The premise of Lytchkove Zammana's first novel The Otherhood, is intriguing, but that's about all I can say for it.

Vic Jones, a computer crime investigator, is sent forward in time to 2084 where he regains consciousness in the body of Viceroy Jones, a descendant who used genetic regression to go back in time. Viceroy's intent was to go back to the body of Vic's brother, Robert, in order to take over his corporation, and ending up in Vic's body puts a serious crimp in his plans.

Vic finds himself inside the terramyd, an organic building powered by a physical sentience known as the "myd," which seems to respond to him in a nontypical way. With Jewel, the loner of a woman he loves in his own time, and Turk, a descendant of his best friend, Terrell, Vic escapes the terramyd, although the world into which he flees doesn't seem much better. Meanwhile, Viceroy has traveled back to a war zone in Los Angeles as civil war rages around him, and accomplishing his mission seems to be next to impossible, let alone getting back to where he belongs. Neither Vic nor Viceroy realize that all of the action stems from Vic and Terrell's 19th-century forefathers.

The premise is intriguing, but Zammana goes exactly nowhere with it. The book lacks focus. It is touted on his website as one of those important books everyone should read, but Zammana apparently believes that in order to be important, a book must also be incomprehensible. The plot is convoluted and goes in so many directions that it's impossible to discern the story. The characters lack depth and dimension, and Zammana also seems to specialize in loose ends and concealing information from the reader.

I found nothing in The Otherhood that lived up to the publisher's hype, but it does make an excellent, if expensive, cure for insomnia.

[ by Donna Scanlon ]
Rambles: 9 November 2002