Houses of Common

SCI-FI:  Sckiik and Ranyk are brother and sister from the planet of Rildj.  Sckiik is an undercover agent, protecting the Rildj Ambassador from assassination.  Ranyk is a terraformer, able to regrow worlds from complete devastation.  But there’s trouble afoot for these two!  As Sckiik flies across the galaxy to protect the Rildj Ambassador, her ship is destroyed, and she finds herself hurtling through space!  Her exoskeleton will protect her, but she needs help.  Ranyk is being sent to help the nation of Ireland with terraformation agriculture on a desolate planet.  It’s an impossible job and Ranyk can only hope he will succeed.  When he is imprisoned for damaging the rings of Saturn, he fears he will never be free. Captain Gill, with his taste for Rildj culture, will have a hand in rescuing the hapless Ranyk using his aging ship, as he works off his jail sentence. He is also hiding a secret that will send Sckiik over the edge.  

 “Houses” is an elaborate sci-fi adventure tale complete with assassinations, pirates, betrayals, and genocide.  The alien characters are especially riveting, with unusual physical characteristics and amazing abilities.  The story has at least four different threads going, with little relation among them, which made for a fragmented story line.  There is also unrelated dialogue that pops in and out, again with little connection to the main tale.  Still, readers will hang on until the end of this epic adventure will be fascinated by the life and death struggles that are a part of Sckiik and Ranyk’s lives.

Victoria Z. Burg