Alicia’s review of Netherwood by Michele Lang
SciFi/Speculative Romance released by Shomi on 26 Feb 08

On her site Michele Lang describes Netherwood as “a futuristic Robin Hood story.”  It is, but it’s way more than that.  Netherwood is Robin Hood with The Matrix and I Robot thrown in and a sort of Aeon Flux feel.

Talia Fortune is an intergalactic sheriff who has come to the colony planet, Fresh Havens, to catch a terrorist. A terrorist who has destroyed the planet’s connection to the grid, a future internet with intergalactic capability, and left it vulnerable.  Talia isn’t the good citizen she pretends to be, though. She has played, for years, in a cyber-underworld called the Netherwood. In the real world she is heir-apparent to one of the huge corporations who serve as governments in this future. In Netherwood she is Amazonia, warrior giant, and The Avenger is her lover.

Lieutenant Robert Kovner is a rebel, a freedom fighter in a war few know is coming. He is The Avenger in the Netherwood and has drawn his Amazonia here to have her with him in the safe place he is helping to create. He didn’t expect her to also be the sheriff who has come to stop him.

There are a lot of secondary characters in this book but the one that stands out most is the Gray Forest, itself. This place is a forest of sentient trees with a high ore content that creates magnetic storms. It whispers prophecies and destroys or protects those who enter according to its own choice.

The primary characters, Talia and Kovner, are unique. Talia is completely assured of herself in the beginning but quickly finds she has a lot to learn. She is fumbling to find truth. Kovner is an unusual hero. He can fight and is ex-military, but he is primarily a philosopher/prophet type. His perspective throughout the book is amazing.

Netherwood is one of those books that had me going back to re-read sections just for the beauty of the writing itself. The story and imagery are fascinating but the way they are presented should be mentioned as well. There are wonderful sections of dialogue. This is me, saying this, who hates first person books. The first person perspective fell away quickly for me as I got into the story.

This book’s adventure plot and romance co-exist about equally with the plot residing in the foreground for large chunks of time – the plot facilitates the romance. What happens around Talia causes her growth and I never felt disassociated from the characters.

I had bought Michelle Lang’s book, Mrs. Pendragon, from Triskelion way back and never read it. Yes, my ebook TBR is getting almost as big as my print one. Now that I know this author I have to go find it. Meanwhile, you need to go buy Netherwood.

Grade: A

From the back cover:

     THERE’S A NEW SHERIFF IN TOWN…
     And her name is Talia Fortune. Her mission: capture the cyber outlaw, Kovner, a man who knows she is more than just a sheriff-Talia is also a woman, with a woman’s desires. Scion of the Fortune family and primary shareholder of the mega-conglomerate FortuneCorp, she is the Hand of Fate…or at least of the Home Office. With the power to punish, she’s been sent to Fresh Havens-a corporate off-world colony run by her uncle.

     But the colony is full of hidden danger. Sabotage, deception, destruction…it will take every ounce of Talia’s strength and courage, fighting skills honed in the Amphitheatre and knowledge learned at the Academy, just to survive. Her ability to love and trust will be sorely tested, especially in the clutches of her quarry, the Outlaw of Fresh Havens, her cyber-lover and now her enemy. He and the answers lie in the Gray Forest, in a reality beyond the bubbledome, the Grid, and everything she’s ever known. Her future lies in… NETHERWOOD

     Read an excerpt.