Thursday, June 19, 2014

Serving Time / Nadine Ducca


Reviewed by: Michael Thal

Genre: Science Fiction/Space Opera

Approximate word count: 120-125,000 words

Availability    
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Author:

A resident of Granollers, Spain, a city near Barcelona, Nadine Ducca is a translator and interpreter. Currently, she’s coordinating the Cambridge English Language Assessment examinations as well as translating and interpreting documents for Granollers City Hall. During her free time she writes flash fiction for online magazines and she’s working on Making Time, the sequel to Serving Time.

Description:

Did you ever wonder why we have crime, wars, and pestilence? According to Nadine Ducca, author of Serving Time, the Creator, Logos, after setting up the universe, took off for parts unknown, leaving our universe to be ruled by Time and a legion of demons.

With twists and turns on every page, Ducca mixes mythology, religion, and violence to a new level that may enthrall some readers.

Appraisal:

Through a convoluted plot of settings, times, and characters, Serving Time is a science fiction novel that takes place in the 24th Century in a solar system comprised of many diverse colonies. Eneld Cross is about to leave his home on the moon to help solve the problem of plant life taking over Mars. His brother, Tristan, is sick and tired of his job—corporate assassin.

Fearful of dying on Mars and a compulsion to be his brother’s keeper, Eneld decides to accompany Tristan at his new job—shipping illegal drugs to outlying colonies for StarCorp, an unethical corporation.

This reviewer was confused during a few plot sequences taking pages of careful reading to determine what was happening. Perhaps if the author included transitions that provided clearer sequential plot order, the confusion would have been alleviated.

Ducca does a nice job of developing characters like Time, her kid sister Future, and Eneld. However, the evil that seems to permeate the book is overstated and not reflective of the true human spirit.


Rating: *** Three stars

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