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A review by mad_about_books
Cynetic Wolf by Matt Ward
4.0
Suspension of disbelief is probably the most important element of science fiction and fantasy. If you can't put the reader into that state, any other premise may be lost. More often than not, today's books drop the reader directly into the action without benefit of how or why the action started in the first place. If you are writing a murder mystery and start out with 'A shot rang out. Edgar fell dead.' the action is defined within the parameters of the genre. On the other hand, if you start a science fiction story with words not found in any dictionary, you may find your readers spending a lot of time scratching their heads and possibly putting the book down mostly unread.
I read a lot of books from a multitude of genres and will generally give the author the benefit of the doubt that the plot will become clear fairly quickly. While reading CYNETIC WOLF, the first thing I wanted to know was what exactly does 'cynetic' mean? It is close enough to cybernetic to allow me to guess. It quickly becomes apparent that what is happening here is something in the far future of earth and that scientists have manipulated human genetics in such a way as to create any number of sub-species… wolfish, pigish, owlish, etc. While struggling to grasp the story, I found myself reminiscing about George Orwell's ANIMAL FARM which put me in a different frame of mind vis a vis CYNETIC WOLF.
Over the past several years, I have been reading more and more new and 'indie' authors. By doing this, I find myself starting at the beginning of a career that I may or may not follow. Back in 1976, I picked up a book that captured my imagination and made me want to read everything the author had written or will write. That book was 'SALEM'S LOT. Although I found out later it was King's second book, after reading CARRIE, I read everything in the order it was written. By catching the author at the beginning of his or her career, it is possible to see how that writer develops and matures with each and every book.
CYNETIC WOLF is an action packed novel of a very dystopian future with a single government ruling the world. The basic underlying theme is racism in the extreme. As has become common in today's science fiction, the betterment of government and society is resting on the shoulders of a teenager with good intentions and horribly bad luck. The very nature of dystopian fiction runs to nihilism which is pretty depressing at best.
The books ends with "to be continued…" As you might expect, this is not the most satisfying conclusion a book can have. I have always been a fan of the complete story in one book. I can't tell you how many times I have read a book of more than a thousand pages and closed that book wanting more. More and more authors are serializing tales that, in my humble opinion, should be experienced as one long book.
I always find it difficult to review a book that I both liked and disliked. This is such a book. I found the writing a bit to staccato for my taste and the storyline to be more than a little intriguing. Balancing text and plot required a bit of mental juggling.
I read a lot of books from a multitude of genres and will generally give the author the benefit of the doubt that the plot will become clear fairly quickly. While reading CYNETIC WOLF, the first thing I wanted to know was what exactly does 'cynetic' mean? It is close enough to cybernetic to allow me to guess. It quickly becomes apparent that what is happening here is something in the far future of earth and that scientists have manipulated human genetics in such a way as to create any number of sub-species… wolfish, pigish, owlish, etc. While struggling to grasp the story, I found myself reminiscing about George Orwell's ANIMAL FARM which put me in a different frame of mind vis a vis CYNETIC WOLF.
Over the past several years, I have been reading more and more new and 'indie' authors. By doing this, I find myself starting at the beginning of a career that I may or may not follow. Back in 1976, I picked up a book that captured my imagination and made me want to read everything the author had written or will write. That book was 'SALEM'S LOT. Although I found out later it was King's second book, after reading CARRIE, I read everything in the order it was written. By catching the author at the beginning of his or her career, it is possible to see how that writer develops and matures with each and every book.
CYNETIC WOLF is an action packed novel of a very dystopian future with a single government ruling the world. The basic underlying theme is racism in the extreme. As has become common in today's science fiction, the betterment of government and society is resting on the shoulders of a teenager with good intentions and horribly bad luck. The very nature of dystopian fiction runs to nihilism which is pretty depressing at best.
The books ends with "to be continued…" As you might expect, this is not the most satisfying conclusion a book can have. I have always been a fan of the complete story in one book. I can't tell you how many times I have read a book of more than a thousand pages and closed that book wanting more. More and more authors are serializing tales that, in my humble opinion, should be experienced as one long book.
I always find it difficult to review a book that I both liked and disliked. This is such a book. I found the writing a bit to staccato for my taste and the storyline to be more than a little intriguing. Balancing text and plot required a bit of mental juggling.