Book Review: Remastering Jerna
Aug. 30th, 2009 01:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sparkindarknessI’ve been wanting to do a few book reviews for a while. The only reason I haven't really is that I do not have the time, energy or inclination to make it a regular thing. I felt that any books I did review would be marked for why I had reviewed them when it wasn’t my habit.
However, a review copy of a book has landed in my lap. I have taken full advantage to read and devour it with unrestrained glee and it seems appropriate to review it (it being a review copy and all)
Now, necessary disclaimer: The author of this book, Ann Somerville, is a friend of mine and has been for no small amount of time. I know some will believe that that renders my review biased to say the least. I can understand that, most people say nice things to their friends even if they do not mean them. And I may even indulge in such white lies from time to time
Except, not with Ann. I think Ann would have much more respect and admiration for me if I said her book was a supreme waste of keystrokes if I honestly believed that was true. I also think she’d have the utmost contempt for me if I said it was a paragon of literature if I didn’t believe it. Ann respects honesty and has neither respect nor patience for lying and fawning. I’d also say that, while Ann gave me this copy to read, she did so without expectation of a review. She has given me many of her books that were due to be published and have been published - Many Roads Home, Different Senses, Bound to Fall, Reaching Higher, On Wings Rising, Going Down, Interstitial, Hidden Faults, Somatesthesia and so many more I can’t even link title to story - and I haven’t reviewed one of them (though I highly recommend them) and Ann does give a wide selection of her fiction for free here (http://logophilos.net/?page_id=58) that’s well worth several hours perusal.
So, whether believed or not, I will say this review is honest simply because, while Ann and I might argue if I trash her book, it’s nothing compared to the fallout that would follow if I was dishonest about it.
Wow, this foreword has a good chance of being longer than the review, so I’ll close it by adding I’m not by any stretch a professional reviewer, if there is such a thing and get on with it.
Remastering Jerna is the story of Jerna (surprise!). A man whose, largely happy, but conflicted life is turned upside down by a gross miscarriage of justice. He is forced to survive a brutal and horrific prison system coming close to death and despair many times before being hired out to a brothel which, while a blessed relief from the horrors of prison, still carries trials and difficulties for Jerna to navigate and the ever constant shadow of returning to an incarceration that will surely kill him. In the end he has to reconcile the man he was and the life he had, with the man he has become and the new life, friends and love he has made for himself at the brothel.
This book is not ‘classic’ romance. Quite aside from the m/m relationship and the strong BDSM elements, it is driven far more by the plot of Jerna’s experience and survival than his relationships or his sex life.They are dominant themes, but I would say the theme of him surviving and holding body, soul and sanity together in extreme adversity and managing to endure and rise above it. I actually can’t tell you what this book is, it doesn’t fit neatly into a category. It is a story of a man and how he grows, changes, adapts and endures in the face of his whole life being turned upside down.
There are many things in this book that grabbed me. The world setting is interesting, close to ours but still oddly different enough to intrigue me. The writing style is, frankly excellent. Being fast paced enough to be free of anything to bog you down, but not so abrupt that things are left unfinished. The plot kept me turning pages without stop and made me deeply resent any interruptions. I wanted to know what happened to Jerna, was compelled to keep reading and deeply irritated by anything that stopped me finding what happened next. Ann has created some extremely compelling characters, able to evoke sympathy and empathy and get you to genuinely care about them - and not just Jerna. I found myself re-reading the book and extrapolating on the different characters, wondering what happened to them, how and why. They were every real-seeming people.
The book also managed to cover many themes - depression, despair and personal spirituality - that would normally irritate me. Depression often drifts to angst which few handle well and spirituality often drifts into sainthood or self-righteousness that I have no time or patience with - it’s only with retrospect, however, that I realise how far this story roamed into zones that normally annoy me. I should also include BDSM here - I have rarely seen a book containing BDSM with actual PLOT that also GOT BDSM. There’s a real sense of understanding here and even a celebration of it - without the usual baggage that has ruined so many other books. Basically, it was hot and very well done.
Last side not I have to add, rabble rouser that I am, was the political commentary. Never in your face or preachy, Remastering Jerna still carries a message and a warning to us that could be well heeded by our own politicians and our own attitude to politics.
It’s a great book, an excellent story and a marvellous page turner. If you read this book make sure you have time to devour it in one session, putting it down is hard to do.
Criticism, criticism, let me dredge up some. There’s not much, and really it’s nitpicking for the sake of it. I find Tyrme’s sudden acceptance and even proposal of their arrangement a little odd/saintly - but not to a point that it is unbelievable. Just odd. I also (rabble rouser, remember!) would like to have seen more detail on the nation’s reform. I don’t think it was unreasonable from the book’s POV not to include more detail - the book is about Jerna and it didn’t touch his life much - but it did give me a very vague sense, couple with Tyrme’s acceptance that there was just a little too happy in the HEA.
But I do like a happy ending. Sue me, I do. And the ending left me with warm fuzzies and quite contented without my usual frustration I get when a good book ends.
Of course, that doesn’t mean a sequel wouldn‘t be heartily welcomed...
However, a review copy of a book has landed in my lap. I have taken full advantage to read and devour it with unrestrained glee and it seems appropriate to review it (it being a review copy and all)
Now, necessary disclaimer: The author of this book, Ann Somerville, is a friend of mine and has been for no small amount of time. I know some will believe that that renders my review biased to say the least. I can understand that, most people say nice things to their friends even if they do not mean them. And I may even indulge in such white lies from time to time
Except, not with Ann. I think Ann would have much more respect and admiration for me if I said her book was a supreme waste of keystrokes if I honestly believed that was true. I also think she’d have the utmost contempt for me if I said it was a paragon of literature if I didn’t believe it. Ann respects honesty and has neither respect nor patience for lying and fawning. I’d also say that, while Ann gave me this copy to read, she did so without expectation of a review. She has given me many of her books that were due to be published and have been published - Many Roads Home, Different Senses, Bound to Fall, Reaching Higher, On Wings Rising, Going Down, Interstitial, Hidden Faults, Somatesthesia and so many more I can’t even link title to story - and I haven’t reviewed one of them (though I highly recommend them) and Ann does give a wide selection of her fiction for free here (http://logophilos.net/?page_id=58) that’s well worth several hours perusal.
So, whether believed or not, I will say this review is honest simply because, while Ann and I might argue if I trash her book, it’s nothing compared to the fallout that would follow if I was dishonest about it.
Wow, this foreword has a good chance of being longer than the review, so I’ll close it by adding I’m not by any stretch a professional reviewer, if there is such a thing and get on with it.
Remastering Jerna is the story of Jerna (surprise!). A man whose, largely happy, but conflicted life is turned upside down by a gross miscarriage of justice. He is forced to survive a brutal and horrific prison system coming close to death and despair many times before being hired out to a brothel which, while a blessed relief from the horrors of prison, still carries trials and difficulties for Jerna to navigate and the ever constant shadow of returning to an incarceration that will surely kill him. In the end he has to reconcile the man he was and the life he had, with the man he has become and the new life, friends and love he has made for himself at the brothel.
This book is not ‘classic’ romance. Quite aside from the m/m relationship and the strong BDSM elements, it is driven far more by the plot of Jerna’s experience and survival than his relationships or his sex life.They are dominant themes, but I would say the theme of him surviving and holding body, soul and sanity together in extreme adversity and managing to endure and rise above it. I actually can’t tell you what this book is, it doesn’t fit neatly into a category. It is a story of a man and how he grows, changes, adapts and endures in the face of his whole life being turned upside down.
There are many things in this book that grabbed me. The world setting is interesting, close to ours but still oddly different enough to intrigue me. The writing style is, frankly excellent. Being fast paced enough to be free of anything to bog you down, but not so abrupt that things are left unfinished. The plot kept me turning pages without stop and made me deeply resent any interruptions. I wanted to know what happened to Jerna, was compelled to keep reading and deeply irritated by anything that stopped me finding what happened next. Ann has created some extremely compelling characters, able to evoke sympathy and empathy and get you to genuinely care about them - and not just Jerna. I found myself re-reading the book and extrapolating on the different characters, wondering what happened to them, how and why. They were every real-seeming people.
The book also managed to cover many themes - depression, despair and personal spirituality - that would normally irritate me. Depression often drifts to angst which few handle well and spirituality often drifts into sainthood or self-righteousness that I have no time or patience with - it’s only with retrospect, however, that I realise how far this story roamed into zones that normally annoy me. I should also include BDSM here - I have rarely seen a book containing BDSM with actual PLOT that also GOT BDSM. There’s a real sense of understanding here and even a celebration of it - without the usual baggage that has ruined so many other books. Basically, it was hot and very well done.
Last side not I have to add, rabble rouser that I am, was the political commentary. Never in your face or preachy, Remastering Jerna still carries a message and a warning to us that could be well heeded by our own politicians and our own attitude to politics.
It’s a great book, an excellent story and a marvellous page turner. If you read this book make sure you have time to devour it in one session, putting it down is hard to do.
Criticism, criticism, let me dredge up some. There’s not much, and really it’s nitpicking for the sake of it. I find Tyrme’s sudden acceptance and even proposal of their arrangement a little odd/saintly - but not to a point that it is unbelievable. Just odd. I also (rabble rouser, remember!) would like to have seen more detail on the nation’s reform. I don’t think it was unreasonable from the book’s POV not to include more detail - the book is about Jerna and it didn’t touch his life much - but it did give me a very vague sense, couple with Tyrme’s acceptance that there was just a little too happy in the HEA.
But I do like a happy ending. Sue me, I do. And the ending left me with warm fuzzies and quite contented without my usual frustration I get when a good book ends.
Of course, that doesn’t mean a sequel wouldn‘t be heartily welcomed...