The Galaxy Game - by Karen Lord - Please believe me when I say I wanted to love this book

2 of 5 Stars     Review copy

I'm fortunate enough to be given a lot of books in exchange for a fair and honest review.  On occasion, I will even reach out through services like NetGalley when I hear about a new work that piques my interest.  That's exactly what happened here.

Late last year I heard about Karen Lord who was making a name for herself in the SF genre and a new book that would be published in January. A book grand in scope with political and religious overtones.  I, like many other readers of my generation had read all of the original six books in the Dune series, I've even read a number of the prequels published over the years.  Loved most of those.

When I read the press release for The Galaxy Game.  I was convinced, I had to read this...

"For years, Rafi Delarua saw his family suffer under his father’s unethical use of psionic power. Now the government has Rafi under close watch but, hating their crude attempts to analyse his brain, he escapes to the planet Punartam, where his abilities are the norm, not the exception. Punartam is also the centre for his favourite sport, wallrunning – and thanks to his best friend, he has found a way to train with the elite.

But Rafi soon realises he’s playing quite a different game, for the galaxy is changing; unrest is spreading and the Zhinuvian cartels are plotting, making the stars a far more dangerous place to aim. There may yet be one solution – involving interstellar travel, galactic power and the love of a beautiful game."

The problem was the 123 words in the paragraphs above took 336 pages and thousands of words to convey in the actual story.  Oh, and the full book didn't convey the story half as well as the synopsis.

There were numerous times I wanted to quit reading this book, but that's not me.  Once I start, I see it through to the end.  I'm just glad it's over.  Time to slip back over to the dark side and read some horror.

The Galaxy Game will be published in Hardback, Paperback, and in a variety of Ebook formats in early January from The Del Rey - Spectra imprint of Random House.