Anyways, in honor of a momentous occasion, I thought I would take some time to write a review of the most recent novel I just finished reading. The occasion is momentous for a single reason, and that is because the author of the novel is the father of three brothers who are arguably the three best friends of my life. The author has always been a bit of a hero of mine, both in faith and intelligence - with the two quite often intersecting. As a man quite passionate of story-telling himself, he started 'penning' a novel a handful of years back, and as of late last year officially had it published. Well enough with the hero worship, onto my review of the novel. :-)
The Halcyon Dislocation chronicles the story of a University and it's society of students and professors as they're 'dislocated' from their reality and universe - transported into what appears to be a parallel reality. The cause of the dislocation is at first a commentary on the scientific community at their most reckless: an apparent lack of caution in light of making advancements in science at a rapid rate. The result being a dangerous science experiment that envelops the Island of Halcyon, it's university and infrastructure, and all it's inhabitants, cutting and pasting it from one version of Earth, as we know it, to one that is eerily similar but dangerously different. The resulting story takes the students of Halcyon on a journey that I can only best describe as civilization-building. Without any real time-frame or hope of reverting the experiment and going home, the students are forced to move forward, starting from scratch in terms of all that goes into sustaining a civilization and discovering a world completely unknown to them. Imagine not knowing what province or state is right next to you, or knowing what animals and plants are indigenous to certain regions and if they're friendly or dangerous. We live in a world where the last great adventure for discovery is under the depths of the oceans - practically everything on the surface has been mapped, and chronicled. The students become pioneers likened unto the early pilgrims of the Americas, albeit with modern day knowledge of science and technology.
The adventure in this novel starts as an infant discovering the world around them, and quickly matures into a hardened war veteran learning the ugly truths inherent in any world. As it matures, the plot becomes superbly intricate, revealing twists and dangers that force our heroes to make life-altering decisions, taking them further away from the past world as they knew it, and adapting to the true-reality of their new lives on this strange new world.
As the novel approaches it's climax, I can honestly say I did not see the twists coming. It was like a piece of a puzzle that you can't see, but once inserted made perfect sense - that narcotic "AH HA!, wow..." moment that everyone loves in a good story.
The novel isn't without it's room to grow though. I found that initial chapters portrayed a level of character development and dialogue that at times felt a little forced; however, as the novel and journey progresses, you can clearly see the Authors level of skill and true depth of understanding for each of his characters grow to masterful levels. As new characters are introduced along the way, they're done with far more subtlety and intricacy - revealing their depths in more natural and poetic ways. The best example being the Hansa civilization, and it's key characters. This was perhaps my favorite aspect of the entire novel - revealing a human-like animal culture of honor, love, poetry, and fierce loyalty. The universe that the author creates is one that I can only best compare to Tolkien's epic tales (and I'm not saying that because I know him and he's likely to read this review, it's completely true). It's often a tall task for any author to portray a simple world around it's main character, but in Tolkien fashion, Peter Kazmaier creates a vivid universe filled with multiple cultures, philosophies, character-types, and story-lines, all handled with care representative of someone who truly understands and loves the characters and universe that they have created.
I give this novel 4 out of 5 stars, and highly recommend it. It can be found for purchase online through the following web link: THE HALCYON DISLOCATION
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