect of this thriller, it engaged me, surprised me, and made me care about the characters.

RECOMMENDED