A.M. Dellamonica
Författare till Child of a Hidden Sea
Om författaren
Serier
Verk av A.M. Dellamonica
A Key to the Illuminated Heretic 6 exemplar
The Town on Blighted Sea [short story] 5 exemplar
Three Times Over The Falls [short story] 3 exemplar
A Slow Day at the Gallery 3 exemplar
Ruby, in the Storm [short story] 3 exemplar
The Spear Carrier [short story] 2 exemplar
Nevada [short story] 2 exemplar
Origin of Species 2 exemplar
Faces of Gemini 2 exemplar
The Girl Who Ate Garbage [short story] 2 exemplar
Cooking Creole 1 exemplar
The Sweet Spot 1 exemplar
Homage [short story] 1 exemplar
The Dark Hour 1 exemplar
The Children of Port Allain 1 exemplar
Five Good Things About Meghan Sheedy 1 exemplar
The Sorrow Fair 1 exemplar
The Dream Eaters 1 exemplar
Time Of The Snake 1 exemplar
The Hazmat Sisters 1 exemplar
Associerade verk
The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Fourth Annual Collection (2007) — Bidragsgivare — 433 exemplar
The Anthology at the End of the Universe: Leading Science Fiction Authors on Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to… (2005) — Bidragsgivare — 127 exemplar
So Say We All: An Unauthorized Collection of Thoughts and Opinions on Battlestar Galactica (2006) — Bidragsgivare — 81 exemplar
Six Tor.com Science Fiction & Fantasy Stories from the 2010 Locus Recommended Reading List (2011) — Bidragsgivare — 7 exemplar
Locus Nr.492 2002.01 — Bidragsgivare — 1 exemplar
Taggad
Allmänna fakta
- Namn enligt folkbokföringen
- Dellamonica, Alyxandra Margaret
- Andra namn
- Beckett, LX
- Födelsedag
- 1968
- Kön
- female
- Nationalitet
- Canada
- Bostadsorter
- Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Toronto, Ontario, Canada - Relationer
- Robson, Kelly (wife)
- Organisationer
- Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America
- Agent
- Linn Prentis
Medlemmar
Recensioner
Listor
Priser
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Associerade författare
Statistik
- Verk
- 36
- Även av
- 35
- Medlemmar
- 1,023
- Popularitet
- #25,181
- Betyg
- 3.8
- Recensioner
- 57
- ISBN
- 33
To lay it out, as a child I absorbed and loved "portal" fantasies (or portal science fiction books, cause hey they exist). Blame [a:Pamela Dean|4106|Pamela Dean|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1207161079p2/4106.jpg] and [a:Joyce Ballou Gregorian|92610|Joyce Ballou Gregorian|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] (not oddly CS Lewis, I didn't read the Narnia books until well into my late late teens) as their books in particular sparked my interest (along with the "Unicorn Queen" books). CHILD OF A HIDDEN SEA fits that love of mine perfectly.
Granted there was a lot of doublespeak political mumbo-jumbo that occurred, making it sometimes hard to follow the narrative flow easily, but Sophie (and Bram and Verena and Parrish and Tonio...) were so enjoyable to read about. Sophie and Bram with their insatiable curiosity, Verena with her awkward discomfort of whether she should be happy she has a sister or bitter, Parrish with his tight-lipped honor and slight smiles, Tonio with his resigned attitude that no matter what Sophie is leading him towards angering Parrish. They were such fun to read about.
Sophie is an easy character to relate to. Though intelligent, personable and kind hearted a lifetime of wondering 'Why?' in relation to her birth family and the abysmal first meeting with her birth mother left her feeling inadequate. Add to it that her beloved younger brother is a certified child genius and a general feeling of not quite right, well it makes sense that she's searching desperately for something to ground her. Something that is hers irrefutably. Dellamonica doesn't shove into our face that Sophie is clever and quick. Bram (her brother) says it very often, but Sophie sees connections others didn't. Some of it is obvious stuff that people so close can't see--she knows so little about "Stormwrack" so for her the obvious connections stand out.
The books covers a lot of plots--the A plot being based around something that Gale knew and that would turn the tide of the Cessation with the biggest subplot being Sophie's birth family. Amazingly Dellamonica most of them into each other with the resolution solving the majority of the problems at hand. As mentioned earlier the doublespeak takes a little getting used to. Near the end it becomes really heavy--as legal concerns are tossed around and such stakes as honor are heaved out. Its rapid fire, twisty and with Sophie's despairing inner monologue coloring the reader's subjective perception it can feel endless.
Parts of the book felt more exposition happy then others. Sophie and Bram's curiosity meant they asked a lot of questions and did a lot of research. While this gave the reader a good idea of the world/culture, it sometimes felt redundant as the society at least was presented organically throughout. Also for a non-science lover like myself the more technical aspects of Sophie's observations went straight over me and had flashbacks of school running through my head.
Insofar as romance goes its light and doesn't really distract. Sophie is old enough to understand where flirtations lead and young enough to find it all an adventure. Though Verena comes off angsty at times, in regards to her object of affection, she's a legit teenager grappling with a whole boatload of issues so that's acceptable. I found the LGBT characters (there's two out and out gay guys, and an entire race who loves pleasure in any form) to be handled well and the general attitude towards such treated without fanfare. There's the haters, the indifferent folk and the supporters, and though we get very little background about why certain races felt one way or the other, Dellamonica never makes the discussion the focal point.
The ending can be seen as either an open invitation to more adventures or a satisfying conclusion to Sophie's journey. There's two short stories set in this world (that predate this novel - one is directly about Gale I believe, and is referenced obliquely by Parrish at one point and the other is more of a set in the same world deal I believe) and I hope to see more in the future.… (mer)