ARA Review by Gasser55 of OldEarth Aram Encounter

[Gasser55]

[Following is an OnlineBookClub.org ARA Review of the book, OldEarth Aram Encounter.]

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2 out of 5 stars

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In,"OldEarth Aram Encounter", author A.K.Frailey has created a fictional story with Old Testament undertones regarding different clans and their difficult survival situations in a dangerous world populated with dangerous animals and treacherous tribes bent on destruction.

This first book in a series focuses on the title character, Aram who leads his clan from a dangerous forest to what he hopes will be a safer location for his people. The different clans, Grassland, River and Lake interact and we learn of the positive and negative consequences of the encounters. All the while, Aram try's his best to keep his clan safe and intact.

One warlike group in particular creates great danger as their leader takes them on destructive raids against neighboring clans. The motivation is to take property and slaves while killing men rather than providing for their own economy. The son of the evil leader, Neb, disagrees with his father which adds even more conflict to the story. This is the world into which Aram has led his tribe which has even more danger than the forest they previously inhabited.

Throughout the book, hidden and mysterious alien beings watch over and observe the earthlings. The aliens have different races of their own and as a result have their own conflicts. They are able to change shape and somehow travel great distances through space to visit Earth.

I kept reading this book as curiosity compelled me to find out the resolution for the various conflicts described.

Although the book was grammatically and spelling correct, I found many flaws in the narrative that other readers might ignore. Author's know how much work goes into writing a novel. I applaud Frailey for her effort. However, the reader should not have to work hard to read a book. I found myself getting lost several times trying to remember various characters, their place in the book, and remembering who was who due to the author's choice to make up strange names with Bible flavoring. Another flaw that stood out for me was the use of the Alien presence. It seemed disjointed to me that these beings would simply show up from time to time with no explanation for how they arrived and what they wanted. Science-Fiction should have some element of Science. Shape changing beings that can travel light years with no mode of transportation are Fantasy, not Fiction.

These flaws made the book difficult and confusing for me. Other readers could quite possibly disagree with me, but for those reasons, unfortunately, I must give the book 2 stars out of 5.
I have to choose between 2 or 3 for my rating and I'd rather give it a 2.5, but that option is not available.

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