Writer: Volume 2 (Daughter of Time) Paperback – 27 Apr 2014

Good follow up to book 1 Reader, like book 1 I found it riveting, I couldn't put it down.

good book

Stebbins has done it again. He has created a wonderful sequel to your marvellous 'Reader'. I suggest reading in order, though that isn't vital. However, doing so will help you understand and empathise with the expanding vision that is the mind of Ambra Dawn. I sure this book stands alone, but there is a definite downsides to the lack of story revision. All authors of book series have the same impossible problem of balancing back-story and progress that can never satisfy all readers. This is a second visionary, speculative fiction masterpiece; and yes, as is all the best fiction in this category, it is highly philosophical.Stebbins takes us through the lows of his dystopian vision to soar out like the Phoenix into a new and growing existence, a possible Utopia. Well at least the vision can be left to grow unmolested until the inevitable third instalment arrives. What will that be called? My speculation gives me, 'Creator'. I feel sure that we will then come to be told whether the Orb is an essence of God, or is just one of His old lanterns.There is one 'improvement' in this second volume. We have escaped the terrors of mathematical formulae that pitched up at the start of every chapter. These are replaced by very sharply relevant, richly worded, quotations.I was thoroughly absorbed by this book, even though my weak mind faced the occasional threat from drowning in metaphysics. But then I'm sure we were meant to feel submerged, as was the mind of our heroic, tragic narrator, Nitin. We were lead by the thoughts of a 'human' doing his best to explain a story that he couldn't ever really comprehend. I guess Nitin was even more at sea than I would be in explaining mathematics. I sympathised with Nitin to the very end, for ever relieved that at least Ambra Dawn, through Stebbins pen, seemed to understand. What the heck are sentient being doings in the physical cosmos anyway? We understand far more now, don't we Nitin? But do we yet really know anything? We need book three.Stebbins puts together words very well, which is just as well because as we leave the Earth behind, let alone New Earth, the cosmos gets very complicated. In this exciting plotting we are so spellbound that that doesn't actually matter, or even anti-matter.

I really enjoyed Reader and expected Writer to be more of the same.Writer is in a way a continuation of Reader. Yet it is completely different as it is from the perspective of Ambra Dawn's lover, Nitin. As a love story it is okay. As a novel it is not particularly engaging. If I say that I like watercolours and Reader was a watercolour. Then Writer was an overworked oil painting. It was too heavy and intense in the way it was presented and I found myself skipping bits to move the story along. I wanted to know what happened so I continued to the end, but a lighter touch would have kept me more engaged.

An awe inspiring, profound and other-worldly experience. Words cannot describe the depth of emotion I felt whilst reading this book. It is very, very rare for me to actually feel physical anguish whilst reading a story. I FELT every harrowing moment endured by the central character in this incredible journey.I also felt that I really needed to do something positive after I'd finished the book. Sometimes, maybe, reading a story can be enough to change your life. I sincerely trust that the author's message behind his words is as meaningful as the tale itself. The ability to manipulate emotions and thoughts is too powerful a tool to wield purely for coin.

Some heavy stuff going on here. Losing Earth once was bad enough, but twice? wow!