Reviewed by: Keith Nixon
Genre: Sci-Fi
Approximate word count: 35-40,000 words
Availability
(note:
These are available as three volumes or in a collection with all three. These
links are to the collection)
Click
on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or
Smashwords store
Author:
The author
is a highly qualified engineer who was born in California but now lives in Chicago
with her family.
You can
learn more about the author at her website.
Description:
This is a
collection of three short stories – Delirium,
Agony and Ecstacy - of roughly
equal length.
Lirium is a
debt collector. People nearing the end of their lives can sell their remaining
time on the planet to clear their financial commitments. An agency exists to
transfer this life force to those that can best use it – scientists involved in
developing products to make the world a better place, for example.
But there
are plenty of people who want to put this life force to use for their
own base purposes
rather than those of mankind as Lirium finds out…
Appraisal:
I was drawn
to this series of short books by the genre description of ‘future noir’. As a kid I read a lot of sci-fi (where I
would plant this book) and now a lot of noir so I felt this would be an
interesting read. I wasn’t wrong. The writing is surprisingly compelling and
the world the main character, Lirium, inhabits is well drawn. It’s not
particularly gritty (compared to what I typically read at least) and it drifts
towards being aimed at the YA genre. Yes there’s sexual references, but it’s
relatively tame and there’s no swearing within.
In the
first story, Delirium, we are introduced
to Lirium. He’s twenty but looks significantly older, his two years as a debt
collector, like a human grim reaper, has been hard on him. He constantly fears
for his life, sees danger in every shadow and can’t have any friends. After a
hit he comes back down to earth with vodka and a sex worker, but this latter
woman, Elena, has a difference - a sick sister who needs the life force to keep
her alive.
In Agony Lirium has moved on, literally
leaving Elena behind him. He meets his case handler who spots the trouble he is
in and assigns another collector, Ophelia, to help him. However the mob get
their hands on Ophelia.
Ecstacy finds Lirium desperate to find
Ophelia, despite being told she’s more than likely dead. Lirium also comes back
into contact with Elena and meets her madam. The sex workers are actually
working for good (I’ll let you find out how) and want Lirium to join their
cause. But Lirium is solely focused on finding Ophelia and goes to the mob to
get her back…
This was strong
writing that kept me wanting more. There are plenty of hooks and depth to the
stories. The characters are good, the dialogue interesting. It left me keen to
read the rest of the series to see what happens to Lirium.
FYI:
Mild sexual
references.
Format/Typo Issues:
None.
Rating: **** Four Stars
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