Sunshine Patriots by Bill Campbell

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Sunshine Patriots by Bill Campbell
pub: Shoo Fly Media. 207 page enlarged paperback. Price: $17.95 (US). ISBN: 1-58736-284-8

check out website: www.shoflymedia.com and www.sunshine-patriots.com

Writing is a hard business to break into. For every novel published, there are a thousand more out there that don't make the grade.

The easy option to see your name in print is to publish via the small press (we've printed its website but have it missing by the way), as new writer Bill Campbell has done here with 'Sunshine Patriots'. The book is a satirical rastafarian space opera in which so-called 'freedom forces' are sent to destroy a planet of pacifist dissenters by the evil corporate government.

One sergeant in the platoon, the dreaded 'Berber', has been chosen as the poster soldier by the government and recruitment is centred on his inspiring figure. Repeated battles have injured his face, irreparably and destroyed his relationship with his wife, the former Miss Universe. Now his platoon is sent on a suicidal mission where the plants and ground of the planet itself are bent against the invading forces.

It's a promising set-up and there are a few good ideas here. The intelligent metal parts that have replaced soldiers' damaged limbs are well thought out and handled like real equipment rather than super-powers. The plot twists are an occasional pleasant surprise and a few of the characters are identifiable and memorable. However, 'Sunshine Patriots' falls flat and is a lifeless read.

The writing is dense and suffers from 'purple prose'. The irony is heavy-handed, as if Campbell couldn't decide between writing a humorous or serious novel. The dialogue is written phonetically, especially difficult as most characters speak in indecipherable gangland slang. Large sections of the novel are told from very odd points of view.

For instance, a great deal is told like a news report. This limits connection to the characters and further increases the sense of unreality to the entire story. Even in the normal action sequences, the POV flits about from character to character in an imperfect omniscient style. There's promise in Campbell, but my feeling is that the publication of this novel has come too early in his writing career.

The reason it is so difficult to publish a novel has a great deal to do with the fact that if you don't spend those years trying to get published, your craft isn't good enough to produce a readable work. If I came across excerpts of this novel in an amateur critique circle, I'd be impressed. As a published work, I found it extremely difficult to get through and found the overdone satire frustrating.

'Sunshine Patriots' has a few nice touches mingled in with the bad but is not worth a read. In five or ten years, Bill Campbell could be writing some really decent Science Fiction. As it is, this first novel stands as proof that there is no short cut to being a writer.

The good novel is like a good whiskey, it takes time to become great.

Tomas L. Martin

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