TITLE: Another Worldly Device
AUTHOR: Serdar Yegulalp
PRICE: $6.39 (download); $15.39 (printed)
GENRE: SCI FI/SLIPSTREAM
ISBN: None
PUBLISHER: Lulu.com
POINT OF SALE: http://www.lulu.com/content/214406
‘Another Worldly Device’ drops you into the life of a quietly precocious eleven year old girl just as her life undergoes an abrupt change. The opening mystery is: who breaks into Jane’s house and violently abducts her foster parents, and why? As Jane’s story progresses a fascinating group of people fall into her life, mysteries are developed and exposed and an adventure plot is melded seamlessly with a unique coming of age story.
Sometimes I found myself rather surprised at the direction the author took the many possibilities Jane’s story offered, and the opening scene is something of a ‘flash forward’ that the main narrative takes a while to catch up with—but these quirks only add to the book’s unique overall flavor. The only tiny element I found unconvincing where some of the situations the young protagonist was allowed, by various adult characters, to get into.
Serdar Yegulalp’s writing is immensely adept. Jane’s first person narrative is gripping from the very beginning. ‘Another Worldly Device’ is magical realism at its most subtle and convincing, and a prime example of the type of self-published novel I hoped to see when started this review site. This is the kind of book that you finish reading and find yourself staring into space, digesting and rather regretting that it is all over, while still somehow feeling that the characters lives are going on beyond the pages somewhere just out of sight.
RATING: 9/10
AVERAGE RATING: 9/10
2 comments:
I just wanted to thank you for reviewing my book, and for being generous and precise at the same time.
I admit that the way they treated the girl during the story was sometimes a little bit of a stretch, but that was actually something I realized was a reflection of a behavior I've seen in real life: that when intelligent people meet up with someone who's a lot younger than them but also quite intelligent, they tend to think of them as a little adult (whether or not that's warranted at all).
But thank you once again! I have other books in the works, and if I get a chance to drop them your way in the future I'll do so.
Well, this review is officially our most viewed so far. There may be several reasons for this:
1) Good news travels fast--'the gline' is more likely to spread the news of this--our highest rated book to date--than some of our other authors... and
2) Good writers have fans. Seeing where the visitors came from (the gline's webpage) and when (about 100 of them on the same day the review was posted) I think that this reason is also implicated.
As the head 'POD' I just say I enjoyed this book. I hope to hear the opinions of others who have read it, please do comment.
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