2 out of 4 stars
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An enthralling tale can be found in the science fiction work, The Boronian: A Rising Tide by Ross Buzzell. It is centered around the inhabitants of the planet Boron who are a race of beings that live with the common condition of electron deficiency existing within their atomic structure. This, however, is not a hindrance to their abilities in relation to what we as readers are used to in terms of optimum physical performance. They basically would make our world class athletes look like average Joes with their uniquely enhanced abilities of sense, strength, speed and the like. We definitely want to stay on their good side in any encounters we would have with them to say the least.
The main thrust of the story is the life of the High Prince Konner Lorian whom we follow as the protagonist throughout the book. We first meet him as a young boy who is beginning to exhibit even greater abilities than is expected of Boronians while he is being trained as a soldier. We end up leaping forward a few years in his life at various points in the story to follow his development in ability and rank in their military forces. At each stage though, there always seems to be a hindrance to his progression through either jealousy of his being the next in line for the throne or potentially an even more sinister opposition hiding in the shadows. In the end, Konner's story is a great tale that includes a plethora of combat situations that showcase his burgeoning abilities and sharp mind mixed with his balancing his duties as the High Prince. The only question is, will this end be a happy one?
The story of Konner and the rest of the Boronians is crafted quite well by Mr. Buzzell. The characters and their abilities are put on display right from the get-go and draw the reader into the narrative very well. It is a truly well designed universe that the author has put together in this story. In regards to this, the author does a very good job of laying out the back story of the various races and creatures that are found throughout the book. He obviously has put a lot of thought into the details of the universe that he has created which definitely helps to fill in the shades of the story to make it a full technicolor picture in the imagination. He even gives a type of glossary at the beginning of the book that goes a bit more in depth with much of this information which I believe brings more richness to the story.
The bad part of this book is all of the pervasive errors in punctuation that get in the way of the story. The biggest culprit is the apostrophe used with possessive nouns. There just aren’t any for the most part; and when they do show up they are often used incorrectly. The whole feel of the book as I read it was as though I was reading a working copy that had not been edited in any grammatical way as of yet. This was really distracting as there were such errors on almost every page of the story, often with multiple ones showing up on each page. There are other errors that pop up as well with things such as continuity, homophone mix-up, and the like, but the punctuation problem is by far the most prevalent in the book. It was all too often a huge distraction to the flow of the story.
Overall, I have to sadly give this book a 2 out of 4 stars. It is truly with regret that I do this as the story and its inhabitants are actually extremely engaging. I just cannot look past all of the errors that permeate the book from the beginning through to the end. If a huge round of editing was done on this story, then I believe that it would be one that would be a highly welcomed addition to the science fiction genre. If you enjoy rollicking space stories, then the meat of this tale would definitely be for you, however, you might want to wait until the editing process gets a bit further along than where it currently sits.
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The Boronian
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