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A World Too Near (Book Two of The Entire And The Rose) by Kay Kenyon
01/05/2008 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 
pub: Pyr/Prometheus Books. 423 page hardback. Price: $25.00 (US). ISBN: 978-1-59102-642-6. Buy A World Too Near in the USA - or Buy A World Too Near in the UK  check out websites: www.pyrsf.com and www.kaykenyon.com
In many respects, 'A World Too Near' is nearly quasi-fantasy mostly cos little is explained as to just what is going on. If you hadn't read 'Bright Of The Sky', the first book, or had a reasonable memory about what was going on, you would be kinda stuck as there isn't a previous book summary.
'The Rose' is our reality. 'The Entire' is a reality nearby that is just land. How big it is isn't really indicated but flat-earthers would like it cos if doesn't apparently wrap itself around a planet. From all accounts, the Entire has been fundamental in removing other realities. Most of these don't have life in them. There is a means to stop the Entire removing our reality and Titus Quinn has to return to deliver a potent nano-technology ankle bracelet to disrupt the machinery that will cause this to happen. He is given an escort, Helice Maki, who has her own agenda. Time also doesn't parallel Earth-time and things have moved on in the Entire. Quinn's wife, Johanna in now a mistress to one of her Tarig captors and his much older and blinded daughter, Sydney, wants him dead. Quinn does have his supporters in the Entire who will help him accomplish his mission but it's a lot trickery. A quest in fact and you don't see many of them in Science Fiction. Indeed, unlike the first book, this tends to read more like a fantasy. First person perspectives are spread between all the lead characters and there is little done to continually re-enforce the strangeness of the Entire or the alien species that inhabits it. There is also a lack of emotional content where anyone is killed. Things are moved on so you're no allowed to feel anything for them. Whether this is the fault of the characters or author Kay Kenyon herself I don't know.
My basic editorial instinct would tell me it could have been so much better than it is. There is too much meandering that you wonder if the task will ever be completed. If anything, Kenyon centres too much on characterisation and starves other aspects of the plot gets pushed to one side. Had more time been spent strengthening the image and differences of the Entire, which is actually a clever idea, then I think the appeal to SF readers would be enhanced. As it is, I suspect fantasy readers who like a little romance would probably prefer this book.
GF Willmetts
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