Scooter Chronicles

A couple of nights ago I finished reading “J.” by William Sanders.

From Amazon.Com’s product description:

Three women in three worlds:

Dr. Ann Lucas, former NASA scientist and now a drugged and helpless mental patient, in a reality almost but not quite our own.

Mad Jack, one eyed gunwoman and lover of women, in a ruined and lawless wasteland world.

Jay Younger, living in the here and now, known to her readers simply as Jay — a science fiction writer whose literary career is on the brink of disaster, an alcoholic and emotional wreck.

When the impossible becomes real and boundaries between worlds start to dissolve, the fates of these three tormented, brave and intense women come together in a remarkable and daring story that examines the basic nature of reality and of human identity.

This appealed to me in some way when it showed up on my recommendations list. But I didn’t picture the boundaries of the worlds to dissolve quite the way it did. Technically, this turned out to be a science fiction novel. Didn’t expect that. However, it also turned out to be a very good story, with very good characters, that just happened to fall into the genre.

I don’t know how women would feel about the characters, though at least one has voiced an opinion as a blurb on the book cover (loving it, as you can guess). But I felt the characters were very well defined. At times they seemed to react to story points, though one character has that as a major trait, being Mad Jack. The characters though certainly weren’t flat. Each had issues they needed to deal with, though only two of them really stretched out and showed the reader more of what was going on in their head.

William Sanders

I found the “action” sequences quite good, when they were there. (I qualify this because it wasn’t an action type of book.) The plot moved pretty quickly. And it was well put together. There were moments when things could have easily taken a turn to be too convenient, but always gave me a feeling that it was resolved much better then maybe other authors would have done it. Also, the final and best testament to being a good story teller, there is a something that is left unresolved at the end of the story that was huge! But in a very good way.

It was a good combination of story and characters. And this would appeal to many people that feel most science fiction is heavy-handed with the science part. What descriptions come around were all saved for the end, and done in a manner that made it easily understood. Less is more.