Double Life, by S. Usher Evans, is a practical journey in wide-appeal science fiction, rather than claiming any rarefied literary or poetic prowess, but I found it to be thumping good entertainment that I liked a lot, enough to read the next book in the series when I get around to it. I also agree that, on the strength of the first book, it is worth running the characters longer to make a proper series.

At first glance the cover design reminds me of the first edition of Dr No, so I had no preconceptions at the start. You know how everyone gives the tip on writing that your opening line should encapsulate the spirit of the book, should hook readers and suck them in, surprise, elevate, puzzle and generally WOW the browser? How about this then for the antithesis of that:

“She let out a quiet, bored sigh.”

Unbelievable. That’s such a risky opening line for a assured adventure that I can only think it was calculated. Did you ever see “The Last King of Scotland”? That had a deliberately dead start, to build a sense of contrast later but in a film you can get away with it. In a book though, they might stop reading. From perhaps the most slumbering opening ever seen, which could only happen in an indie book, the whole thing rolls uphill, develops rails, picks up speed, hits the strait and hares off like a worthy little roller coaster. It’s a pity it had to end, but you’d never guess it had such an appreciable spectrum from the initial dismal hue.

As indicated by the title, the female protagonist leads a double life, which is a good way to start as maintaining that pretence produces a lot of the plot without effort, allowing the author to sharpen the rest. “Oh what a tangled web we weave when we practice to deceive”. What she’s deceiving, of course, is the police – and her university – and her family – and her nefarious alternative employer. Only someone with a lot of nerve could get away with this, so the tension comes from the reader expecting her to be exposed at any moment, that sensation the stack of cards will topple.

The idea that bounty hunting is illegal, but bounty hunters are the only way to bring in criminals who are immune to police action, therefore bounty hunters become the targets of bounty hunters and the whole structure turns in on its own navel is weird. Tragically, bureaucratically, nonsensically odd. Why don’t the groups of bounty hunters merge, so no one ever hunts them? Oh, then they’d have no one to hunt. I get it. How confusing. Excuse me, is this a Whitehall farce?

The lead character is a pretty well-drawn and empowered young spacefaring woman, of the athletic no nonsense kind. Hey everyone! Take me seriously. Respect me for what I am because I can do this stuff just as well as you can, buster. Her unwanted tag-along intern is a real bonus for the story as there’s more to him than meets the eye and there’s a swirl of intrigue around what he’s up to and where his loyalties lie. She has a friend too, who seemingly exists to pull her out of trouble – which she gets into very often, so it’s hard to see how her unacknowledged saviour gets anything else done, keeping a weather eye on her. It’s love on his part, isn’t it? Be honest. Surely they must get together in the next book? These two are like Indiana Jones and the woman inexplicably running the pub hanging off a mountain, who drinks Mongolian tribesmen under the table. What a combination, so stick with it and end in soft focus. That isn’t what this book’s about though, so we just have to try and keep up with the action.

I’m not going to tell you more because if I reveal the plot it would spoil it. I recommend this book because it is a pretty satisfying piece of entertainment fiction. The sci-fi element isn’t as scientific as I would like but that’s the author’s choice of style, i.e. what’s interesting enough to explain in detail and what to take for granted as normal. I think they’ve produced a good book that goes beyond reasonable expectations and thus it deserves a good swim in the mainstream. S. Usher Evans gets the seal of approval. I’ve just come up with that, so don’t expect me to post anything. ( )

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Emily Reads Everything

I have gotten to know Sush on twitter where she’s so sweet and funny. Dare I say we have become friends? I was absolutely terrified that I would pick up her book and it would just be mediocre, at best. Then what if I hated it?!? She absolutely deserves an honest review of my thoughts, but I was dreading making a budding friendship awkward with a negative review.

Luckily I don’t have to!

When I was reading Double Life, I was trying my best to compare it to something in my mind. I wanted to come up with a frame of reference to use while I was reading Double Life. However, I just couldn’t. Everything in Double Life, the religion, the job of excavating planets and especially, the take on piracy was all completely unique for me.

It took me a long time, almost half way through the book, to get a handle on the way piracy worked. In Razia’s world, Pirates have immunity as along as they are a part of a syndicate. Pirate Syndicates pay the police bribes so that members of their group will never be arrested or bothered by the police. The police can’t touch pirates, as long as they are a syndicate member. So pirates go around doing piratey stuff. They steal things and make general trouble and the police don’t bother them. Every time they do a fancy pirate caper, their reputation goes up and with it, their bounty. Bounty Hunting is also a pirate activity, so in order to be a Bounty Hunter, you have to be a pirate. The more trouble a pirate causes, the higher their bounty and the more likely they are that another pirate will capture them and turn them in.

I struggled with this for a long time, because it made no sense to me. Why in the world would Bounty Hunters count as pirates? Wouldn’t the police want Bounty Hunters to stop the pirates? It just seemed like crazy talk. Until! One morning I was in my shower… where I do my best thinking… and it finally clicked. Bounty Hunters count as pirates because it’s a self policing system and the pirate syndicates want it that way. It says it right on the cover if I was smart enough to look. Piracy is a GAME. Your bounty is your points. Every day you stay as the #1 Pirate with the highest bounty, you are winning. Its all about reputation and being the best. But you can’t stay the best for long because someone is always after you.

Obviously I’ve put a ton of thought into this. I loved the piracy syndicates and I thought about it and the ranking systems quite a bit.

I’m a nerd.

If there was one thing about this book that I didn’t care for, it was actually the main character, Razia. She’s kind of a brat. She’s immature. She’s thoughtless. She pushes away the people who care about her. She just has so much growing to do. Right now she’s a bratty teenager and she needs to grow up into adult responsibilities. The fantastic writing part is that I can see it. I can see who Razia will grow into and I know that with some maturing and experience she will be an amazing woman who I want to know.

I could keep ranting about this book all day. I didn’t even mention Sage Teon!

I will definitely be continuing this series. ( )