Official Review: Conrad by LS Thorn

[gali]

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Conrad" by LS Thorn.]

This book is a science fiction novella and an introduction to the Distant Future series. It is a mix of space opera and dark humor parody. The story is told from the POV of one Conrad Donovan, a hero gone amok. The author gives the reader a brief background about the world and it certainly cleared up a few details in the story itself.

So what the story is about? Our world as we know it became uninhabitable due to global warming (not so far from reality actually) and humans had to abandon it in favor of more hospitable plants. They moved to 3 main plants:

* Tharnon which serves as Penal colony and later was sold to a weird race of lizards known as the D'moroec.
* Phartos – The plant furthest away from old Earth which has little contact with the other two.
* New Earth – The main settlement of humans. It was split into 3 sections and was built to look like the old earth.

Conarad was "an ordinary human being living an ordinary life". He had a good job, a fiancée and a place to call his own. All this changes when his fiancée was murdered. Conarad wants to understand the reason to her death and makes a rush decision to confront the murderer. The murderer is being deported to Tharnon, so our hero follows his steps and stows himself away on board the prison transport ship. From this point forward the events are going downhill fast and the life of the hero takes a turn for the worse. The hero tells us about his adventures and there isn't a dull moment. Shape lifters, an organization bent on destroying New Earth, a cannibal race, a reality TV in its worse, all these are parts of this amusing and quick novella.

I found the story amusing and had a laugh or two during the reading. The world building, the setting and descriptions were well done. Alas, I had a few issues with the book. First the story wasn't well edited and I found a few grammar errors. I have to say that it didn't hurt my enjoyment of the book. The language was nice though simple, but the "f**k" word was mentioned one word too many.

I liked the hero at first, but my sympathy disappeared after his rush actions. When the hero did the unthinkable deed, the author lost me and I couldn't connect any longer to the hero. Nevertheless, the author developed the main character very well for a novella. The plot itself was entertaining and I could actually envision myself in the story. The author did a good job drawing me into the narrative. All in all, it was a very enjoyable reading and I would like to read more of the hero adventures.

I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars since the story was good but not perfect. I enjoyed the book and recommend it to lovers of the genre and to those who like their fantasy dark.

***
Buy "Conrad" on Amazon

[LSThorn]

Good afternoon,

Thank you for taking the time to read my book and I am glad you came away with positive things to say about it.

I am fully aware that books and stories are subjective, especially when it comes to humour, so I am particularly pleased that there were elements that you found amusing.

I would just like to clear some things up if I may, to avoid any confusion.

After Earth becomes uninhabitable, humans moved to 3 different planets, not plants as it states in the review! I have no interest in horticulture whatsoever!

"I found a few grammar errors." I spent a long time checking for grammatical errors so I am fairly surprised that you were able to find enough to warrant making a note of it. Having said that, there were occasions where I deliberately used improper language or sentence structure as it seemed like a more natural way to progress at those particular moments.

All in all I am pleased with this review. Thank you very much for your kind words and thank you to anybody who goes on to read my book.

Have a great day,

LS Thorn

[gali]

Thank you for your kind respond.

The "plants" was a misspelling. I am not free of errors myself since Eng is my second language.

As I said, there weren't that many misspells/typos and it didn't hurt my enjoyment of the book at all. Your remark explains it.

Overall I really enjoyed the book and will look forward to read more of your books. I liked your humor indeed. I will certainly recommend the book to my friends and wish you success with this book and others you may write.