Inducing the Calm

Weeping for Raven by Mel Kinder

This book is a real surprise.

I've been avoiding this one hoping Mel would put it on sale or maybe offer it free. Not that it's all that expensive; it's just a bit more than I pay for new author e-books. Plus I wasn't absolutely certain about the genre. And, I have all these other books here in my kindle that I haven't read yet.

After reading a number of reviews- they all are pretty favorable- some are rather short and not real helpful- but the ones that took time to demonstrate they read the book left some great impressions to entice me.

I wasn't disappointed.

We start out with a bit of mystery with someone in a garden of flowers and trees who is wondering how they got there. The last they knew they were asleep in bed. So this could be a dream or she could be sleepwalking. The dream theory is enhanced by the fact that her hair is the wrong color.

Then we move to a normal setting and for a while it's a question of; is this just another teen angst story. It takes only a few pages to get past and thankfully the author gets us into the real story.

There is a great need for background though, I think. That's my theory. Gwen Penn lives with her grandparents. She's getting ready to chose a college. She's limiting herself because she is certain her grandparents need her near. During the admission process she meets Mick whose nickname is Mimic-because of a stutter problem. Gwen feels a slight connection to Mimic but because she has kept to herself recently she tries to keep it out of her mind. She is affected enough to design her class schedule around his.

Gwen's mother has been institutionalized because she's not all there. This is something we learn as things go. I must confess I honestly can't remember what happened with her father if it was mentioned. I'll have to read this again soon. She has lost her best friend, Baylee in an accident. All of this is important because Gwen's about to question her sanity soon. And, I can't help but wonder about what might really be afflicting her mother.

This ordinary life is created to contrast the world where the story will really take place. Rook Dresden- through a twist of fate- will happen across a young woman collapsed in a garden. This is Gwen who will find that she's not only in someone else body but she's in some rather strange world.

Rook has a lot of strange similarities in his life. He's lost his mother in an accident and his sister Raven is in a coma and his father is institutionalized because he blames himself for his wife's and daughter's condition.

Despite herself Gwen has an immediate and intense connection to Rook; her initial thoughts are [quote]...cute is trouble. Cute got people into trouble. Partly to blame for over occupancy at the animal shelters. It weakened good judgement. [/quote]In this world Gwens senses seem to be heightened and with the relentless nature of Rook; she won't be able to rely on her good judgement.

While trying to pretend nothing is wrong with her Gwen slowly learns that this world is very different from hers. People are nocturnal. Cars don't have wheels because they fly. There are no restaurants and no banks. They don't eat but feed off the energy of a dark sun. They have magical abilities. And, partially because of the heightened sense, Gwen thinks its a paradise.

Strangely one constant in both worlds is her cat-the one in the new world looks just like her's - it has a different name while her's was called Whinny this one is Chester. This is something she finds out at the same time as she finds out that its Alex Murdock whose body she inhabits.

This story is like sliders with a quantum leap twist.

This is when things get really interesting-like that old curse.

Cat, a friend of Alexa's, shows up to inform Gwen that she knows about her and that Alexa had been experimenting with a drug to induce a condition they refer to as a Wardlow. Wardlows are a supposed epidemic that wipes away a persons soul replacing it with a beast. Alexa was trying to prove that that theory was wrong by inducing the condition. The big problem is that Cat was supposed to have been there to prevent Gwen from interfacing with anyone. Gwen was never meant to meet Rook. And there are people who hunt Wardlows -the hunters from the world of the unseen- and beings who detect them, the TAS the all seeing. When the all seeing find a wardlow they send the hunters to hunt them and because there is no cure for their condition they are executed.

Okay, so I might be going too far here and I don't mean to spoil things so I better stop. There are still a lot of layers to this story I haven't touched anyway.

Gwen who has otherwise isolated herself from friendship is the type of person who can't easily lie to others and now she finds herself in a position where she needs to lie to keep alive. Just when she thought she could make friends she finds that she can't trust anyone. And, she has no idea what Alexa might be doing with her own real life back in her world.

This is an exciting almost paranormal romance blended with science fiction and some elements of fantasy with the potential to throw in a bit of horror. Even Gwen thinks jokingly over the curiosity of what genre she would be; when Rook compares her to an interesting book. She wonders if it would be Horror? or Science Fiction.

No mater what of the many genre above if you like any of those you'll love this. And even though it promises to be a serial of some sort the ending is satisfying enough to make you yearn for the next book.

J.L. Dobias

Weeping for Raven Book One: Inducing The Calm by Mel Kinder

This e-book was around five dollars. I've been doing the free ones and usually borrowing the money ones. This is not specifically Science Fiction- it tends more to Paranormal Romance. But, its got this kind of John Carter of Mars leap from one body to another thing going so in that respect its like a Sci-Fi adventure. It has a bit of mystery at first while trying to figure out what is happening.

I read a bit of a sampling first and was drawn into the story. Enough that I purchased a copy.

It starts with the mystery;someone wakes up in a garden of flowers and trees wondering how they got from their bed to the garden. They think they're dreaming and their senses seem to be off a bit; plus they now have a different color hair.

The story shifts to Gwen Penn who is registering for classes- perhaps at the local community college. Gwen seems to be a bit of a loner and doesn't normally interact with people much more than necessary. While waiting in line she meets Mick who calls himself Mimic, a nickname from an affectation of his which is stuttering. They seem to get along well and even to Gwens surprise- she starts to design a schedule that will intersect with his.

Gwen's parents are out of the picture. Her mother is institutionalized. She lives with her grandparents and has become codependent on them. They have encouraged her to go to the college of her choice and she's decided to make her choice local. It seems that she may not be focused on what she wants to do. Contrary to that Nick seems to have a strong notion of going into Art. Gwen has some ability in that area which might explain the corresponding scheduled. Gwen's reserved nature, inward drawn personality is partly there because she has recently lost her best friend Baylee in an accident. She's not easily ready to commit to friendships because of this.

We don't spend much time with this Gwen because most of the story takes place in some alternate universe. This is a universe of magic where everyone has some magical ability and where cars don't have wheels and they fly. There are no restaurants because people don't eat in this universe. And people get energized from the rays of a dark sun. They're daylight seems to be more like moon light at night and extreme dark when the black sun is up.

Gwen of course is the one waking up in the garden. It is actually close to a house which is similar to her grandparents house and eventually we find that that is where she lives. She has skipped into another body and discovers that her name here is Alexa Murdock. Alexa seems to live alone-possibly an orphan. Her father died doing experiments related to an epidemic, which is plaguing the world. It seems that the victims are called Wardlows and they are people who's spirit has been usurped by demons who are considered bloodthirsty and dangerous. Alexa's father thinks there is more to it than that and had tried to create a drug that would induce the same syndrome on someone for a limited time so he could prove this theory. It seems now that Alexa has taken up his work and Gwen is the Wardlow.

The original plan was for Alexa to do this while her friend Cat made sure that if it succeeded that the Wardlow would not be found out and Cat and some others could observe and discover the truth. For some reason Cat does not get there in time and a young man named Rook finds her collapsed in the garden and takes her to the hospital. Gwen has an immediate connection to him-which is very odd for her. Rook had been on his way to visit his sister at the hospital. His sister Raven is in a coma and his father is institutionalized because of his grief over the accident that left Raven that way and killed his wife.

Gwen wakes up in the hospital and begins the tenuous process of learning about this strange world through Rook. She's playing it cool and by the ear because she doesn't want to end up institutionalized like her mother. What she doesn't know is that there are people who capture and execute Wardlow's like her and she shouldn't be involved at all with Rook or anyone else except for a select few in some secret group that knows about this experiment.

The people looking for Wardlows are called hunters and they work for the TAS The All Seeing. The all seeing work for someone else but they have the ability to find the Wardlows and they send the hunters. The hunters are invisible normally but Gwen is able to see them. That allows her to elude them. For a time. Eventually they will catch up to her.

Gwen is falling for Rook, while knowing how wrong that has to be considering she won't be staying here and the amount of danger that puts her in. She has to make sure Rook doesn't figure out what's wrong with her. She also doesn't have any idea what Alexa might be doing while she's in her world in her body. She's also beginning to see some injustice to what's happening to the Wardlows and she may have to invest more of herself into this reality to help find an answer. It could cost both Gwen and Alexa their lives. And the secret behind all of this may be something more sinister than just fear of contamination.

This is the beginning book of a series that I guess would fall in the Young adult- Paranormal Romance category although it has elements that show up in Science Fiction- that's a great thing since that's what I like to read.

There's more to the story- though I don't think the second book is yet finished.

Sural