Crescent
by Phil Rossi
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Book Summary Information
Author: Phil RossiEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-06-26
ISBN: 1896944523
Number of pages: 320
Publisher: Dragon Moon Press
Book Reviews of Crescent
Book Review: A true disaster of a novel
Summary: 1 Stars
"Crescent", a debut novel by Phil Rossi, is an SF/Horror novel set on a huge, remote space station at the "frontier" of "the 17 systems". It is a riff on the classic haunted house/space station genre, and breaks no new ground. I ordered it because it kept coming up on my Amazon recommendations and because it got a very high average rating. After reading it, I conclude that Rossi must have a huge extended family. That's the only way I can conceive of how all the 5 star ratings arose - that they must have come from relatives stuffing the ballot box. (Actually, I'm only halfway kidding about this - a really anomalously high proportion of 4 and 5 star reviewers have only reviewed this book and a couple of others).
This may have been a great podcast. But this review is about the written and published novel. The writing is absolutely horrible on just about every possible technical level. Grammar, usage, vocabulary etc. Sentences abound with extraneous words and commas. Adverbial clauses are rampant, dialogue and descriptions are stilted. The writing is painful to read through, and more than once has made me think of fingernails scratching across a blackboard. I keep thinking that I am reading a first novel by a twenty-something English student who is trying every trick he ever learned to spice up his prose. The result is a train wreck of writing horror (and horror writing). For sure, no professional editor with any skill ever took a red pen to this baby. Normal typos also abound, and it was instantly clear that this was just one step up from a self-published book (my fault for not paying attention to the publisher information before ordering).
There is little or no verisimilitude. Actually, come to think if it, there is a kind of reverse verisimilitude. Although there is very little science in the science fiction, what little there is is laughably wrong. Take gravity, for example. In one early scene the hero (a space salvage expert) boards a derelict. he uses "magnetic boots" so that he doesn't float away, set for 9 "gravities". I suppose this means 9G which would not only prevent him from floating away, but also from ever moving his feet. Later on, after landing on a planet in which the effective gravity is 3% greater than on the space station, everything is incredibly difficult and tiring because of the increased gravity. Huh? And the space station. No description of how gravity is generated but it cannot be they usual rotation because there is no description of gravity varying with location on the space station
One cannot tell when (or where), precisely, the story takes place (at least 7-10 centuries in the future), as details like that are not to be found, but the minimal levels of technology description are full of anachronisms ("widescreen LCD monitors", bullet loaded revolvers and rifles and dental fillings in the same time and place as FTL travel and ion force fields?) Truly horrible SF!
The plot is slightly better than the writing, but only slightly and comes complete with a telegraphed deus ex machina near the end. All in all, not a very satisfying read. Definitely not recommended unless one wants to see an example of how NOT to write a novel.
Yes, I know this is harsh but the writing was amazingly bad. I know that this will garner me tons of "not helpfuls" but I calls 'em as I sees 'em. Or as Rossi would write, "calls'm as I sees'm".
JMT
Summary of Crescent
Darkness has inspired fear since mankind first watched the sun go down. Bad things hide in the dark feral beasts with mouths full of razors waiting for a taste of flesh. But now, the darkness is stirring with a life of its own. Crescent Station is the last bastion of civilization, floating in the cold, outer systems where colonized space gives way to the sparser settlements of the Frontier. Like the boom towns of distant Earth s Old American West, Crescent Station is a gateway to power, wealth, and opportunity for anyone who isn t afraid to get his or her hands dirty. But deep within the station s bowels, in Crescent s darkest and most secret places, an ancient evil is awakening and hungry, and it threatens the very fabric of space and time. Will the residents of Crescent Station find a way to stop it before the terror drives them insane? Or is it already too late?Horror Books
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