Post-Ironic Stress Syndrome (by Micaela)
Tricia Sullivan
Firebird, New York NY
Paperback, 556 pp., U$s 78
Post-Ironic Stress Syndrome is the story of a young woman and her struggle deciding whether to answer duty's call or to live the life of the girl-next-door. Tricia Sullivan, author of this and many other fantasy and science-fiction works, delights the reader with a highly entertaining and engaging story. With evident expertise, Sullivan makes the reader feel the need to keep on turning the pages to find out the destiny not only of the story's main character, but also that of the world she lives in and all other existing worlds.
Maja, the name the main character of the story goes by on Earth, has been conceived, trained and, unlike her insurgent counterpart, Jared, genetically intervened to use the M-ask, a device that gives her access to the whole universe at all times. The two find themselves in battle to have control over M-space, for that endows the winner with the capacity to control the whole universe. As if that larger-than-life issue was not enough, Maja finds herself in even greater trouble when a new enemy, who is more unpredictable and unknown than any other she had ever imagined, threatens to make her plans go nothing like she had intended them to.
If that amazing plot has not yet convinced you to read the story, Sullivan's talent will. Her remarkable writing skills allow her to portray Maja as an extremely relatable and average teenager who just wants to fit in, even if what she is going through has little to nothing to do with what actual teenagers would actually go through. This is perfectly illustrated in the following passage:
That sucked. I would have liked to have had friends. But it wasn't possible, not for me. They didn't know what I knew. About all of it. How fragile their world was.
In short, Sullivan's work is absolutely worth reading. Post-Ironic Stress Syndrome offers well written, relatable characters, and a very well-thought and developed plot. Highly recommendable.
Hello Mica! My name is Mercedes Martinez. First, I want to tell you that you have written a wonderful review. You made me want to read it! The second paragraph, when you introduce the plot, it is perfectly described. Even though the stories which belong to the genre of science fiction can be a little difficult to explain as regards their main topic, you managed to do it. The only thing that I want to check with you is the following sentence: "Maja, the name the main character of the story goes by on Earth, has been conceived, trained and, unlike her insurgent counterpart, Jared, genetically intervened to use the M-ask, a device that gives her access to the whole universe at all times." As you can observe, is a very long sentence. If you don't split it, your readers will be confused since it is a lot of information to assimilate. Maybe you can split it like this:" Maja, the name the main character of the story goes by on Earth. She has been conceived and trained, unlike her insurgent counterpart, Jared. The latter is, genetically intervened to use the M-ask, which is a device that gives her access to the whole universe at all times." I hope that my advice can be useful, and you continue making marvellous writing :D
ReplyDeleteHi Micaela. First, I would like to say that your review really makes the reader want to immediately read the story. Then, the parts you decided to expose were very well chosen for example when you say: "The two meet in the battle for control of M-space, for that endows the winner with the ability to control the entire universe". With this simple sentence you were able to sum up the story in a few words.
ReplyDeleteThere was only one sentence that caught my attention: “With evident expertise, Sullivan makes the reader feel the need to keep on turning the pages to find out the destiny not only of the story's main character, but also that of the world she lives in and all other existing worlds.”
In my opinion, this sentence is too long. Too many verbs for one subject. I understand that you can combine several verbs in a sentence but you have to pay attention to the way you manage the subject. It doesn't seem natural for a personal pronoun like 'the reader' to hold so many verbs. You should use a coordinating conjunction like 'and' to make your sentence more digestible. Very good work.