Streaks and Cuckoos

by Bette Gallard

Moles have been underestimated for too long, but Streaks and Cuckoos sets the record straight. Moles are more technologically advanced than humans and live according to a sophisticated moral code established by their great ancestor Ylem; attributes that will be severely tested when a Surface Dweller decides to build a shopping centre over their colony and the remains of a Victorian orphanage. They will stop her, but only with the help of teenagers Josh and Tony Junior, the Knowing, an English teacher, Sybil the office cleaner ... plus a considerable amount of intrigue, risky business and adventure along the way.

436 pages, Paperback

First published September 25, 2013

About the author

A writer all my life, in one form or other. I started out as a inconsequential journalist then used these skills in a variety of other jobs where the ability to write fact and fiction was always useful. After retiring Paul and I set up a very small publishing company for our guidebooks which, after 4 years, is doing surprisingly well. We also published a couple of what we call 'experience' books. These tell the stories of the two long journeys with our horses, which ultimately inspired us to set up Pilgrimage Publications and the LightFoot Guide title.

I gave up any other kind of personal/creative writing after a bad experience with an agent, but Lucy, my daughter, recently persuaded me to revive the books I had written for her while she was a teenager. On review, I found them to be less embarassingly awful than I had expected and now, with some work, I am finally putting them out there for other readers to judge, in spite of being very, very scared about the reaction or, worst still, non-reaction they might arouse.

Reviews

[Akantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a free copy from a Firstreads Giveaway (thanks!).

This book felt lie a combination of Redwall, Hoot, and the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. It doesn't seem like it should work, but, somehow, it did.

This book could have benefited from a final round of editing. Although I found it to be very well thought out and written, there were an increasing number of typos and there/their your/you're mistakes in the last 100 pages.

The one thing that really bothered me was the way that some female characters were criticized for the way they dressed, wore makeup, or spoke to men. I felt that this was supposed to question the characters' morality, but their characters were already well established otherwise. It was completely unnecessary and cheapened the characters that were described this way, especially since the other 95% of the characters were really well wrought.

However, I still rate it highly despite these issues because the overall story worked so well. I liked the way the parallel events tied together the different worlds, the way the story was paced, and the way the author gave glimpses of so many characters without jumbling the central plot. It's strange because the plot is definitely memorable; I can go back in my head and remember most of it, but I don't know how I would go about explaining what just happened. If you get the chance, you should just read it yourself. Maybe you'll be able to summarize it.