Starfish People by Leann Marshall

Silver Medal Winner for Science Fictionby J_M_Humperjohn

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October 11, 2009: Leann Marshall's "The Starfish People" is such a wonderful writing(recognized for excellence as the Independent Publisher's Books Awards Silver Medal Winner for Science Fiction/Fantasy)one must ask just what it was that could possibly have won the gold? A truly compulsive read leaving behind an energy signature all its own! __ John E. Cashwell

I Also Recommend: Soul Identity, The Rendering, Toishan, Culture of Corruption, The Time Cavern.

Captured by Starfishby BarbaraMilbourn

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May 08, 2009: While it isn't unusual to experience recurring dreams over intervals of time, it is unusual for them to nightly-from a point back as far as can be remembered-shake us awake from a wet and inky darkness gasping for air. Theories abound concerning such persistent dreams and most of them point to unresolved matters in our conscious and subconscious mind (past and present) that are trying to get our attention. But what about back in time farther than is comfortable to fathom, much less reach?

Enter Sera, the protagonist in first person, nearly 200 years into the future. She's an exhausted, withdrawn, under-achiever frazzled from lack of sleep and ready to pull the plug on years of therapy with her trusted doctor who is trying to help her understand and stop the nightmare cycle.

In The Starfish People, Leann Marshall places us into an evolved world where food is primarily a diet from the sea, clothing and adornment is a sprayed-on light show, and shelter remotely resembles a gigantic and more-complex London Eye. There are light cars, biometrics, energy signatures, and time travel. Then again, there are the constants of family, friends, and relationships not fully realized or expressed.

When her forward-thinking doctor recommends a last, radical experiment with a narrow window of time that may transport her patient to the actual origin of her nightmare, Sera makes ready to step into the past.

In a small North Carolina town on the Atlantic shore she seeks to encounter her former self and accomplish what she must. A cast of characters present themselves a chapter at a time taking the reader deeper and deeper into the person of Sera and her world. Time and people lap and overlap as naturally as waves on the shore, revealing a well-thought out plot with plenty of drama, tension, and surprises.

Leann Marshall has a lively imagination with good attention to detail and a knack for the interesting and unexpected. The Starfish People held me captive for nearly nine hours as I flew across its setting-the inky dark Atlantic.