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Enigma Black Volume 1 Sara Furlong Burr Books

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Enigma Black Volume 1 Sara Furlong Burr Books

At an unspecified time, presumably in the not too distant future, the United States is rocked by a series of terrorist acts. This gives the president at the time the opportunity to secure his grip on power, enforcing a curfew, being granted a third consecutive term in office, and gradually curtailing civil liberties. Totalitarianism slowly closes its grip on the nation, all under the pretext of keeping the people safe. The perpetrator of these terrorist attacks is, apparently, an almost superhuman figure who comes to be known simply as `the Man in Black'. Among the victims of these attacks were the parents and brother of Celaine Stevens. Ten years later, slowly recovering from this trauma, Celaine is beginning to build a life for herself. She has a good job in a bank, dear friends, and the love of her life, Dr Chase Matthews.

Suddenly, into this life, steps a strange figure, Blake, offering Celaine the opportunity to gain the revenge for which she has always longed. In order to combat the Man in Black, the government has begun a research program to develop a team of `superheroes'. With one of these heroes having recently been killed, Blake recruits Celaine to become his new partner in this endeavour. To do so, however, she must leave behind the new life she has built for herself and disappear. There follows the story of Celaine's training and development as a `superhero', and her subsequent missions with Blake.

This is the first part of a trilogy, so although there is action here, there is also a sense in which this volume is setting the scene and preparing the ground for what is to come.

The story is told partly in the first person from Celaine's point of view, and partly in the third person. This could potentially lead to confusion, but Ms Furlong-Burr actually handles this quite well: it is always clear when the perspective changes. Celaine's character is well-developed, but I didn't exactly warm to her. Although the author does a valiant job of taking us through the anguish of Celaine's decision to leave her life behind, I wasn't quite convinced that she would do this so readily on the basis of the fairly flimsy and fragmentary description of what, exactly, she was committing herself to become. Other characters are fleshed out to varying degrees. I'm not exactly sure why, but I never quite became emotionally invested in them. This may have something to do with the writing style, which lacks a certain economy. Consider a sentence such as this, from Chapter One, which describes a character's reaction to the gambling machines in a casino:

"On top of the shrill, deafening noises emanating from them, he found himself having to shield his eyes away from the flashing lights the ones at this particular casino seemed to favor."

Personally I find this too verbose. A more succinct, punchy style would help to bring me closer to the action, and closer to the emotions of the characters. The action scenes and fight scenes were among the better written sections; the quieter moments were perhaps those when wordiness intruded on intimacy.

The overall scenario for this story--the incremental loss of freedom in the name of `security'--is frighteningly plausible. It is also not difficult to buy into the conspiracy elements. As concerns the details of the plot, there were a few that bothered me. However, I was prepared to overlook most of these, as what action/adventure book or movie does not have some fuzzy plot moments? Having said that, I was not at all sure why an increase in the body's levels of adrenalin (which is how these people are engineered into superheroes) would enable a human body to impact a concrete wall at very high velocity, leaving the body unharmed but the wall dented. I guess a certain level of implausibility is inevitable when we are dealing with stories about people with superhuman abilities.

Although I was not aware of a huge number of typographical errors in the text, some of those that I did notice were clangers: for example, the use of the word `varietal' when the context made it pretty clear that the author meant `veritable'--this happened more than once. There were also several other incorrect words (eg. `decent' for `descent', `raucus' for `ruckus').

As the first in a trilogy, it is difficult to rate this. I would like to see what comes next, before giving a definitive opinion. However, on its own merits it rates around three stars. Let's hope that Ms Furlong-Burr can deliver at least four stars next time.


Tags : Amazon.com: Enigma Black (Volume 1) (9781508839880): Sara Furlong Burr: Books,Sara Furlong Burr,Enigma Black (Volume 1),CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform,1508839883,FICTION Romance Science Fiction

Enigma Black Volume 1 Sara Furlong Burr Books Reviews

Note I actually purchased this book. I spent my hard earned money to check out another dystopian writer. What I found pleased me.

I don't rehash the story in my reviews. I see that others do that, so if you need the storyline, read one of those. I can tell you this, Sara's story flows well. It stays on point and when it jumps, you know it jumped. Never was I left guessing what the heck was going on in the action. That pleased me as a reader.

It turns out our protagonist in this story is a woman. I can dig that. One of my upcoming novels will feature a strong female lead. I wasn't sure that I like the idea here, at first; but Sara convinced me.

As with any dystopian story, the setting is a necessary element. And you have to show it, not just tell it. I had no problem with the world as Sara portrayed it in the novel. It was loud and clear to me. And very easy to follow. So don't expect to have to suspend very much belief to get into this book. The characters, okay - maybe a little suspension required. But it could happen. Sara did a GREAT job with those as well.

There were several formatting issues with the novel, an open parenthesis here and there, and one spot where tense seemed to get messed up. Other than that, Well Done, Sara, well done.

I'm not sure i will be purchasing more of this series. My reading list is fairly deep already, so I probably won't. But even if you just buy this book for a one and done, I believe you will enjoy yourself.
The plot of this book is that there is a mad man/super-villain bombing around the nation, and the president uses this as an excuse to restrict freedoms. The main character loses her family to the bomber as a youngster and years later becomes...you guessed it, a super-hero of sorts, opposed to the mad bomber. To do it, she has to leave the soul-mate who wants to marry her behind.

The author's style is pleasant and easy to read, but the plotting is incredibly simplistic. For example, individuals are endowed with super-strength and super-agility by virtue of turning their adrenalin "on" all the time. Yes, adrenalin apparently allows you to dent concrete walls and jump 15 feet in the air. I guess something like nanites was deemed too complicated. Similarly, the pretty bank loan officer never had any sort of combat training and was described as a clutz. But the magic of adrenalin plus a few weeks of simulations and she is basically a ninja. I guess some version of knowledge imprinting was also deemed too complicated.

While zero effort on the sci-fi end may be forgivable, this simplicity carries over to the plotting. The coming plot twists (which are partially revealed at the end of this volume) are telegraphed early, often and hard. The President is bad. The head of the un-named program that trains super-heroes to fight the mad bomber is bad. The main character just "feels it" and "knows it in her bones". There is no dot connecting left to do -- the author is basically telling the reader that the hero program and mad bomber are a sham run by the president so that he can become a virtual dictator. Similarly, with a more subtle touch, it wouldnt necessarily be a big deal to slip in the fact that a piece of super-hero equipment should be, but isnt, being repaired -- but when it happens here, its painfully clear that the equipment will fail in serious fashion. This degree of foreshadowing feels like a writing flaw.

The human element is also overdone in a simplistic, syrupy way. The main character wasnt merely scarred by the loss of her family, she was broken. She didnt merely find love, she found a "soul mate" that "completed her in ways no one else could" -- and gave him up to become a hero and try for vengence on the bomber. The sort of over-the-top characterizations that one finds in a romance novel.

While I have said a lot of negative things, the author's simple writing style is easy enough to read, and the story is harmless to pleasant. There is a bit of charm here, such that I was able to forgive the faults to a degree and enjoy the story. This really isnt a bad first book, and it wouldnt surprise me if Ms. Furlonburr can improve her plotting substantially in further efforts. My rating is 2 1/2 stars, rounded up to 3.
At an unspecified time, presumably in the not too distant future, the United States is rocked by a series of terrorist acts. This gives the president at the time the opportunity to secure his grip on power, enforcing a curfew, being granted a third consecutive term in office, and gradually curtailing civil liberties. Totalitarianism slowly closes its grip on the nation, all under the pretext of keeping the people safe. The perpetrator of these terrorist attacks is, apparently, an almost superhuman figure who comes to be known simply as `the Man in Black'. Among the victims of these attacks were the parents and brother of Celaine Stevens. Ten years later, slowly recovering from this trauma, Celaine is beginning to build a life for herself. She has a good job in a bank, dear friends, and the love of her life, Dr Chase Matthews.

Suddenly, into this life, steps a strange figure, Blake, offering Celaine the opportunity to gain the revenge for which she has always longed. In order to combat the Man in Black, the government has begun a research program to develop a team of `superheroes'. With one of these heroes having recently been killed, Blake recruits Celaine to become his new partner in this endeavour. To do so, however, she must leave behind the new life she has built for herself and disappear. There follows the story of Celaine's training and development as a `superhero', and her subsequent missions with Blake.

This is the first part of a trilogy, so although there is action here, there is also a sense in which this volume is setting the scene and preparing the ground for what is to come.

The story is told partly in the first person from Celaine's point of view, and partly in the third person. This could potentially lead to confusion, but Ms Furlong-Burr actually handles this quite well it is always clear when the perspective changes. Celaine's character is well-developed, but I didn't exactly warm to her. Although the author does a valiant job of taking us through the anguish of Celaine's decision to leave her life behind, I wasn't quite convinced that she would do this so readily on the basis of the fairly flimsy and fragmentary description of what, exactly, she was committing herself to become. Other characters are fleshed out to varying degrees. I'm not exactly sure why, but I never quite became emotionally invested in them. This may have something to do with the writing style, which lacks a certain economy. Consider a sentence such as this, from Chapter One, which describes a character's reaction to the gambling machines in a casino

"On top of the shrill, deafening noises emanating from them, he found himself having to shield his eyes away from the flashing lights the ones at this particular casino seemed to favor."

Personally I find this too verbose. A more succinct, punchy style would help to bring me closer to the action, and closer to the emotions of the characters. The action scenes and fight scenes were among the better written sections; the quieter moments were perhaps those when wordiness intruded on intimacy.

The overall scenario for this story--the incremental loss of freedom in the name of `security'--is frighteningly plausible. It is also not difficult to buy into the conspiracy elements. As concerns the details of the plot, there were a few that bothered me. However, I was prepared to overlook most of these, as what action/adventure book or movie does not have some fuzzy plot moments? Having said that, I was not at all sure why an increase in the body's levels of adrenalin (which is how these people are engineered into superheroes) would enable a human body to impact a concrete wall at very high velocity, leaving the body unharmed but the wall dented. I guess a certain level of implausibility is inevitable when we are dealing with stories about people with superhuman abilities.

Although I was not aware of a huge number of typographical errors in the text, some of those that I did notice were clangers for example, the use of the word `varietal' when the context made it pretty clear that the author meant `veritable'--this happened more than once. There were also several other incorrect words (eg. `decent' for `descent', `raucus' for `ruckus').

As the first in a trilogy, it is difficult to rate this. I would like to see what comes next, before giving a definitive opinion. However, on its own merits it rates around three stars. Let's hope that Ms Furlong-Burr can deliver at least four stars next time.