cover image Saffron

Saffron

Vic Warren. CreateSpace, $10.95 trade paper (240p) ISBN 978-14961-7327-0

Diver Jamie Edmondson gets a call from a rich eccentric to investigate rumors of strange creatures off the shore of present-day California. After discovering a race of undersea humanoids, Jamie fights to keep them out of the hands of the government in the first book of a series that features a great premise but falters in execution. While the imagination and wonder of finding the telepathic Neptunes balances out some of the bad dialogue (such as Jamie’s unironic exclamation of “You fiend!”), Warren (Stairway of the Gods) falls quickly into relying on caricatures of evil government agents and noble employees within a corrupt system. Most egregious is the lack of agency for Jamie’s hot actress girlfriend, Mercy, who exists primarily to be kidnapped, and the completely unnecessary sexual assault of a young Neptune to prove how evil the government is. This missed opportunity sinks under the weight of its faults. (BookLife)