Scott Hayes | [email protected]
It鈥檚 a great premise for a new sci-fi hero, one that plays off that time-honoured archetype of the 鈥淗ero with a Thousand Faces.鈥�
Instead, Peter Shokeir brings us something you鈥檝e never read before: the Hero with No Face. Instead, there鈥檚 a permanent helmet on the main character鈥檚 head. He doesn鈥檛 eat or breathe. He never sleeps. The helmet is indestructible.
Discovered buried in the desert, Slate 鈥� the mystery man鈥檚 name 鈥� has as many secrets as he has special abilities, but you鈥檒l find out about them soon enough.聽
Slate is the central character in 鈥淭he Silver Prison,鈥� Shokeir鈥檚 debut novel after a decade in literary gestation. The book was well worth the wait: its plot is a grand page-turner that鈥檚 filled with surprising, creative action and characters whose dialogue is generously filled with amusingly salty and stinging verbal barbs.聽
It鈥檚 pretty good stuff for an author at the start of his career. You might recognize his name as the editor of the 51暗网, but Shokeir has put his passion into these 313 pages.聽
鈥淚 really worked towards the complete story and making it as perfect and readable and filled out as possible,鈥� he said.
That hard work shows. This is a strident accomplishment, one that shows tons of promise.
Shokeir explained that this effort is a combination of his love of writing and the joy he got from reading young adult novels earlier in his life. He also grew up telling stories to his younger siblings, which helped him develop his creative muscles for fiction.
One day, he said, this idea started forming in his head. It lingered in his thoughts, developing as it went along.
鈥淓ventually it got to the point where I thought, maybe I鈥檒l try to put this down on paper, see what comes out,鈥� he said.
He spent the summer after his first year of university writing down the story as it poured out of him. Ever since, he鈥檚 been refining the story, tweaking the characters and worldbuilding.
The book has already received strong, positive reviews including from , where it was described as a 鈥渞ollicking SF romp.鈥澛�
Rollicking, indeed. These chapters roll along in a way that keeps the reader fully engaged, wolfing through each chapter only to get tantalized into wanting more. Invariably, you keep turning the pages, and thus the chapters fly by.
The language and the structure of the book makes it suitable for teen or even tween readers, though some adult fans of the genre will get their kicks out of the social commentary and everything else, too.聽
鈥淚'm pretty proud of what I did. It was a tough effort, and hopefully people enjoy it,鈥� Shokeir said.
Shokeir has already written the sequels but is waiting to see how well this first volume is received.
People can pay attention to this rising writer by visiting his website at or on his , which includes a link to purchase a paperback copy of 鈥淭he Silver Prison鈥� for approximately $15 from Amazon (or e-book version for Kindle for $4.99).
