lurkerwithout | Sunday Trade: A Distant Soil (Reply)

A Distant Soil: The Gathering by Colleen Doran

Within the first dozen pages of Doran's scifi/fantasy/romance epic you get a brother and sister with mysterious powers and the villainous Martin Institute. Than soon after that you get the aliens. Beautiful human-looking aliens and weird hulking ones both. And more psychics. And a cynical but heroic cop. And a gang-banger with a good heart. And more beautiful alien psychics. And Sir Galahad of Avalon. And alien revolutions. And an alien threat to Earth. And a plan to gather heroes to stop it. And a were-panther/alien. And evil dictators who aren't. And so on...

Colleen Doran manages to somehow blend together all these disparate elements into a cohesive and compelling story in a A Distant Soil. Even the Faerie. Did I mention the Faerie? Yeah, from what could easily be a giant mess Doran creates a world and tale that lives up to the description of epic...