Review of She of Strangeness

[Stephanie Cameron]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "She of Strangeness" by J. Sheldon Jones.]

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4 out of 5 stars

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Karel and Mik are scouts for the Federation. They are traveling through space on a mission to find a sustainable planet with life. After scanning numerous planets, they finally come across one that seems similar to Earth. There's even a possibility that this planet has technologically advanced life. But their excitement over this discovery is soon extinguished. Mik gets killed, and Karel gets taken hostage by the locals. With secrets generations old, these people have a history that Karel is determined to understand and escape from.

She of Strangeness by J. Sheldon Jones is a story that dives into the different stereotypes of gender roles. I liked how the author incorporated this topic into the various communities of the planet. One community is dictated by the dame's "women". The men rule over the "she's" in another one, and then there's Karel who came from a society where everyone is considered equal. I enjoyed how Karel and Sang's relationship developed, even though Sang held her captive. I thought it was clever how the author used their different perspectives to establish an entertaining love/hate relationship. I loved the complexity of Sang's character and how the story expressed his internal struggles with the laws of his community versus his moral consciousness of rightness.

The beginning of this book was confusing for me. The dialogue within the communities was difficult for me to understand. However, it does get easier to comprehend the more you read. Also, I had a hard time keeping track of a lot of words, names, people, and places. For example, IL (Intelligent Life) was used a lot and I didn't figure out what it stood for until the end of the book. I am still unsure what a Vark is. At one point, I thought they were telepathic squirrel creatures, but now I think they're a different animal. I believe that the dialogue being difficult led to confusion about the information that was provided to explain the planet and its contents. In my opinion, a map and a glossary would have been beneficial. For the issues listed above, I rate this book a 4 out of 5.

I think adults who thrive on Sci-fi and fantasy novels would enjoy this story. There is plenty of action and adventure to keep the reader engaged and make the story flow at a smooth, steady pace. This book does include some dark topics like torture and rape, but they are conveyed neutrally and not described in explicit detail. Due to the nature of the main storyline and the profanity, I would recommend this book to mature readers.

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She of Strangeness
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[NetMassimo]

Despite the flaws you pointed out, this seems like an interesting science fiction novel that uses other planets and their inhabitants to address very serious themes, sometimes going into really dark sides of intelligent life. Thank you for your great review!

[Awele Osuka]

I was drawn to this review because of the name of the book. Besides the flaws that were listed the novel still seems like a very interesting read. Perhaps the book would have benefitted from a glossary at the end.