September 24, 2012

Review: Charlie's Trips by Jack Felson



Product Description: A tornado sweeps through an area of the deep Midwest and takes away a teenage soldier, Charlie Bradshaw, who's hurled into space-time and ends up 21years later, on the West Coast, off San Francisco. He's found on a beach, alive but unconscious. As he emerges from a 2-day coma, he has a vision and prediction: another disaster, a big earthquake. But he doesn't know he's on TV camera. He doesn't know either that his memory has gone 'reverse'. There are many other things he's still unaware of...

Written in a straight, very cinematic style, "Charlie's Trips" is an insolent tale of science-fiction that plays with several literary and cinematic myths (notably "The Wizard of Oz") as it introduces us to a new kind of hero: an 'amnesic psychic', able to see into the future when he lost his past. As it also asks us this question: is it possible to live in 'reverse' mode?

My Thoughts: Initially I was a little disturbed by how young Charlie was and thought it was way too unrealistic that he was in the military at the age of 16. I wondered why the author didn't make the character just a couple of years older to make the story more realistic but when the rest of the story unfolded I could see the reasons behind the author's decision to make him so young.

I really enjoyed the storyline and turn of events however I didn't rate the book higher because the writing didn't flow very well in my opinion. It was a bit choppy and the dialogue seemed very forced in some instances. Also the ending was just a bit too abrupt. I actually thought some of the book just got chopped off of the ebook version I was reading instead of leaving a cliff hanger.

My Recommendation: I recommend Charlie's Trips for anyone who loves sci-fi but I'd possbly wait for the next book in the series so it's a seamless read instead of being left wondering if the book is really over.

0 comments :