Clarion Review
SCIENCE FICTION
Rekindling of Hope
Doug Lavers
PartridgeSingapore
978-1-4828-2419-3

This interesting blend of good-guy aliens and Earth-threatening political and climate issues provides much food for thought.

With all the dire political, economic, and climate upheaval making the news, Doug Lavers’s Rekindling of Hope provides exactly what the literary scene needs right now. Touching on themes of earthly destruction, the power to make a difference, and hope, this tightly written science fiction novel provides much food for thought.

Rekindling of Hope
Doug Lavers
Partridge Singapore, 223 pages, (paperback) $20.95, 978-1-4828-2419-3
(Reviewed: December, 2014)

This thought-provoking debut novel offers something exceedingly rare of late for science fiction readers: hope.

Set in the near future, the story revolves around retired oil executive Peter Wilson, an elderly widower who is living out the rest of his days in Melbourne near his beloved niece Zoe, who calls him “Grandad.” Peter spends his days playing chess with Zoe and contemplating the economic, environmental, and political problems plaguing humankind.

But then a seemingly benevolent entity known as the Bearing—an alien communal intelligence—contacts Peter with a mind-blowing proposition: If Peter agrees to be the planet’s overseer while the Bearing attempts to save humankind from itself, he will get a completely reconstructed body (he’ll essentially be 18 years old again) and access to technology beyond his wildest dreams.

Although the concepts explored in this novel—the first in the Rejuvenation trilogy—are undoubtedly visionary and fodder for lively discussion, the storyline suffers from a few major flaws. Once Peter and crew begin their mission to save humankind by reorganizing the planetary government, the story loses its intimate feel as it begins to focus on crises in various regions, rather than on character development. Additionally, some of the aforementioned emergencies—such as America’s medical system and terrorist activity in the Middle East—are only superficially explored and solved too easily, and many of the characters’ personal problems are fixed by a never-ending supply of money.

At the beginning of February, the Clarion Review of Defence of Hope will become available.

Clarion Review

Defence of Hope
Doug Lavers
PartridgeSingapore (Nov 17, 2015)
978-1-4828-5430-5

Two women must work to find harmony between opposing forces and preserve history from a fiend.

Doug Lavers’s Defence of Hope blends science fiction and speculative fiction in a tale that centers on finding harmony between opposing forces.

Aon is a mentally unstable being, a member of The Bearing who has the power to alter history. Katie Shepherd, empress of the Outer Arm Federation, must step down as ruler and join The Bearing to correct history and stop Aon. Katie selects college student Sienna Cordwell to take her place as empress. Sienna doesn’t want to give up her life as a regular twentysomething; instead, she creates a completely new second identity as Empress Sylvia. As Katie immerses herself in different eras to correct pivotal moments in history, Sienna must rule as Empress Sylvia while also trying to maintain her private self.

Duality infuses almost every aspect of the novel. The story straddles two different genres and has two story lines, one about an older woman and the other about a younger woman. Each character balances two lives—one that fulfills the greater good, and another in which she tries to fulfill her own needs.
Though this framework has potential, the story falters. Lavers relies too much upon exposition and dialogue, avoiding the inclusion of sumptuous details and action that are expected of the genre. Many big questions (Why is there an Outer Arm Federation? Why does Katie get to pick Sienna to be empress?) are left unanswered; facilitating greater understanding of backstory and motivations would make the story richer and more enjoyable. Defence of Hope uses characters and settings from Lavers’s other series, the Rejuvenation Trilogy, but they are not properly contextualized here, and mostly confuse the novel.

When Lavers does provide detail, Defence of Hope is thought-provoking. As Katie tries to change Aon’s handiwork, the author places her in historical scenarios that spur questions such as, what if killing Hitler during World War I caused events worse than World War II? What if Albert Einstein died in a boating accident, or if the Battle of Waterloo ended differently? Lavers’s historical descriptions are strong, and as Katie tries to fix the time line, these sections come to feel like short stories within a novel.

Such moments, though, fail to the buoy the work as a whole, which suffers from a general lack of clarity. For the moments in which its dual stories do achieve harmony, Defence of Hope will appeal to speculative fiction buffs, and perhaps general science fiction fans as well.
KATERIE PRIOR