Review by Germaine Mills -- Belas Rift

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Germaine Mills
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Review by Germaine Mills -- Belas Rift

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[Following is a volunteer review of "Belas Rift" by Stephan von Clinkerhoffen.]
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3 out of 4 stars
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The Belas Rift is a science fictional story that is written by author Stephan von Clinkerhoffen. The story explores the journey of Stig (who is Manna) and Meg (a Polandrea) who travels across different worlds in search of Anet (an evil human hell-bent on destroying and conquering the other worlds for her evil desires). Tracking down Anet leads them from their world to her world where they are invisible to the human eyes, except for their golden buttons which seems to give them away every time. They engaged in numerous adventures in their quest to stop Anet, but misunderstandings keep occurring which sees them being chased by police in cars, helicopters and being chased by hounds who were trained to track their scents. They come close to death and being captured many times, but managed to escape in one piece. This was all thanks to the friends they met along their journey; Nobby (a Manna), Tony (a kind human) and Wee Willie Winkie (a human that only speaks in rhymes) right when they thought all hope was lost.
The book explored the major themes of love, friendship and trust which were explored in each chapter. This was demonstrated using the main characters Stig and Meg which spread throughout the friendships they were able to forge along the way. The theme of love was mostly demonstrated with the love Stig and Meg had for their home country and each other in a way that Meg would always overlook Stig’s flaws when he kept on making mistakes, she kept on forgiving him. On the other hand, Stig showed his love for Meg by always wanting to protect her and making sure that she was always in a safe position whenever they were being chased. Friendship was shown between Stig and Meg mostly until they met Nobby and the others. They were willing to risk their lives to help their cause and they went above and beyond to help them in any way they could. Trust was demonstrated with Meg and Stig always siding with each other even when the plan failed or the plan seemed as if it would not work. It was also demonstrated when they met Tony who offered to help them and gave them shelter when they were being hunted and all the rumours were saying that they were bad ‘Anomaly.’
The book was interesting from the start, even just by looking at the cover it was an eye catcher. Each chapter ended on a cliff hanger and the reader was forced to read on to know what would happen next. There were no dull moments and each chapter was filled with surprise. The plot was great and the characters were lovable. The character developments were on point, it was not too slow or not too fast. The storyline was unpredictable in a way that you couldn’t guess what would happen next, but the story was not all over the place. Each chapter and events that occurred transitioned seamlessly. The writer uses a lot of literary devices to bring the chapters to life. While reading the book, even though few pictures are shown, you feel as if you are in the book as the writer gives you vivid descriptions that plays on your imagination and allows you to use your senses. In chapter 4, the writer also expounds on the different animal species. For example: Artiodactyla and carnivora, which makes the book not just fun to read but you can actually build your vocabulary from the book.
The only drawback I had from the story was that the book did not have a glossary at the end or even at the beginning that defined the terms that the writer had coined. For example, in chapter 2 on page 12, the word ‘usty’ was used to describe the water. At first, I thought it was a typographical error and the word should have been ‘rusty’. However, when the word appeared again in chapter 3 on pages 16 and 17 to describe the metal padlock, I figured out that it was a word that the writer had coined for the Manna people. The writer never explained that ‘usty’ and ‘rusty’ meant the same thing but humans say ‘rusty’ and Manna say ‘usty’ until chapter 9 when Stig and Meg met Tony. The other words that I had to decipher myself were: trisity (electricity) and orses (horses) etc.
I would recommend the book to persons 12 years and older because of the gun scenes that were present throughout the book. I would also recommend that the reader have a notepad and a dictionary nearby because the writer using a lot of words that the average reader might not know. I would give the book 3 out of 4 stars.

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Belas Rift
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