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| Keeping
It Real
Quantum
Gravity Book 1
It starts on the front cover. Lila has a blend of sass, hardcore metal and intriguing curves. Damn, she's the coolest cyborg ever, and it's a very hard act to beat the Terminator. She's just got so much guts, so much spunk. But why did I buy it in the first place? Now I'm a page-counter and a snoep when it comes to actually BUYING a book. I want at least 500 pages for my R100. I want to get lost in an intriguing fantasy world for DAYS. So at 279pages I already have major resistance with Keeping It Real. I turn it over. And the basic premise of the story gets me. The Quantum Bomb of 2015, the fabric of reality torn, realms enmeshed. I smile, deep inside. Aah! You've made it possible, this fantasy has a solid foundation, and you've done it! You've created the world for all my favourite Warcraft characters. And you've made it all sound so sexy, in a strange blade-in-your-back leather-and-combat dark kind of way. I'm hooked. It's made me understand (again) how vital a great premise is. That first paragraph of the blurb keeps echoing in my mind - the premise has immediate potential for STORY, for many stories. I want to discover them. I want to be in the place you've created. And then there's Lila, who stands there, as if she's saying “Just try me. I'll kick your sorry arse. What you looking at, anyway? Think you can handle THIS? Get real.” Reading into the first few pages, it's all there. I'm going to get cutting-edge technology AND magic. Sci-fi and fantasy, which you straddle masterfully. Your language is hip, new, authentic and even dirty when it needs to be. Respect! I'm a bit prissy when it comes to swearing, for as Dar explains, words have real power, and yet, your usage of cussing is simply great. It makes them real. |
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| Justina,
you have done great! Your talent shines in Keeping it Real. I
am a critical
reader, and will throw a book across the room (whickle .. whiffle ..
riffle .. thump) if the author cheats. There may be moment of illogic
in KIR, but the point is, I didn't see them at all, the story was
compelling, engaging, and so much fun. I wanted it to succeed. I
surrendered to your vision and let it wash over me. Lila has a lot to answer for. I stole my wife's motorbike today (FIRED it up, instead of just starting it as usual, and TORE away). By the corner-junction I was doing 100 already. I eased her past the waiting car and 'traced an arc of beautiful speed into the traffic'. I only realised what an idiot I'd been when the Mercedes squealed up behind me, hard on the brakes, almost sliding. Cr*p! I hadn't seen her. I had to burn rubber to escape the impact. What's wrong with me? What am I doing? For a moment, I had thought I was Lila. How dumb is that? Why would I want to be a girl, and one with half her body metal, at that? Because she is so very cool. She lives with me, even after the book is done. And your sex scenes are .. uhum .. hot. At first I couldn't believe it. She can't WRITE that, can she? She did! Er .. wow. It may sound silly when you see it from the author's side of the page, being the constructor and manipulator of the prose, but you made your sex transcendental in an authentic way, and that's spectacularly difficult to get right. The pacing gets frantic towards the end, wonderfully layered and twisted and so much story happens right at the end - impressively compact. When I close it at last, I am smiling. You've done it, you've pulled it off! This will make a kick-ass film. It's a great romp. Ahh, you've made me want to write again. Thank you, Justina. |
 ABOUT THE REVIEWERGreg Hamerton has been writing fantasy since 1999. His Lifesong cycle begins with THE RIDDLER'S GIFT. |