Speculative Fiction Junkie

Danielle L. Parker

All too often, we book bloggers review the same books at roughly the same time. There are many good reasons why this is the case and it allows potential readers of these works to get multiple opinions on a particular book, but I often wonder whether the lack of variety might sometimes make us at least partially responsible for word not getting out about other deserving books. One such book which has not been widely reviewed but which I hope gets more attention in the future is The Infinite Instant by newcomer Danielle L. Parker.

At its heart, The Infinite Instant is a hardboiled detective novel. The protagonist, Minuet James, is a Class A paranormal (which is sort of like being a powerful psychic) who runs her own Paranormal Services Agency but is having difficulty generating business as a result of pressure being exerted by an unknown person. Minuet is soon framed for murder and has to help the police hunt down the person who in fact committed the murders even though she herself has run afoul of the law as a result of a crime she committed in the past and has a developing fling with a member of a prominent family of gangsters. As the story unfolds, the reader follows her as she attempts to track down the murderer while managing the increasingly difficult balancing act of mollifying the various acrimonious factions that have an interest in her. In addition to all of the things one usually associates with hardboiled detective novels, this book also incorporates fairly heavy doses of science fiction and romance elements.

As soon as I began The Infinite Instant, I noticed almost immediately that Ms. Parker is an excellent writer. The thing that first tipped me off to this was the fact that she possesses that telltale ability to make even the most mundane details interesting, a trait which I've found the best writers often possess.

The second thing that convinced me was her ability to create a setting, by which I mean both a sense of place and mood. The Infinite Instant takes place in a futuristic and vibrant, yet somewhat dystopian and morally crumbling world, and a corresponding mood really comes through in her writing. Here's a typical example:

I'd been to Edina a few times, not by choice. Looked even less like real breathing bodies lived and worked in its soulless concentration of corporate towers when I finally got off the nearly empty car. I cinched up my hood, pulled down the half-mask, and looked around. Endless banks of lights glared into the night, but the illumination seemed to sink into the pavement. I could feel the prickle on the back of my neck--only the ghosts of all those abandoned desks and idling cyberbots, the empty shadow-less rooms and silent latte machines, swooping down to question an unnatural human intruder.

In fact, the picture the author painted of the world in which The Infinite Instant takes place is so interesting that its relegation to a secondary role was my only real complaint about this book. I wanted to see more of the world that the book let me glimpse and often found myself a little annoyed when character relationships took center stage instead. Specifically, the relationship between Minuet and her love interest sometimes felt like it got in the way of what would otherwise have been a purer experience. Some of this may merely reflect my own preference for science fiction over romance, but a lot of the blame can be laid squarely at the feet of Ms. Parker, whose description of the politics, technology, and societal fiber of this world were so fascinating that I didn't have patience for much else. Finally, while the characters were flawlessly drawn and portrayed for the most part, I found some of the hardboiled relationship dialog to be too much sometimes.

The Infinite Instant is a very enjoyable read and the world in which it takes place is one of the most interesting and promising fictional futures I've come across in some time. I'm really looking forward to the sequel and hope that it is the first of many books by Ms. Parker.

The book is available through Amazon and as an ebook through Fictionwise. It is also a finalist for the 2009 Eppie Awards in the science fiction category, and I hope it wins! [Edit: I just received word that The Infinite Instant did in fact win the Eppie! Congratulations, Ms. Parker!].

Rating: 8/10

The True First

The Infinite Instant was first published by Lachesis Publishing.

[This review was based on a review copy]