Amazing, Exotic sci-fi: The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm

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The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm is a truly fascinating sci-fi set in Africa. Talk about fabulous worldbuilding! It’s surprisingly accessible and gives us only a little “weirdness” at a time so we have time to acclimate.

Interesting how this almost absurd world can seem so plausible. Why is that? Not just the details, but the confidence with which they’re presented. The author isn’t arguing, isn’t trying to convince the reader. The POV character takes his world for granted, even, which makes the bizarreness seem mundane. Fabulous.

Fab description on page 66: “It was ten o’clock at night. The vast city of Harate was spread out like a jeweled sea. Traffic lights blinked at the tops of buildings. Busses, taxis and limos swarmed through the skyways, patrolled by cops in night-black cars that reflected no light. They were like patches of moving darkness in the rowdy, noisy traffic.” Delicious.

How, with all these POVs, does it stay Tendai’s story? It does but I want to dig into it later and see how it does.

The plot twists and turns—then the line on pg. 296, “Because with courage, you weren’t afraid to look at the truth. You weren’t afraid to ask questions or do the right thing.” One of my favorites by far. This book deserves further study. Mental note made.

Rebecca Grabill

Rebecca has been writing since childhood, her first book about a kitten published between homemade cardboard covers in second grade. Although she studied religion and philosophy in university, she continued writing, earning an MFA from Hamline University and publishing multiple picture books (no longer with homemade covers) and a collection of poetry with a variety of New York and independent publishers. She has also published a wide array of fiction, essays, and poetry in magazines and journals and photographs for Getty Images. She balances writing with homeschooling the younger of her six children, launching her young adults, church activities, and overseeing a small flock of chickens in rural West Michigan.

www.rebeccagrabill.com
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