Mooreeffoc

Mooreeffoc by Tetiana Aleksina

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


*** Possible Spoilers ***
-- Review at the request of the author --

This was a remarkably well-crafted book from a technical perspective. It was a short story - one incident described from three separate perspectives. Basically two Egyptian deities are incarnated into humans - one via a cat and the other via a tattoo. However neither seems to have much power over the human in question. A third supernatural entity makes use of the body of a waiter to separate the deities from their human hosts and trap them in a box. That's pretty much the basic plot.

The humans in this story have little relevance. One is busy seducing the other but the interest lies in the thoughts and feelings of the deities as they observe the proceedings. The deities in question appear to have a love-hate relationship that goes back thousands of years. In addition, a quick check of Wikipedia suggests that they may have been one deity given different names by different Egyptian religious groups. Whatever the case they wind up being free to love or hate as they choose - if being trapped in a box can be considered freedom. In any event the third entity appears to believe that they are free and takes satisfaction from that.

One thing that I particularly liked about this story was the author's use of vocabulary. Tetiana Aleksina notes in her description that English is not her first language. I believe that I have a pretty good vocabulary but she sent me off to the dictionary roughly a half-dozen times over the course of nine pages which was fairly impressive.

I don't believe that this story is for everyone. It is NOT something to be read on a cell-phone. It isn't the kind of story that you might want to read while commuting to work. It reminds me of spun crystal - beautiful, technically precise, but not something for everyday use. I think it would appeal to a more mature reader - one who is willing to invest some time contemplating what he or she has read. It doesn't have a traditional climax and I never felt myself really involved in the story. Like a work of fine art, it was something to observe as being of unique interest but not something to carry around for day-to-day use. It reminded me of something that might be crafted as an academic exercise. It might make a fairly good concept for a longer story - one that fleshed out the deities - and in particular the supernatural agent at the end about which we learn next to nothing - to a greater extent.

The author did provide me with an inadvertent chuckle - one that was unrelated to the story. In her day-to-day life it appears that she is involved in a software company that is pretty leading edge. By presenting one scene from three separate viewpoints the dialog remains the same thereby indicating that she understands the importance of driving efficiency by reusing code.

Overall I'm rating the story four stars because it is so well crafted. However it loses a point because the characters are not really that interesting and the plot is a little bit thin so a bit more character development and interaction might be in order.





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