Subject: 'Inner Eclipse' by R P Russo

From: [email-masked] (Paul Silver)
Date: Tue, 27 Apr 1993 17:36:25 GMT

Inner Eclipse by Richard Paul Russo.

Reviewer: Paul Silver

Inner Eclipse follows the story of Benedict Saltow, a First Order Empath.
The story takes place on Nightshade, one planet of many, but there is little
of an empire to keep everything in order.
    Benedict is hired by a mercenary-type called Ryker to follow him and
another mercenary, Renata, to find alien intelligence in the jungles of the
planet. This situation is made more dangerous because the planet Nightshade
is the basis for an illegal killer drug Flex, addicts of this drug are all
over the planet and Benedict helps one, a girl called Silky, who will soon
die.
    Russo does not make Benedict an empath and leave his power alone,
Benedict has seizures when his empathic 'screens' fade. The screens are used
to block out the background noise of the rest of nearby humanity, and
without them Benedict has fits as the noise becomes overpowering. He has one
of these fits early in the book and does not know when the next may strike.
This and the introduction of one of his old friends gives a firm basis for
Benedict's character to be developed from. Benedict seems a hard and callous
man, but his cynicism is only an affect of his empathic problems and a
massacre from earlier in his career that he blames himself for.
    Most of the book is taken up with the meeting of the four main
characters, then their trip through a dangerous jungle leading towards their
goal. This gives time to develop all of their characters, including Ryker,
who would have been left as a two-dimensional thug by many other authors.
    The book is split into six parts, charting their meeting and journey,
the first parts, area based in a city on Nightshade, where all the
characters meet. The city is not a pleasent place, this is not a book where
gadgets and high-tech equipment are at the fore, they are hardly noted at
all, the personalities of the characters are what makes the book, not merely
being set in the future.
    By the time they are on their journey, first in a canal boat, then on
foot through a jungle, their characters have all been given an foundation
that allows for development during the closer contact during the trip.
    During the course of the story we find out exactly why each character is
the way they are, most deeply in Benedict's character, including why he
blames himself for earlier events in his life, and why he is willing to go
on an alien-hunt with a drug-addict and two mercenaries when he could be
being paid pampering the jet-set of the human race, far from Nightshade.
    The final part of the book is titled Inner Eclipse, where Benedict meets
the alien intelligences and has a great unknown wish granted. This rounds
off the story whilest still giving depth to the characters and explanations
of why everything happened the way it did.

%T Inner Eclipse
%A Richard Paul Russo
%I Grafton books.
%D 1990
%P 349 (pb)

Personal rating: 85%

--
In the UK:                          [email-masked]
From the rest of the world (99.9%): [email-masked]
"Could you let the aliens land please? They might be here to
 pick me up."                       - Bill Hicks.