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The Otherhood
by Lytchcov Zammana
(American Book Publishing/Millennial Mind Publishing, $18.00 US,
340 pages, paperback, published 2001.)
Sometime not too far from now, Victor Jones falls foul of a family/business
feud, and  his
mind is genetically transported into the following: the year 2084; the
body of one of his descendants, Viceroy Jones; an organic, sentient
California megalopolis called the Terramyd, ruled by descendants antagonistic
to him. Meanwhile, the mind of Viceroy Jones has been transported back
to near-future California and into the body of his ancestor, Victor
Jones. In their two different and differently unfamiliar new-found eras,
the "brothers" have adventures battling against a tyranny headed by
a member of their own family.
Zammana's ambition in this fiction is to be commended -- indeed, admired.
Unfortunately, the standard of writing isn't quite up to the ambition;
if ever there was a case for a nurturing editor, this book is it. With
the characters being little more than names and the immensely complex
interior of the Terramyd being always described rather than experienced,
it becomes virtually impossible for readers -- this reader, at least
-- to keep a grasp on what's actually going on at any particular moment.
That said, for the ambition and imaginative fervour alone, The Otherhood
is well worth a look.
Review by John Grant.
Elsewhere in infinity plus:
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