An Exchange of Hostages

Rating:
Summary: A slow agonizing read
Review: I had high hopes for this book and they were quickly dashed. I don't like books that have such complex ridiculous names that you cannot pronounce nor remember them. NOTHING HAPPENS except the main character learning to torture people. You the reader will be tortured too. What does the picture on the cover have to do with the story? I would not recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: Pushed to the brink
Review: I've resisted reading this book for a while - I knew it would be both physically and psychologically wrenching and I wasn't sure if I was ready for another round of monster as hero. I've always had a fascination with this type of character - the torturer as person and the emotional torment he/she goes through. I picked it up finally and read it through in one sitting. I literally couldn't put it down.

Wow - this book is amazing! The way Susan Matthews handles the characters, imparting depth and caring to what we would normally perceive as an evil monster, blows me away. She draws you in, makes you care about Andrej despite, or maybe because of, all he has done and will continue to do in the future. Her exploration of what humaneness exists in a very inhumane society is simply excelent and one of the best books (along with The Arm of the Stone) that I have read this year. If you can stomach the "gross" parts, please read this book - it's absolutely amazing.

Rating:
Summary: This chick can write!
Review: Wow! I couldn't decide whether to read this book or not, but the previous reviews urged me to give it a try. I have been so tired of reading poorly written books of late, and I was blown away by Matthew's writing style. Literate, evocative, sublime.

It is a difficult novel to read in certain areas, but that's the whole point of the exercise it seems to me. I was uncomfortable with the torture sequences...it made me squirm, it made me anxious, it engaged me as a human being.

Susan Matthews, wherever you are, I doff my chapeau at your exquisite writing skill, and look forward to following your career.

Rating:
Summary: Not what I expected.....and I'm glad of that!
Review: Based on the other reviews I've read of this book I'm beginning to worry about myself. I didn't get nightmares from it, although there were times when I found it unpleasant to read. The psycho-sexual undercurrents sometimes made me squirm. It's a pretty special book that can have such a dramatic effect on me. And it's a pretty special book that I can finish and then immediately hand to my partner, insisting that this book be placed immediately at the top of the reading list.

I wondered if the choice of a Roumanian name for the principal character was deliberate, but halfway through I realized my question was irrelevant. Halfway through I realized that the lack of physical description of the characters was irrelevant. And about a third of the way through it occurred to me that these are definitely not humans. I think base 8 gave it away... Enough of the storyline is given in preceding reviews. All I can say is go forth and read.

Rating:
Summary: Lots to Ponder
Review: I think Allint@pacbell captures the essence of this book. It is NOT for the feint of heart but is definitely thought provoking, not so much for the story line as the subtle under-currents. The sequel pales in comparison, and disappointedly, the author wraps up the tale in a too trite ending.

Rating:
Summary: Best of titles; worst of titles
Review: This is one of the best books I've ever read! The storyline is truly original in a genre where it seems all the formulas are already found and being used with endless variations. The title convenes the impression that the book is another space opera but, for those who actually read the book, it is surprisingly subtle. Contrary to most authors Susan does not waste time to explain to boredom the overall universe/setting . Indeed a very good book. I'm eager for the sequel although I generaly hate them.

Rating:
Summary: It started off well, but...
Review: If you've read this far down the page, you don't need more plot synopses. The lead character is fascinating and very well portrayed and the storyline is dark, but I like that, very much.

Unfortunately, the book doesn't pay off. There is little external conflict that isn't resolved quickly and with minimal consequences. The characters who stand in opposition to the lead are impotent or too removed from the story to effectively threaten him.

And the end is soft. Unbelievably soft. It's not just that the end of the story is the opening for a sequel, with the jerk of the piece promising to do something nasty (finally) in the next book. It's that the conflicts of the book are dispelled with as much effort as a pile of dustballs.

The only abiding conflict of the book is an internal one: How can I enjoy committing this brutality; what kind of a jerk am I? A little of this goes a long way.

I'll read Susan Matthews again, maybe after she leaves the torturer story behind.

Rating:
Summary: A difficult read
Review: This is a very difficult novel to read. On the one hand it is well written, on the other the subject matter, particularly during the later part of the book, is difficult to accept. Most of the characters are ciphers and it is the central dichotomy, what force is necessary to make someone perform morally repugnant acts, which makes the book interesting. However, one wonders whether the point is lost in the blood. A more subtle, and much more devastating, approach to torture is outlined in Orwell's 1984. A study of the torturer in this case would be more interesting. None the less this is worth reading both for the completeness of the world and for the moral dilema.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful, touching, frightening, provocative
Review: I had been absent from the world of Science Fiction for some time when I found this book reviewed here. The reviews were mixed, but there was obviously something that provoked controversy. "An Exchange of Hostages" was a splendid reintroduction to the world of science fiction. I had left because no one seemed to deal with big issues or real issues (as it turns out, that was a misapprehension on my part) but this book does. One reviewer compared it to Dostoyevsky, and that may be stretching a point. But the themes and ideas covered here are worth covering, and the underlying notions are definitely worth looking at steadily. Ms. Matthews holds a mirror up to all of us and says, in effect, this is what we do to one another. We all stand in the place of Andrej, the difference is that some of us stand there more willingly than others. The tragic heartbreak of coming to terms with who and what you are is something each of us must face at some time. We can make that journey with Andrej and learn something about ourselves. The story is darkly introspective, and mysteriously beautiful even as it is horrifying. The themes touched upon are universal, and in some ways this book approaches the mythic. Ms. Matthews asks hard questions and does not flinch from the answers. While the view she presents is dark, it is valid and true. (It is not, however the complete view). This novel is a "bildungsroman" par excellance, and it would be a shame for anyone interested in literature and fine writing to pass it up. This will probably be a book that I read again and again, if only to remind myself of some of the important truths touched upon here. Ms. Matthews points out that we are all Calibans, but not all necessarily unlovable because of that. A difficult task, deftly accomplished.

Rating:
Summary: An ALL Nighter
Review: I was absolutely amazed at the quality and depth of this book. What could have either been a stock "man rebels against the system to the worlds greater glory" turned out to be a book showing little by little a man's humanity emerging through a culture where the choices he is offered are really no choices at all. Although I wondered at the inclusion of some of the passages, at the end of the book, the whole pattern was clear.. and again, I was amazed at the restraint used by the author. She could have said so much more without moving the book further forward. I am waiting, although with some trepidation, to the second, and any subsequent novels.