Greg Byrne

Peter Blackwell wakes up from a coma into a very strange Earth. A pair of opposing groups have been fighting a secret war for the past seventeen centuries.

The Cabal has been fighting against The Brotherhood, and The Cabal (the bad guys) is winning. They have placed a curse of depression over the whole world. Suicide is common; there are public agencies that will help a person do it. Their opponent is The Brotherhood. They are nearly wiped out by The Cabal; their one weapon is Father Nick's Day. On the same day, everyone in the world receives a package; it is something that they really need. The deliveries are accomplished through time dilation. The idea behind Father Nick's Day is to convince people that suicide is not the answer, that someone really cares about them.

Peter has no memory of his previous life, but he does remember eight random images. There is a ninth image locked in his brain. Both sides want that image very much; it will end the war, one way or the other. He has only a few days to stop worldwide suicide.

This story is better than excellent. The characters, the action and, especially, the society-building, are all very well done. Philip K. Dick fans will love this book. It is very much worth reading.… (mere)

Nine Planets starts with an intriguing plot idea shrouded in mystery. However, there are some parts that stop the book from forming a cohesive story. There are many formatting errors and unnecessarily long chapters, which do not fit the content properly and odd breaks that impede the flow. Some of the content can be reordered to make the novel more enjoyable. The main character starts out as an interesting mystery, With good narration doing nice job of using sensory detail to enhance the character's confusion and attempts to control his setting. As the novel progresses, however, it becomes less thoughtful and rushed dialogue takes over. This does not really give the reader a chance to process the technical details or the character's various plights.… (mere)

Nine Planets has some interesting ideas, but also some poorly developed concepts. After reading the book, I still don't understand the whole planets metaphor that the book is based on. There is some bizarre association with "planets" in the mind of the main character, Tower, and there appears to be some association with scent. Neither of which is ultimately important to the outcome of the book.

The book itself is a rather innovative take on the Santa myth. 1700 years earlier, a Greek, Nikolas, is approached by a wizened stranger. Nikolas was wealthy thanks to inheritance, but he was feeling a bit suicidal. In fact, suicide is epidemic in this book -- a curse that brings about despondence and creates a thriving suicide assistance industry. One force is keeping the curse at bay -- every year, on Father Nikolas Day (in other words, St. Nick's Day), everyone receives a mysterious gift designed especially for them.

The gifts, it turns out, are made by one group in a different dimension (so to speak). They pass these along to "The Poor Men", an order that delivers them in a "time-slip" via flying sleigh. Operating in a different time allows them to place the gifts unseen and even though it takes thousands to do so, they are able to accomplish this mission. world wide on a timely basis.

Opposing the Poor Men are the authors of the curse -- the Cabal. At no time does the author explain WHY the cabal issues the curse, or why they wish all of humanity to kill themselves or what they have to gain from it. The leader of the Cabal is known as the second (we don't find out anything about a "first" until the very end). There is a secret Tower has uncovered that will be the Cabal's undoing and end the curse...but he has amnesia after a coma and spends the book trying to remember. For some unexplained reason, Tower cannot lie, and there are warnings about him remembering too soon and blabbing this secret to the wrong people.

Oh, and to add a little urgency to the story, a comet is predicted to slam into the earth, perhaps destroying all life anyway.

This is all a little much. The book seems poorly edited, leaving some things conceptually undeveloped while plodding elsewhere. Some unimportant characters are added on a whim, time is spent trying to develop them but they lack commensurate bearing on the final outcome. The book sidetracks too often and doesn't focus on the main conflict between the Poor Men and the Cabal.

Still, I kind of liked the ideas surrounding the Santa myth. Too bad it wasn't better executed.… (mere)