Review: Paradigms Lost, by Ryk Spoor
Mar. 7th, 2015 04:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jeriendhalSummary: It's 1999 and Jason Wood is a private information analyst, working through the Internet and with advanced photography enhancement software to aid private clients and the police. One of his police assignments gets rather weird though, as a corruption case against a politician hinges on a photograph of him taking a bribe from a man who can't show up on film...
Shortly thereafter Jason and his love interest (and minor psychic) Sylvia Stake [1] find themselves, er, neck deep in the supernatural, as they uncover ancient vampiric drug dealers, a werewolf infested resort town, a boogeyman, and the return of magic to the world...
Review: This is one of Spoor's first novels. Or to me more accurate, it's a fixup of several novellas originally published as Digital Knight then expanded greatly to include a tighter overarching plot to the story. I think I would have liked to have read Digital Knight first to get an idea of how they were first written without the Overplot, which involves reincarnated Ancient Atlanteans. Combine the new plot with the original novella formats and the results a trifle uneven.
Overall it's a fun book. Spoor is a good writer and a computer tech head, which means Jason come across as a smart guy using tech solutions against supernatural threats.[2] It's narrated from his POV, so it's fortunate that he's also a level headed and entertaining guy to listen to (I listened to the audiobook edition for this review). If you like light horror tales that don't dwell on the doom and gloom, I recommend it.
That's not to say that it doesn't have it's problems. To be honest there's an awfully lot of page count devoted to the Atlantis Overplot which is only peripherally involved with the novellas, and in the end doesn't actually go anywhere except to leave some sequel hooks and some awkward explaining as to why some established characters are conveniently off stage when their help in an individual story would normally be useful. The subplot also leads to Jason learning more and more stuff from his vampire contact, who in the course of the book moves drug dealer toa half million year old Atlantean priest who's dependence on blood is part of his connection to a very real Earth Goddess which lends something of a Lensman Arms Race feel there. [3]
But if you can get past that, the individual stories are quite fun and clever. Jason and his opponents both avoid the Idiot Ball, which makes for some good cat and mouse games, and Spoor's writing is engaging. To that end (sorry Ryk) I might recommend you read the print version rather than the audiobook, to take the whole thing in separate chunks.
Recommended.
[1] Yes, they're aware the raft of puns available. No, they'd rather not hear them.
[2] Something like Ghostbusters with considerably less Silly.
[3] Also there's a minor drinking game to be had when a new character is introduced who just happens to resemble an actor/actress Jason and the audience is familiar with....
Shortly thereafter Jason and his love interest (and minor psychic) Sylvia Stake [1] find themselves, er, neck deep in the supernatural, as they uncover ancient vampiric drug dealers, a werewolf infested resort town, a boogeyman, and the return of magic to the world...
Review: This is one of Spoor's first novels. Or to me more accurate, it's a fixup of several novellas originally published as Digital Knight then expanded greatly to include a tighter overarching plot to the story. I think I would have liked to have read Digital Knight first to get an idea of how they were first written without the Overplot, which involves reincarnated Ancient Atlanteans. Combine the new plot with the original novella formats and the results a trifle uneven.
Overall it's a fun book. Spoor is a good writer and a computer tech head, which means Jason come across as a smart guy using tech solutions against supernatural threats.[2] It's narrated from his POV, so it's fortunate that he's also a level headed and entertaining guy to listen to (I listened to the audiobook edition for this review). If you like light horror tales that don't dwell on the doom and gloom, I recommend it.
That's not to say that it doesn't have it's problems. To be honest there's an awfully lot of page count devoted to the Atlantis Overplot which is only peripherally involved with the novellas, and in the end doesn't actually go anywhere except to leave some sequel hooks and some awkward explaining as to why some established characters are conveniently off stage when their help in an individual story would normally be useful. The subplot also leads to Jason learning more and more stuff from his vampire contact, who in the course of the book moves drug dealer to
But if you can get past that, the individual stories are quite fun and clever. Jason and his opponents both avoid the Idiot Ball, which makes for some good cat and mouse games, and Spoor's writing is engaging. To that end (sorry Ryk) I might recommend you read the print version rather than the audiobook, to take the whole thing in separate chunks.
Recommended.
[1] Yes, they're aware the raft of puns available. No, they'd rather not hear them.
[2] Something like Ghostbusters with considerably less Silly.
[3] Also there's a minor drinking game to be had when a new character is introduced who just happens to resemble an actor/actress Jason and the audience is familiar with....
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Date: 2015-03-07 01:22 pm (UTC)I haven't listened to the audio version all the way through; it took me a while to get back to it when the narrator said "Rick Spoor". (Ryk rhymes with like, not lick), but it is a decent narration. (My problem with audio of Ryk's books is that he is such a great reader that I have to get past his voice in my head to deal with a narrator on their own merits.)
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Date: 2015-03-07 04:24 pm (UTC)Did they do that in the Audiobooks of my other stuff, I wonder?
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Date: 2015-03-07 04:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-03-07 04:23 pm (UTC)It's also necessary for the book, as (A) there was no way for Verne to explain what the hell was going on in Viewed in a Harsh Light without it, and (B) it's part of the larger universe and connects to all the other stories I have written and intend to write in that universe; Jason's something of a nexus. Stuff mentioned casually in one part of Paradigms Lost will turn out to have huge importance three books later.
My original conception of the series of stories actually USED the pun, a concept that remained in Digital Knight in the form of the first story ending with Sylvie producing a card reading "Wood 'n Stake -- Vampire Hunters". I was going to make it a more traditional paired-investigators with a lighter tone, sort of a supernatural Tommy and Tuppence series of mysteries, but as I developed the world more that became a sort of orphaned joke, which I eventually removed from Paradigms Lost.