Genre: Science Fiction
Publisher: Xlibris
Published: 2016
Reviewer Rating:
Reviewer: Michael D. Griffiths
Have you read this book?
Hush Sisters Hush by Donald Krueger can be labeled a science fiction novel in theory, but the vast majority of the novel focuses on people living through normal Midwestern lives without conflict or amazing results.
Let me back up a little first. I tend to get a little excited when I receive a strong looking novel from a major publishing house and I look forward to reviewing them. However, I also receive books from first time authors with less known publishers. I like to throw these other authors into the mix as much as possible. I have often been very surprised by these novels. Yet the results are not always so positive.
I was moving into a new place last month and with my books boxed up, I was hard pressed to find a new book to review. Opening a random box, I grabbed the first book I saw, which was Hush Sisters Hush and I wish I had dug a little deeper, but like a good guy (who had most of his books still boxed up) I finished the thing.
The book revolves around a female writer and her newest project who turns out to be a man who’s lived two hundred and fifty years. Geff ages roughly one year for each ten which pass. Sarah begins to investigate and discovers he had led a productive but mostly uneventful life. Soon her research indicates he might be one of six clones which aliens left on earth for no obvious reason. After meeting two more of these slow aging six, Geff begins to try to send a message into space to contact the planet they think they were sent from.
There are more than a few issues I have with this one. First off, there is no adversary, and we are a thousand miles from a protagonist. No one so much as causes the characters a single problem and is nothing but as helpful as they can be. None of the long-lived people suffered a mishap from their fellow man and lived remarkably boring lives. The pace is slow without much really occurring other than people assisting them in learning more about their outer space origin. Then, after a slight build in excitement, their message to their home planet goes unresolved, as is discovering more of the missing clones. Also, Geff gets Sarah pregnant by having sex with her once, but somehow none of the three of them has ever had a child in the last 250 years.
Not too many positives here other than you could read the book to children, although I doubt it would keep their attention. The sisters in the title are the nuns who looked after the clones and the book has a Christian feel, where we could all reach a heavenly nirvana by being polite, white, and rich. Sadly, it is a nice book set in a trouble-free Utopian world where everyone is nice to each other, but like most super happy and sweet people, spending time with them tends to get boring quickly.
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