Wrapt in Crystal | |||||||||
Sharon Shinn | |||||||||
Ace Books, 336 pages | |||||||||
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A review by James Seidman
The protagonist is Cowen Drake, an agent for the Intergalactic Alliance of
Federated Planets (which is a misnomer, as "Interfed" is limited to only our
galaxy, and thus isn't inter-galactic at all). He is sent to Semay, a planet
not part of Interfed, to help them investigate a series of murders of
priestesses. Interfed hopes that solving the murders will help convince Semay
to join the federation, so Drake is under immediate pressure.
All of Semay worships a goddess named Ava, but there are two radically
different sects. The priestesses of the Triumphantes have great wealth and
political power, and celebrate joy and beauty. The Fideles live in poverty,
spending long hours ministering to the planet's sick, poor, and
downtrodden. The two are so different that no one can understand what would
motivate a killer to target both sects.
Each sect assigns Drake a priestess liaison to help him with his
investigation. Throughout the course of the investigation, Drake becomes very
close to both of these women. Through his dealings with them, he has many
discussions about religion, philosophy, and life. These explorations are very
thought provoking, and are probably the most interesting aspect of the book.
I am not usually a fan of mysteries, but still found the mystery component
of Wrapt in Crystal gripping. At the same time that Drake is gathering
clues, many other interesting things are going on. This made the whole story
much more compelling for me.
I only had one criticism on Shinn's work, and it is a minor one. The dialogue
between the characters often seems somewhat flat or stilted. I frequently found
myself thinking that no one would ever actually talk that way. However, given that much
of the conversation borders on the dialectical, this may have been hard to avoid.
The combination of story elements in the book make for a very unusual and
attractive story. Wrapt in Crystal has something to interest almost any reader.
James Seidman is a busy technology manager at a Fortune 100 company, who needs the excuse of doing book reviews to give himself time to read. He lives with his wife, daughter, two dogs, and 35 fish in Naperville, Illinois. |
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