Published in Issue 22 of Visionary Tongue, Summer 2007.
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The VT team had the pleasure of meeting Richard at the last Novacon convention in November, where he was selling his novella and kindly gave us a copy for review. ‘She’s Alone’ comes from that great tradition of authors who put everything into their work, get a small print run produced and do the real hard work of selling copies personally to their potential readership. I know that Richard shifted a few copies at Novacon, and I hope that the initial investment has paid off as this hard working author deserves some attention.
The novella is set in a world where all women have been killed off, apart from the main character that wakes from a cryogenic sleep to discover her predicament. The writing is concise and the setting is finely realised, despite a subject matter that at times is hard to believe in. The central character, whilst well developed and very complex does struggle to produce any lasting empathy with the reader coupled with the slightly far fetched plot. A lot of these problems could be resolved or worked through in a longer novel in this fiercely futuristic setting with an ending that leaves the reader left unsatisfied.
Poetry Monthly Press 128pp ISBN