Two strangers set off on the journey of a lifetime.
Carter is no stranger to the harsh realities of life on the surface. Orphaned as a boy, he spends his days working a trade route along the east coast. Survival is the only goal, a life of solitude the only path available. But all that was before he met “her.”
Aligning with a scavenging party out of Boston, Carter sets out on another scrap job. Their goal: the wreckage of a transport carrier from The Shell, a planetary exoskeleton surrounding the planet. There he meets Silvia, the sole survivor of the wreck and daughter of a powerful royal family residing upon the exoskeleton.
Without warning, Carter and Silvia are forced to flee from their former allies, working together just to stay alive. They head west in the hopes of returning Silvia to her home in the sky. However, as greed and betrayal threatens to send them to their graves, these two strangers are put to the ultimate test.
Professional Reviews
The Steel Harvest Review
The way the story starts immediately and sets a quick pace that the writer manages to maintain throughout an unpredictable plot. The big strength in the piece is the narration. I write myself, and I’ve tried to recreate a similar style to this to no avail. It’s hard, but when it works, like it does in this piece, it lends an intimacy with the character that makes the story more enjoyable. The free indirect discourse at use, similarly, is used effectively and handled well.
The character of Marcus sums up Carter as well as I could when he says “you have spirit”. Spirit is defining of who he is, his determination to get what he wants and his singlemindedness. Carter is well-fleshed out, believable, and was interesting enough to keep me hooked. Silvia, too, now that I think of it.
Lastly, the world of The Steel Harvest is interesting and well thought-out. (And it’s hard not to love the name The Arcfall Convenant)
If I had to criticise the Steel Harvest, it’s that there are a lot of thoughts and sometimes, but not always, they interrupt the flow of the story and read a little like exposition. It's a minor complaint, though, and not enough to knock a star off. It was a good piece with exceptional characters.
The higher you go into the hills, the deeper the secrets...
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The Psychic Dimension, Part II (558 pages) is a collection of 36 sci-fi/paranormal stories and the new work is the companion book to Jay Dubya's The Psychic Dimension.
