Triratna News

Error Message: a review

On Sun, 8 July, 2012 - 07:12
lokabandhu's picture
lokabandhu
Aryamati writes with a review of Ananda’s new novel, Error Message - recently published and available via Amazon and other outlets. Ananda is Triratna’s longest-ordained member, and is a published poet, writing mostly under his English name Stephen Parr.. She says -

“Ananda says his novel ‘Error Message’ is Science Fiction. It is MUCH more than that. We live many aspects of contemporary life through his searching, reflective, unselfconfident protagonist. This Adam (!) never allows a bored moment as he proceeds from worries to failures to ludicrous adventures. We learn from his attempts at relationships ‘a little better is how we sometimes deal with worse’. The truths and difficulties shared in friendships are one of the valuable leitmotivs. As Adam travels round England poetry enriches the prose : ‘relentless crescendos of wind washing into my mind like the whispered dismay of a tragic chorus’. And he entertains with wry humour ‘waiting like a pig at the head of an abattoir queue’.

The opening is lively, in bed with his lover Cora - who needs a life of her own. Their talk in interrupted by voices of an alien, who then takes a back seat till nearer the astounding finale. Adam wants escape, rents a cottage in the north, but soon loneliness (& beauty) encourage him to talk to the lovely Rachel, in a café. She is researching Obsession, and wants to meet the philosopher Magnus – Adam’s ex-tutor, by coincidence: fiction copying life. During intriguing political discussions shabby rooms and clothes are visually as alive as the characters’ inner turmoils and sexual longings…

Adam trudges back to London, refuses to return to ‘timewasting’ work. Now he’s visited volubly by Len & Les, from the Owl Nebula, whose quantum mastery is so great their messages can reach our planet faster than light. They inform Adam , at hilariously inappropriate moments, that they are attempting to quieten our dysfunctional humanity before we disrupt the whole universe. To achieve this they need his help to understand jokes, especially Russian humour…

A gripping read, obtainable from Ananda or Amazon”.
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