This story’s biggest flaw
is it isn’t focused on one element. I
see what Mortimore was trying to do in trying to make a spiritual successor or
even a sequel to his debut novel Lucifer
Rising, which already had a few problems.
Very early on in the novel it becomes clear that Mortimore has given up
in trying to make the story a sequel, but spinning it off in a different
direction. This isn’t the audience
misinterpreting intentions of novel, it is Mortimore actively changing the
direction of his narrative without very little editing. He instead changes to a straight hard science
fiction plot with some great ideas, but not enough cohesion to keep it
going. So this brings down a lot of what
the novel has going for it.
This isn’t the case for
the characters as even with the massive plot shift, Mortimore does excellently
in creating his characters. The Doctor is
barely in the novel and when he is he is kept in the background which works for
the best as Mortimore is working more with his side characters. He works best with Ace of all characters in
the novel. Now her subplot is extremely
weak if it weren’t for her connections with the character of Drew who is an
epileptic space traveler who doesn’t want to be tied down. While their relationship is not a romantic
one they grow to understand each other over the course of the novel as they
realize they have some of the same motivations.
Ace has always had bravado and Drew has always been a coward so as
opposites they really get an interesting dynamic.
The way Mortimore uses
Benny is also great as she is paired with Midnight who was once human but has
been changed into a blob like creature which just adds to the alien
atmosphere. Benny also has to use her
archeological skills to communicate with the monkeys which has some great
features. Midnight is also interesting as
he has amnesia and doesn’t understand humanity any longer. The other characters in the story also suffer
as they really don’t have much to do in the actual plot. They are all there just so we can get the
plot moving along and I honestly can’t remember. Another problem with the novel is its pacing
due to the radical plot shift as it starts out good but then slows down to fit
a rather large page count.
To summarize, Parasite is in a word average. It isn’t nearly as bad as some say, but also
isn’t very good. Even with that Jim
Mortimore was right to not like the way the thing turned out. The plot starts out promising as a Lucifer Rising sequel, but the shift in
the plot direction causes almost all the problems in the story. Mortimore excels at the characters in giving
them development throughout the plot.
They are the largest portion of the novel which I can actual remember
even though this novel seems like one you should remember. It becomes another in the quickly becoming
long line of dropping in quality Virgin New Adventures which had started in Strange England. You can read this if you want but you won’t
get too much out of the thing. 50/100.
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