Alleva, P. D.
About the Author:
Paul Dominick Alleva lives in Florida, USA.
AVERAGE REVIEW SCORE:
3 out of 5
(1 book)
The Rose Vol. 1
In the wake of World War III, a woman in a concentration camp is targeted due to her pregnancy. Sandy soon finds herself the subject of experiments by two mysterious alien races, the Dracs and the Greys, who have a vested interest in the future of her child.
Full disclosure; the author was kind enough to reach out to me and provide a free review copy of this book, for which I'm very grateful.
In the author's notes at the end of this book he reveals that this is an amalgamation of several different stories he developed simultaneously and, honestly, that's this book's biggest flaw. It's very clear that in the author's mind, this world is very vivid and expansive but how we're brought on board never quite gives us the chance to get to grips with that larger context. Instead we're just suddenly thrown in the deep end of a world with alien vampires, a Third World War, telepathic greys, human conspirators, a Hollow Earth and mystical alien martial arts. Hell, you're nearly two-thirds of the way through the novel before the author drops in werewolves out of the blue too.
I would've preferred a very different opening, perhaps actually revealing something about WWIII which all happened off-page and is only ever referenced obliquely, or even just a bit more time for any one of the many high-concept ideas to settle-in before the next is thrown into the mix. Don't mistake me, I'm not saying all these elements are incompatible, I just found myself so bombarded by them that it was a real struggle to actually connect with any of them.
All that said, however, I enjoyed the final third-or-so of the book a great deal more. By that point I had got my brain to just roll with the alien vampires, werewolves, psychic roses etcetera and I started to be intrigued by the complex world Alleva was creating. It was nice to see the various plot threads coalesce into a final confrontation with a literal ticking timebomb upping the tension and the stakes.
A somewhat ropey start but which leaves you suitably keen to explore more of the world the author has begun to weave.
3 out of 5
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