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- Review: The Horsepower Whisperer:Part One of The Soul Trader Trilogy
Review: The Horsepower Whisperer:Part One of The Soul Trader Trilogy
- By Sarah Katz
- Published March 20, 2009
- GENERAL FICTION REVIEWS
Sarah Katz
Reviewer Sarah Katz is the author of two novels and numerous short stories and free-verse poems. She is a creative writing instructor and mentor as well as the National Novel Writing Month Municipal Liaison for one of the Southern California regions. Sarah is also Avid reader, story teller, perpetual student and lover of learning.  Sarah is a long-time resident of Southern California and owner of one silly, old orange cat.
View all articles by Sarah KatzAuthor: Bob Blackman
ISBN: 978 0 9555927 0 6
The Horsepower Whisperer by Bob Blackman is a rollicking romp through time, space and history from the age of the dinosaurs to the far flung future filled with irreverent but delightful humor, quirky characters and non-stop action. It also makes one pause, and think, and look at this non-stop world of ours in a different light.
I must admit I had no idea what Cult Engine
Punk is and even less idea what or where Anacrhadia is when I first
embarked on this crazy ride. I took a side trip to the
Anarchadia website (http://www.anarchadia.co.uk/index.html) to get a
bit of an idea before I started reading. Once I started reading
I didn’t care. I was plunged into the fast paced and - now
and again - confusing plot from the outset.
I was never quite sure if Hob was really the good guy or the bad guy. I suppose it’s all in your point of view. If free-wheeling freedom and a healthy disregard for conforming to anyone’s standard but his own makes a good guy then Hob is very good indeed – soul trader or not. Of course, those who find deviation from the established norm disturbing and even unlawful will see Hob as evil personified.
What ever he is, Hob is likeable, entertaining, full of himself and, down right fun. His escapades and ploys shoot the plot forward with only a pause now and then to catch one’s breath. Hob’s adventures in Euophobia, his rescue of Monsieur Cadvare, the transaction auditor and Nenuphar, the vegetarian, and his clashes with Comformorians lead the reader a merry chase over Post Unification Euophobia across the ocean and to the shores of Anarchadia itself.
But is doesn’t stop there. What ever is Therese Darlmat up to in that souped-up pink Cadillac of hers? And what about Kevin Mullins’ travels through time and his conversations with God?
The first book of the Soul Trader Trilogy sets the stage, whets your appetite and leaves you hanging with baited breath and still-ringing laughs for the next installment. I enjoyed every word ~ even the ones I was never quite sure what they meant. But then you must travel to Anarchadia yourself to find out about that!