C. Litka

A self-published book from Amazon, which looked intriguing enough to try out. Despite the occasional infelicities of spelling and grammar, the story was compelling enough to keep me engaged.

36 years after a combination of global warming and solar activity triggered the ‘Storm Years’ wrecking 21st century technology and causing the global population to collapse, a Cambridge post-doctoral student is trapped into spending a summer transcribing a set of research notes for a Scottish peer. The peer’s grandfather apparently developed a way to transmit electricity wirelessly and losslessly but the lab was badly damaged when the first of the ‘Storms’ hit. 36 years later, the notes have been found, albeit badly damaged by water and mice.

The story is told in the form of a series of diary entries as the post doc settles into the remote Highland estate where he is to work and interacts with the locals and the family.

An odd combination of sci-fiction and suspense, well worth the read.… (meer)

A pastoral regency romance. Takes place in an alternate 1900 where there's cell phones but no cars. A Ph.D. is assigned to a quaint country house to transcribe a mad scientist's papers. But more important, the tempestuous daughter of the town's leader is catching his eye. She's a good character, as is the main character's cantankerous boss. But other than that, a lot of them don't have distinguishable personalities.

The prose is influenced by Jasper Fforde's slipstream, but the science fiction elements have no bearing on what happens. Nothing moves the goalposts back. The main character always has his antagonist in the palm of his hand, so there's no tension. I liked the fantastical elements, I wished there could have been more of them. The romance is the best part, and thankfully that's the main part of the plot.

The biggest flaw is that all it does it explain what's happening. There's no chance for the reader to make his/her own interpretations on motivations or character flaws. It has that early 20th century habit of spelling out everything that's happening for the reader. Not in an amateur way -- the story sounds professional -- but it means there's no element of surprise when someone's backstory comes to the foreground or a twist results. And as a result, it's hard to get invested for what's going on.… (meer)