Out for Blood: Book Review
The book centers on Cadence Drake, a spaceship captain who is a "finder of lost things". The Corrigan's Blood is a stolen spaceship with a new type of propulsion drive, and the rightful owner of the ship hires Cadence to get it back. Of course, it's not that simple. Cadence finds herself deep in trouble immediately, and the fun is in seeing her get out of it.
Ms. Lisle develops Cadence's backstory very well. Through her recollections and interaction with other characters you find out a little bit here and a little bit there until it all comes together about three-quarters of the way through the book.
The story is good science fiction. It's not "hard sf" with rivets, but the author does a good job explaining her universe. I found that her brand of hyperspace travel seems quite plausible in context. There were some plot devices in the story that left me wishing for a little bit more explanation (if I believed this universe was our future I'd invest heavily in nanotechnology right now), but none of the implied technology got in the way of the believability of the story.
For me, though, the reason to read a Lisle story is for the characters, and the change of genre hasn't affected Lisle's in-depth characterizations. By the end of the book, you know exactly why Cadence Drake does what she does. And more importantly--you're rooting for her.
There was one thing that I didn't like about the book, however. A good portion of the plot centers around Cadence becoming aware of an evil conspiracy. The form that the conspiracy takes relies on an overused cliché of the supernatural world. I think this is the only facet of the book where Ms. Lisle's previous experience in the fantasy genre shows through as a liability. I don't believe it's a small point, and how the reader feels about stories of the supernatural will influence their ultimate opinion of the story.
Overall, I enjoyed reading Hunting the Corrigan's Blood. A fast-moving story and characters to care about made for a good read. If Ms. Lisle decides to write more science-fiction I'll be there to read it.
To find out more about Holly Lisle, you can visit her home page at:
http://elwood.pionet.net/~shangri/holly1pa.htm
Or discuss her work at:
news://news.sff.net/sff.people.holly-lisle(the author herself contributes to this group)
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