The Book Stacks

Today we have a special guest book review from author Nick Oliva. Join me in welcoming him to The Book Stacks and enjoy the review!

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Review by Nick Oliva
The Sun Singer is a book of calculated splintered realities. The line between the real and the metaphysical is blurred through the eyes of a coming-of-age teenager whose psychic ability mirrors that of his precious grandfather. His grandfather holds the secrets of a world that co-exists with and within us here on earth.

The plot of the book is revealed shortly after he is informed of a family trip to Glacier National Park for reasons that have been unclear to his parents, but because of the grandfather’s “gifts” no one questions this apparent pilgrimage and they faithfully bring the teenage boy to meet his destiny.

Mr. Campbell’s prose is burgeoning with all manner of intricate facts providing a most accurate description to the background through which the characters are exposed. It is obvious the author is an outdoorsman and his ornithological knowledge is deep and concise with each description of any winged creature that he brings to the forefront.

Each character that our unintentional hero meets places another piece of the mystery into play ever so much as to beg to want to ask even more questions. We breathe along with the main character, we feel his confusion and innocent bravery as he takes on a medieval persona, fighting soldiers and conjuring supernatural power from a magical wooden staff that has been given to him, another legacy of his grandfather. The maze of tunnels seem to be a metaphor for the possibilities or alternate paths that one can choose, having to take the responsibilities for choosing such paths.

If Faulkner wrote science fiction I would envision it would read much like this novel. I could easily envision a screenplay that would surpass “The Golden Compass” in scope and imagination. The only criticism that I can offer is that the language of this teenage boy seems a bit seasoned and older than his years, but I’ve been critiqued for the same reasons myself in my first novel.

I found myself running to “Google” latin words and phrases and noticed a few new words being added to the English language such as clairaudiently that means the hearing of things metaphysically through different realities. Mr. Campbell also employed the use of split columns that expressed the separate lines of Sonny’s or Osprey’s or Robert’s (the same boy depending on what universe and who he was with) thinking at the same time, again the constant alluding to parallel posturing within the writing itself. Are you intrigued yet?

The road to and from the magical universe that Osprey’s (I like that name it was my college’s mascot) is loaded with surprises and revelation. There are a cast of characters that have distinct and immediate personality and the rapid movement of the plot requires one’s concentration to keep it all in order.

This is not fluffy pulp fiction. The subject matter is fantasy but it’s presentation is far from it. It is a very structured intelligent novel, each word placed exactly where the author intends and this author intends to stretch the rules, so stay strapped in and bring along your bookmarker-it is not a book to be read quickly.