Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dark Visitor wonderful tale, 18 Jun 2007
The Adam Smith Institute head honcho and think tank guru Madsen Pirie is trying his hand at science fiction with Dark Visitor. It has a bit of a Babylon 5/Firefly/Serenity feel to it. The storyline is a mysterious stranger shows up in a mysterious craft, predicts bad things to come and sure enough bad things happen. The characters in this tale are quite well thought-out and interesting.
It's a novella, so the book never has time to drag, which is very much a welcome thing these days. It's possible to read this book in one sitting and I would predict you want to do it that way to see what happens next.
There are all the right elements in play here, including greed, redemption, curiosity and danger. While I will admit to liking Madsen's other novella (reviewed below) more than this one, this is quite good for a first novel. In fact, I would recommend you buy both books together.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
SciFi without the Fantasy?, 11 Jun 2007
Dark Visitor is the first of Madsen Pirie's forays into the world of children's Science Fiction and enter that world, or perhaps more properly universe, he does with the unashamed joy of one who has loved the genre since his earliest days.
We enter the world of Akron Station -- a space station acting as the gateway for visitors to the planet Akron, itself in orbit around the star 'Auriga.' What a world it is we enter too: children as young as 12 can freely sign up for military (?) service, despite - or perhaps in Laurel's case in spite - of their parent's misgivings; whisked away to the seemingly mundane world of Akron Station. Nothing much happens in this quiet backwater of the galaxy, normally. Our intrepid heroine Laurel, now 14 years old, sits quietly on watch one evening when the peace - and future - of the entire Auriga system is disturbed by the unannounced, and unanticipated, arrival of a mysterious dark ship. For reasons hinted at in the closing pages of the novella, the ship and its occupant are arriving at a time when a crisis faces the station and planet. Unfortunately, Van can only recall his name and the feeling that something will - as always - happen. Laurel's friendship with fellow young recruit Blake is strained by her growing friendship (romance?) with Van, as the three take key roles in saving the lives of tens of thousands of people.
Not simply satiated with an engaging and lively story Pirie works in three vaguely unexpected twists in the final dozen pages, and leaves the reader's imagination free to construct the remaining life stories of its protagonists.
Partly because of the length, the book is hard to put down. The story develops at a fast pace without feeling rushed and has a satisfying ending, neatly fastening-off any loose ends and leaving the reader feeling that they have had an enjoyable experience. It's nice to see that science fiction no longer need just be about wizards and other such super-natural delights.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not just for children, 5 Aug 2007
I actually read Children of the Night first, and I was surprised by how different the two were. Namely, Dark Visitor is more faithful to your conventional science fiction, darker, and for a more mature audience, which is probably why I preferred it. I felt a guilty "cat got the cream" pride as I was actually well-versed in some of the physics concepts being explained.
That's not to say that it's lacking in adventure, oh no. The pace is indeed steadier but it's well compensated by the amount of mystery and suspense surrounding one character in particular. All of the main characters are distinctly resilient. Despite being children, you can imagine them to be the stuff that heroes are made out of. The narratives are visually stunning and there are the occasional sly references to Earthly history that are present in every science fiction book I relish. This one is not just for children, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
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