The tone is casual and conversational, without an excess of unintelligible science terminology or science fiction jargon.

This structure makes the narrative appealing and convincing. Nigel Hunter who each tell their version of events to the narrator, Joel, who transcribes their accounts. The book is presented as journal entries by Ronald Carpenter and Dr. “The Illumination Query” by Sarah Baethge is the first book in “The speed of Darkness” series. The story would perhaps have worked better and had improved balance / structure if the two viewpoints had been spliced together more evenly.īasically, I thought the premise was quite clever (4*) but the execution was somewhat lacking (1-2*) 'The Illumination Query' needs finessing and a decent, bold copy edit.

During the first half of the book, we follow one character and then the second half of the book is from a different character's viewpoint the first half was much stronger than the second, too. There were formatting issues with the digital copy I was sent, which I can easily overlook, but there were several sections that I was hard pressed to keep focused, slightly unsure as to what was happening and to whom. However, where this first installment - in what Baethge is saying may be a 5 or 6 book series - fell down for me was in clarity and coherence.

Given its '#1' hashtag, there is obviously more to come, and I would be happy to read those, too. 'The Illumination Query' (The Speed of Darkness #1) by Sarah Baethge is an interesting read with some unusual ideas a mash-up of Fantasy, Sci-Fi and Horror, with a relatively solid storyline and some good characters / characterisation.

The Speed of Darkness by Sarah Baethge