Reviews

Cirque by Stanislaw Fernandes, Terry Carr

rynnys's review

adventurous emotional hopeful

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

e_dav_29's review

5.0

The title plays a key part in this short tale and was what caught my eye when I went on my hunt. Earth is our home planet and to most of its inhabitants the center of life, so the idea of a city on Earth being a “Mecca” for the universe probably not a far stretch, but Earth being “Has-Been” is not a very pleasing idea. Carr takes “Has-Been” as a negative term and alters it, showing the positive aspects with the term. As instead of a “Has-Been” being the wino on the street corner begging for spare change to being the wise mentor that everyone is looking for. This plays out through out the story. At the beginning negative aspects are shown, the whining , complaining, the shaming and loss of hope; all things that you see now happening everywhere. Seeing it now, you may feel disgust, pity or even anger at someone for acting as such, but are we any different from them? This book takes that and sets it in a future time. A time when Earth is most definitely no longer the center or even graced with the very thought of being known as a random place found in a history book, much less in the Galaxy.

That being said lets us look deeper: the characters. Instead of the tedious creation of several different characters to represent the faucets of the human psyche, he creates one character with multiple personality. Now that is what I call being efficient not to mention it brings out the theme of mental disorders and their effects on society.