Publication Date: February 6, 2013
In Asterion by Kenneth Morvant, Taylor Scott and Christine Summers are scientists in a not-so-distant dystopian future that have created a hybrid beast of burden to work in the fields and grow crops. The government sees great potential in the beast as a weapon and the scientists find themselves hunted by their own creation.
Asterion is a work of speculative fiction.
Morvant’s writing style has a feeling of disconnect from the flow of the story. His dialogue is wonderful although, at times, a bit stilted and his descriptions are detailed but with a sense of being a step away from the scene. We’re not watching the action, but someone is telling us the action is happening. On the other hand, Morvant sends a flow of information into the novel that is almost overwhelming at times. The world has changed, and with the decline in people who go to church, the Book of Revelations isn’t as known as it once has been. My mother, who is constantly talking about the coming of World War III and the fate of Christians, would lap up the setting and the world as it is in the novel, but she’s made a study of what she feels is the inevitable fate of the world.
Taylor and Christine are part of the religious underground. They are Christians in a time when it’s not a good thing to be a Christian. Taylor and Christine meet when he hires her to work on his project. His boss suspects that the reason she was hired is that she’s hot, and while he denies that reason, this reader thought that to be a reason as well. Their romance has a “last two people on earth” quality about it. While Morvant goes to great lengths to develop the characters, it is evident that his true comfort zone is the science of the novel. I am no scientist, but a lot of what he wrote seemed to this reader like something that could happen in the advancement of science. Certainly, the part when the government takes the research and uses it to their own ends seems realistic. Global politics are a push and pull business, and the person who has the bigger and better weapon holds all the cards.
To be fair, this may not be a novel with which I can connect with anything more than a literal level. I understand that some classic science fiction authors write with the step-back philosophy, but I have not read those authors, so I have not had that experience. If informational science fiction is your thing or you’re interested in the religious aspect, Asterion is for you.
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