The following paid review of the sci-fi novel Master Builders by Wilbur Schmarr will feature in the Publishers Weekly Booklife Supplement dated 15 May 2023.
After an occupational accident causes his untimely death, Chris
Petersen awakens in a strange colorless place with a new mechanical body. His
new mentor, Brian Philby, greets him and explains that Chris has been watched
and recorded throughout his human life and has now been vetted to be amongst
the newest members of the “junior builders” of the Sentient Species Test and
Evaluation Program. Chris must quickly come to terms with his own death, plus
the jolting truth that everything he’s ever been taught about, from the
Biblical flood to Heaven and Hell to wars on Earth, has been the manipulation
of these beings and their galactic council. Brian explains many realities in
one of the novel’s many colloquies before Chris and his new team are put to a
daunting task: develop the “Test and Evaluation Master Plan” to seed a planet
in about five Earth years.
Master
Builders is a thoughtful novel with—as the title suggests—inventive
world building and imaginative storytelling that dig deep into myth, science,
and the origins of creation, exploring the inner workings of human and alien
life. At times awkward at the sentence level, Schmarr’s writing mirrors Chris’s
experience, as the hero is told all this rather than show, and readers might
feel a sense of informational overload. Through training and dream sequences,
Chris is introduced to his new life and "calling" as a member of the
SSTEP team.
With
his new gifts and "upgrades,” he can communicate telepathically with other
members of the team and teleport through the team’s wealth of technology, skills
he’ll need when, eventually, he must investigate what the ”dark teams” are
seeding in the atmosphere of his former home. The story ends with a teaser for
more to come, but readers of secret-history SF will enjoy the unusual
characters and continual surprises, from the idea of “Spaceship Earth” as a
“closed environment” to the truth about seances.
Takeaway:Inventive SF that reimagines the
builders who control heaven, Earth, and myth.
Comparable Titles: Charles Stross, Natasha
Pulley.
Production grades
Cover: B
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: C
Marketing copy: A
