I have just finished reading a great new science-fiction book by Ryan Robledo. It is called the Aelnathan,published by Trafford Publishing. This book is unlike any other story that I have ever heard of. To add to my surprise, I found that this book was written by a sixteen-year-old.
Well, let me get on to the reasons why I love this book. First of all, it is a sci-fi written about the perils of biological engineering--a subject I always like to read about. This is of course a very popular topic for books, comics, and movies, but the Aelnathan handles the subject differently. In the imaginary universe that the book is set in--Uemievars--some wayward humans engineer giant arthropods to serve them (same old topics ), but the arthropods rebel against their human makers (sounds like more of the same ). The difference in this story is the mechanism for the arthropods’ rebellion. Immaterial beings (macrobes, spirits, metaphysical creatures, whatever), which are called the Hiedams in this story, take the bodies of the arthropods’ as their
own. These Hiedams, now incarnate, wish to dominate all life, and they start by warring against the humans.
Although biological engineering is the central physical theme of the book, many other issues are
dealt with. The central moral theme is the evils of rebellion. It also deals with the dangers of deceit, lust
for power, pride, and many others. Although this is a work of science fiction, it intends to teach morals
along the way. Do not fret, it is not a preachy, slow book. The morals are shown by the results of the
characters’ actions. In fact, this book is not at all slow. After the sort-of prelude section, the book spans a period of about a week's time, and is filled with action and intrigue along the way. It is very fast-paced.
And now I come to the part where I describe the aspects I did not like about the book. Perhaps it was too fast-paced. The book carries you on its wings so fast, that you have to really pay attention to what is going on. Generally I like this effect, but this might have gone a little too far. Also, due to the intricate complexity of the imaginary world, the reader has to remember at least a dozen terms from the Aelnathan's unique language to understand what is being said or described (it even has fictitious standards of measure--rods and disnarcs instead of feet and miles!) While this is very interesting, and adds a great sense of realism to the tale, it does make for a more difficult read. These are the reasons why I give this book four stars instead of five.
With all of this said, I do think the Aelnathan is a very worthy entry into the world of sci-fi. And a very new one. I am a fan of Trafford Publishing(having published with them myself), and I had subscribed to receive an e-mail announcement when this title was released. I received it around April 18 of 2008, and soon after that I obtained a copy of the book. If anyone wants to check it out, go to www.trafford.com, and in the Quick Book Search box (located on the left of the webpage), enter Aelnathan into the title space, and/or Ryan Robledo into the author space. Read the book. I think you'll like it.