PG16- Midshipman's Hope (v), The Still (some x,v)
Feintuch is a relatively new author, but he's quite good. His one series to date focuses on a militaristic future under attack from nearly incomprehensible forces. Feintuch gets deep inside the mind of his main character, an officer-in-training aboard a between-system ship. Feintuch is very skilled at showing readers only what he wants them to know, and he moves the action at a perfect pace. His prefered topics are the military and coming-of-age stories. I expect him to go very far in the next decade.
Though other books have been published in this series, I have only read Midshipman's Hope so far. I was thoroughly impressed. The cover compares it to Starship Troopers and Ender's Game, and I agree. Midshipman Seafort has a strong sense of duty and manages to hold together a plot that sometimes seems to be racing ahead of him. But he never lets go, never gives up, and in the end, you have to admire him for it. Emotionally, this novel was strongly understated, yet that only made me more sympathetic to Seafort because he didn't whine about his world falling apart. The martial tone of the novel echoes Heinlein and a few others, though it is a universe unique unto itself, with little civilian intrusion. The pacing and the plot twists are both well-crafted and heart-wrenching. This is one of the best reluctant-hero novels I have ever read.
The Still is Feintuch's first book, and fantasy rather than the science fiction of his Hope series, but the author's talent for double vision of what a character is really like is showcased here as well as in his series. The story is told by Prince Roderigo in first person, allowing the reader to see the conflict between his sincere efforts to be a true king and everyone else's view of him as an arrogant and vicious boy. The story starts with Roderigo's mother the Queen very ill and near death, and chronicles the struggle over the throne between Roddy's uncle and the Prince along with the personal growth of Roddy towards someone who is a good king rather than his originial image of the standoffish arrogant royalty. He is aided in this growth by his loyal childhood friend Rustin and by his Nurse, who comes along more to keep track of Roddy's younger brother than Roddy himself. The title The Still comes from the royal family's magical talent (as all rulers have their own unique talents), which in this case requires that the potential wielder keep to the True- something Roddy is often tempted to break - and remain chaste - something which Roddy has even worse difficulty with. The worst part for him is that he doesn't really know what the Still is, and yet has to keep to these rules if he ever wants to be king. This book is a complex and interesting version of the coming-of-age story, with plenty of politics and personal conflict, although some readers may be disturbed by the sexual part of the story linked with the chastity struggle.
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Last Updated: January 21, 2000
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