The Story
Scat, by Jim Graham is an imaginative and intriguing story set in the far future that follows Sebastian Scatkiewicz, a.k.a. Scat – an American in the US Marine Corps and decorated war hero. After ‘retiring’ from the Marines he finds himself on a distant planet working in a mine. He gets caught up in a riot there, and is shipped to another planet where he is unwillingly swept up in a planetary rebellion. The major players in the war that ensues are not governments so much as mega-corporations, a regulatory commission and the people of the planet he’s on. All he wanted was to do his tour of duty in the mine, get paid and buy a patch of dirt to settle on. Now he’s embroiled in a war and he has to choose a side.
Mr. Graham employs some unique science and offers a very dark view of corporate domination that may appear all too realistic given the way things are going. The story undergoes several convolutions that turn the plot on its head and leaves you guessing where it will end up, and I love the twist at the end that serves up retribution for the villainous. All of the villainous.
Technical
The story is engaging and well told. At times the pace slows, but overall it does hold the reader’s attention. The major complaint in this category is the number of editorial flubs: sentences that were rewritten and left artifacts behind and a high number of words that got past the spell checker but are the wrong word for the sentence: ‘thus’ instead of ‘this’, etc. The manuscript really needed one more editorial pass, and best if it was a different set of eyes. Authors tend to be too familiar with the work and don’t see these mistakes.
One thing that really bothered me as I read the book was the use of single quote marks rather than double quotes on all dialogue. I assumed this was a glitch in the eBook conversion script. In discussing this with Mr. Graham after writing this review, he pointed out that in British English, quotation marks are called inverted commas, and the single ones are used more frequently than the double for direct speech. I mention this here not as an objection but for the enlightenment of anyone else who is as clueless about this as I was.
Characters
Through the course of the story we are introduced to a great many characters and they are of all manner of race and ethnicity. I found it odd that so many of them spoke with British colloquialisms and slang.
The dialogue was natural and easy. Humor slipped in at appropriate times, yet most of the characters did not stand out as real or likable. Somehow they just didn’t click with me. But, this is the first book in a series, and I have found that authors sometimes withhold the information that builds a character until subsequent books.
Summary
An intriguing and imaginative story filled with all manner of wonderful Sci-fi gadgets and situations, that could have been an excellent read were it not for the lack of editing and the somewhat flat characters.
