Tales from the Longview - not your usual SFR

Many of you will have heard of Holly Lisle, writer of many excellent books on how to write. She also runs courses for authors. I've bought a few of her 'how to' books and use them quite often because of her hands-on style with good ideas, presented in an accessible way with lots of examples. Visit her website to find out more.

But although I knew of Holly as a writing coach, I'd never read any of her fiction. I confess I've now read her books as a result of a clever marketing campaign she carried out via her mailing list. In a kind of game she asked questions designed to have the person answering lead themselves to the items in her catalogue which would best suit their needs. Which is quite legit. Nobody was forced to buy anything. In my case, I was enticed into a group which was supposed to be coming up with plot ideas – and I was hoping to learn a few tricks of the trade along the way. She used an existing series for which she already had a number of titles – and of course, to contribute any ideas, you have to have an understanding of the universe and the characters etc. She managed to pique my interest.

It's Holly Lisle's Tales from the Longview series. The series is set in a dystopian future where rulers rule and everybody else does as they're told. It's a hive society where any deviation from the rules results in public execution. That's where the Longview comes in. It's the name of a ship of a type known as a 'death circus' where the condemned are taken off to die publicly at the hands of the highest bidder, a bit like the Roman colosseum, or the more recent beheadings in the Middle East. I read the blurbs on a couple of the books and while I tend to avoid dystopian fiction, I decided I could afford $0.95 for the first book, Born From Fire.   

 When love is crime, who will save the guilty?

MEET THE LONGVIEW - An Ancient Spaceship Resurrected To Transport Conspiracy

Inhabited by a crew of misfits fleeing nightmare pasts, with a cargo of Condemned slated to die at the hands of the highest bidders, and with a passenger roster made up exclusively of people NOT who they claim to be, The Longview serves the hidden agenda of an eccentric recluse bent on playing puppetmaster to all of Settled Space.

Author's note: This story was previously published as ENTER THE DEATH CIRCUS.

EPISODE 1: When love is crime, who will save the guilty?

After falling in love and fathering a child, a young criminal refuses to voluntarily throw himself into a lake of fire to gain his community's forgiveness. So he's sentenced to death and sold to the owner of a spaceship that buys criminals like him. But the ship and its crew are not quite what they appear to be.

You'll find the book on Amazon.

I expected that this book would be about the hope of finding a better future. And indeed, it was. Our criminal is taken on board the Longview, expecting to meet his fate. But it wasn't what he expected. From there  we learn about the men and women who work on the ship, and their backgrounds, which fills in the details about a society dominated by rich corporations. It's easy to find here on Earth parallels, if not at the extremes in the novel. Think Nazi or Communist regimes.

As an author I was intrigued by the style of writing. It repelled and fascinated me at the same time. I tried putting it down here and there, but I kept going back to see what happened next. That is rare for me. I usually just note a DNF and move on. But I persevered. It's a dark story, and not an easy read but the concept sucked me in sufficiently to take on the second book The Selling of Suzee Delight.

When slavery is virtue, who will fight for vice?
 
When Suzee Delight, famous Cheegoth courtesan, murders the five most powerful Pact Worlds' Administrators during a private summit, the owner of The Longview Death Circus struggles against conspiracy to win the bidding for her execution. Meanwhile, Suzee’s powerless supporters race to save her, while the leaders of worlds pull strings to guarantee her death.

You'll find the book on Amazon.

This book is a winner. Perhaps you don't need to have read the first story to appreciate this one but it certainly helps to understand what Suzee and both sides of her struggle are dealing with. It's the haves versus the have nots, it's subjugation versus freedom, and at its heart it's a love story. Maybe more than one. Perhaps the underlying theme is that oppression doesn't work. There will always be resistance to tyranny. And there will always be love.

The author skilfully made me care about the characters. Kagen, who we met in Born From Fire, comes into his own in this story. He takes a chance that's unexpectedly offered and makes it work. Suzee Delight herself comes across as a strong, impassioned woman who is willing to do what she must for the greater good. We met Charlie in the previous book, too, but we learn much more about her in this story. We also meet the mysterious owner of the Longview and his personal representative, Shay. What is his motive? Indeed, what is hers?

Reading it I had a number of 'how will this play out?' moments, a few times when I wasn't sure how it would work and though a part of the ending is predictable, a lot comes out of left field.

Although the books are not strictly romance, I can certainly say that in my opinion without the romance the stories would fall apart. If anyone else has read these books, I'd love to know what you thought.