false 4 0 false false Mon Jun 22 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 28 15:48:03 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 28 16:08:01 -0700 2009
If this sounds like a blurb, it was written as one. The very first I've ever been asked for.

And what a treat the novel turned out to be. While I normally shy away from fantasy and sci-fi/fantasy hybrids, Stikmanz's world and his characters sucked me in. His world made /sense/ despite being rather satirical in nature. The civilizations that arise after the cataclysm make sense, in a perverse, amusing sort of way.

Most of all, though, I liked his characters, from Boyd to the gone-to-seed hippies around him, to the Sprite, to the Dvarish. Granted, I felt one of his villains needed a bit more killing than he got, but even that says something about the strength of the characters in this piece.

It's not perfect. There are rough spots with one of the villains as I mentioned. Indeed, I thought the whole sequence with Buck Toof needed some trimming, as well as Buck himself needing to get dead and failing to do so. And the apocalypse itself seemed a trifle fuzzy, and at times the arrivals and departures of the Dvarish were mighty convenient for the story, if not for Boyd, but these are small gripes, and I'm only docking one star for them.

So to Mr. Stikmanz, I say thank you for asking me to blurb this. It was an honor. To the rest of all y'all, if you like a little fantasy brewed into your sci fi, if you enjoy a bit of satire, you will dig this book.

-JRS]]>