"An
interstellar adventure story worthy of Golden Age masters like Isaac
Asimov and Robert A. Heinlein. " -
Dave Duncan, author
of the Seventh Sword series, the
King's Blades
series and
Children of Chaos
Web
edwardwillett.com
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A
review of Soulworm
by Jacolyn Caton, Children's Book Reviewer The Regina Sun, Sunday, March 8, 1998
(In Soulworm) a main character, a girl,
finds the strength and confidence within herself to solve the problems
which confront her. The author of Soulworm is witty science writer
Edward Willett, also known as local star of musical theatre and opera.
Willett uses the device of parallel worlds to bring a dramatic
confrontation between good and evil into a contemporary adolescent
setting. The fate of three Weyburn teenagers on a joyride unravels
at the same time the world of Mykia is running out of time in its
defense against the soulworm. The soulworm, which is the
manifestation of evil, must be detected and exorcised by one of the
Warders of Mykia. The Warders have different gifts to
contribute to the fight against the soulworm, but Liothel, the main
character, is an Acolyte who has not manifest a gift. Liothel is
plagued with doubt about her ability to contribute to the community of
the Wardfast. The connection between Earth and Mykia has
been discovered by one of the Warders--"she reached through to this
other world through a weak place in the weft of the universe. It
took her ten years to open that 'tear' so that a whole mind could go
through it and explore what lay beyond." Unfortunately, a
soulworm slips through.
When Liothel falls through the
"tear" by mistake, she has the formidable task of stopping the
soulworm alone. She must do battle on the "dark plain"
to stop the soulworm: because there is so much violence and evil
on Earth, the soulworm would multiply rapidly and take over the world.
The Weyburn teenagers become hosts for the
soulworm and the Warder. Here Willett does a remarkable job of
keeping characters straight. At various times the teenager or the
soulworm or the warder have posession of the same body. Who
is speaking? Who is conscious? Why are they conscious or not
conscious? This is a complicated bit of writing. The
characters are involved in a variety of strong relationships which help
create the drama. There is a romantic relationship; a friend
turned adversary and the believable family of one of the main
characters, Maribeth.
In this story, Weyburn is not a quiet,
little city. The writing is fast-paced and readers will be
amazed at just how wild Weyburn gets.
