SufferStone: Book I of the Dolvia Saga (edition 2011)

I enjoyed this book once I was into it. It is a story of cultures clashing, both between people and civilizations. You have the Company from the stars vs the Dolviet culture on planet. The industrial vs the agricultural/nomadic. This book tells the story more from the Dolvian side, I hope the next one tells more of the Company view - just to be fair. ( )

As a fan of sci-fi and someone who is interested in the various cultures the genre provides, I was excited to win Sufferstone in a book giveaway. While I was not disappointed in discovering a new culture, I found the book to be confusing and disappointing, not really delivering what I was expecting it would. I had hoped for a riveting story of the changes that happen in a new culture when humans come in Stargate-style and begin involving themselves with a culture that isn't their own. What happens when you teach a new people new things? I was intrigued when I discovered these desert people with their own cultures and beliefs were going to have those challenged by industry.

What I found was that because the story is told in the first person, from the perspectives of several different people it was difficult to get to know the characters or events in any given section, because there was no clear definition in the beginnings of each new section regarding who the narrator was at the time. Also, though it was wonderful to see the desert culture so well thought out, it was very badly described. Either the readers are supposed to already understand what is going on from some other medium or they are expected to flip back and forth from the story to the glossary of terms as they read, something I found to be very distracting.

Among the many distractions from the book is the fact that some characters go by multiple names, often these names change in the middle of a sentence. This is based on culture; you must refer to the person in the context of their actions. This is all fine and wonderful if you can understand the context of their actions. For me, it was not so much that one character had three or four names, but that each name represented something the person had done or related to how what they were doing affected their position in society. If the reader can't put an order to the character's actions, how are they expected to comprehend when each name is being used for the purpose it is intended?

Some of the other difficulties I had when reading is that things seem to happen for no reason and that time has no linear meaning within the pages of the book. You can read a page that takes place in a day or you can read a page that jumps months at a time between paragraphs with no real divider to explain that time has changed. While I enjoyed the perspectives changing from one character to the next and the story continuing that way to give us fresh insight as to the action and its consequences, if you can not understand why the action is taking place, it makes the plot somewhat muddy. You think to yourself "This is a wonderful story idea, but why is it all happening?" This is another big distraction as you are reading. What compels these characters to act as they do? What is the motivation in their going through their actions? Between this and the time jumps I found myself thinking I'd missed a good chunk of the book while I sat and read it.

After about half-way through I began to understand the storytelling process and the section told from the point of view of the desert people themselves explained quite a lot about why things were happening the way they were in some instances, which made for very good reading. I was not disappointed in regards to the new desert culture. Though it was complex, the culture itself was unique with just the right hint of familiarity to make it easily to see the reflection of life here on Earth.

Overall, the idea behind Sufferstone was a good one, but the execution made complete enjoyment of the experience a little difficult. It is possible that if the reader already had a background from which to base their reading on or if they were to read the book more than once, the story would easily grow in their hearts and minds and become something to treasure. As it is, this first book in the series is an interesting introduction to a cultural clash that I can only hope will improve in later continuations.

Note: Though this book was a free gift from the author, the content of my review was in no way influenced by the gifting. The book speaks for itself and my review would have been worded just this way even if I'd gone out and bought it. ( )

I was very fortunate enough to win this book on a LibraryThing giveaway. Sufferstone is one of the most completely unique books I have ever read and I found myself wrapped up in it and unable to put it down. I’ve always hoped for some of the books I read to contain a glossary in the back of the book giving me some kind of description of the places and the people and I finally found one that added to my excitement. Ms. Atruim has created a masterpiece with Sufferstone. She is a wonderful writer and I found this was an exciting read for me. I hadn’t found any science fiction fantasy that kept my interest until I read this one. Her character, Kyle Le is very strong willed and someone you would want fighting on your side. This is one book I would love to see made into a movie. Wonderful job Ms. Atrium. ( )

Best Sci-Fi / Fantasy Book This Year

Stella Atrium has written an amazing fantasy, space opera. SufferStone combines cultures, corruption, and mysticism to create an "out of this world" novel that will keep readers interested from start to finish. Well written, well thought out, this new work will not disappoint. Highly Recommended! ( )