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Title: Pawn
Series: Chronicle of the Sibyl's War #1
Author: Timothy Zahn
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 350
Format: Digital Edition
Series: Chronicle of the Sibyl's War #1
Author: Timothy Zahn
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 350
Format: Digital Edition
Synopsis:
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19 year old
alcoholic Nicole is on her own, living on the streets, moving from
one gang to another to survive. Her latest leader, Bungie shows up
one morning shot and he forces Nicole to take him to the nearest VA
hospital where he kidnaps a doctor in the parking lot. Suddenly, all
3 are approached by tall silvery beings and fall into
unconsciousness.
Nicole wakes up and
finds out they have been kidnapped by aliens. They all have jobs at
keeping the ship repaired but not all is as it seems. Bungie wants
off the ship and runs away. Nicole finds an Arena where other species
are fighting each other for food while the humans have more than
enough. The beings instigating the fighting are the apparent rulers
of the ship, but as more is revealed, Nicole realizes that absolutely
nothing is what it appears to be.
The ship is a
sentient being and something caused it to split into multiple
personalities long ago. The humans repair is aimed at restoring unity
while the “ship masters” are controlled by another segment of the
ship.
Nicole is a Sibyl,
one that can talk with the ship through the use of drugs. The drugs
have the side affect of reducing her life span to about a year
though. Nicole defies the ship masters and brings what peace she can
between the species in the Arena. This gets her an audience with the
ship itself and the book ends with Nicole planning out how she can
restore the ship to its full mind.
My
Thoughts:
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This was a decent read but no more. Nicole had been so beaten down by
life and by her extremely bad choices that she just wants to put her
head down and survive. This was a coming of responsibility story
instead of a story about an already responsible person. I always have
a hard time with those kind of stories.
The next book in this series comes out in 2019 and I highly doubt
I'll read it. Nothing about this book gave me that zing, that pizazz
that I had with Zahn's books back in the day. I think that it is more
about me changing than Zahn as an author. I am done with Star Wars
so his SW books don't tempt me and his last couple of non-SW books
have been ok but nothing special. This leads me to conclude that I am
pretty much done with Zahn and that just saddens me.
From the age of 16-21 I almost literally ate his books. They were the
guiding lights by which I judged all others. He was the gold
standard. And now? My tastes have changed; gold isn't so attractive,
I want juicy fruit and seared steaks. Now I'm sad :-(
★★★☆☆