by Robert Plamondon Norton Creek Press, 258 pages, ISBN 0981928447.
Robert Plamondon’s novel is the kind of old-school SF adventure you love, with competent, strong-willed characters, believable technology, fast-paced action, humor, mystery, murder, betrayal, and a touch of the supernatural, all set against the backdrop of the ruined Terran Empire.
One Survivor will remind you of Heinlein’s early work, but with a depth of background more like Jack Vance. It pits fifteen-year-old Beverly di Mendoza against her parents’ murderers, on a backward planet whose inhabitants owe her nothing. With the help of two other teenagers and their battered space ship, Beverly survives the initial onslaughts and soon moves to the offensive.
I have two complete novels out: One Survivor (a space opera) and Silver Buckshot (a romantic urban fantasy thriller with extra banter), and others in the works. This site talks about my stories and also about fiction writing in general.
Thirteen-year-old Princess Flavia has endured a lot recently. Polio crippled her legs and killed her mother, her father is sunk in grief, and her servants veer between negligence and cruelty. She takes refuge in her books and never complains.
But she draws the line at being murdered. Fourteen-year-old Frank Barron, a contender for the most aggravating boy in the universe, conceals her when the shooting starts. This is no accident: a letter told him what to do. It’s signed, “Love, Flavia.” She has no memory of it, and, anyway, she can’t tell the future! Or fall in love. Can she?
This is “a romantic fantasy thriller with the banter turned up to eleven.”
When was the last time you enjoyed a science fiction book where teenagers put an alien ship back together? One Survivor is the kind of old-school SF adventure you love, with competent, strong-willed characters, believable technology, fast-paced action, humor, mystery, murder, betrayal, and a touch of the supernatural, all set against the backdrop of the ruined Terran Empire.
One Survivor will remind you of Heinlein’s early work, but with a depth of background more like Jack Vance. It pits fifteen-year-old Beverly di Mendoza against her parents’ murderers, on a backward planet whose inhabitants owe her nothing. With the help of two other teenagers and their battered spaceship, Beverly survives the initial onslaughts and soon moves to the offensive.
