Excellent book based around the concept of the one-ness of all living things and our connection to each other through an infinite pool of energy. In the middle of this book I was actually sad, because I would do anything to experience a world and adventure like this on my own. My one negative thought on this is that by the end, as many of these kinds of books do, it got a bit too action/combat oriented for me. The plot got a bit messy with people teleporting back and forth, all the kidnappings within a few pages of each other, etc. I wish the author would make a clean climax without quite so much entanglement and action going on in the last chapters. ( )

I’ve been a fan of Traci Harding since way back, when my reading material consisted primarily of fantasy (and not all of them are bad, thankyou). Whilst Traci’s last series, Gene of Isis, got a little to esoteric for my liking, I was pleased to see this one on my shelf at the local library.

Harding’s thirteenth book, Being of the Field is a science-fiction novel about Dr Taren Lennox, an anomaly expert who’s been granted a research visa on board the Astro Marine Institute Explorer (AMIE), which is captained by Professor Lucian Gervaise. Accustomed to being ridiculed by her peers at the University of Esponsia for her theories concerning ‘the field’—an ocean of microscopic vibrations through which everything in the universe is interconnected—Taren is amazed to receive a warm welcome on AMIE and is soon given the task of investigating a rainbow-coloured anomaly that is currently orbiting around the planet Oceane. However AMIE’s crew soon begin to suspect their mission objectives are being tampered with by the Maladaan Secret Service, and all hell breaks loose as they try to discover the traitor on board the ship.

Whilst not particularly literary, Being of the Field brokers an interesting and entertaining balance between modern science, metaphysics and spirituality. The characters are compelling, though I did find that their colloquial language clashed a little with the scientific context of the novel, and in true Harding style the story has a strong narrative drive full of adventure. Needless to say, the romantic sub-plots soon became quite tedious, and the subtle references to Harding’s earlier works of the Ancient Future and Celestial Triad trilogies were difficult to credit.

What really bothered me about this book though was the amount of errors present in the text. Being of the Field is littered with mistakes that should have been picked up in the copy edit—errant punctuation marks, spelling mistakes, even incorrect character names—which is extremely disruptive to the otherwise intriguing story, and a poor reflection on HarperCollins professional standards. As an author who is dyslexic and notoriously finished high school with a ‘D’ in English, Harding’s novels would clearly benefit from an additional copy edit.

If you’re looking for some light reading of the science fiction persuasion, Being of the Field is an engaging read which questions the power of the mind and its ability to affect reality. ( )