Reviews of NeuroGenesis
If you liked Helen Collins first SF novel Mutagenesis, you'll love her new e book, NeuroGenesis. Collins deftly weaves multiple
threads of ideas into a compelling narrative: the race against time to secure a planet's economic underpinnings, the challenge of
a new self-evolving spaceship operating system re- programmed – by whom? – and a quest to communicate with, and survive,
an intelligent and ominous human-size avian species called Corvi. The fast pacing, well-limned characters, "new" technologies
and strong, complex story line keep the reader fully engrossed.
Gisonne Michaelis, 36th century specialist in groups, organizes and joins the crew for the SPEEDship Procne.
At short notice the crew must take on two additional tasks: test the evolution of a new ship's operating system and transport
Diana Allain, leader of the Zalterius II (Z2) ruling family, on a mission to Quivera to retain control over a critical material needed for the power source for faster-than–light SPEED travel, and for the very survival of Zalterians. After launch the crew, to its horror, learns that the OS autopilot has been irreversibly reset, in effect sending them on a long trajectory towards lingering death.
In time the OS "evolves" in dangerously unexpected ways and finally re-progams the SPEEDship to land on a planet inhabited by an intelligent and ominous human-size avian species called Corvi. The crew struggles to survive, to learn why and how the Corvi sensed the OS and saved the ship, and to find a link between the race of Corvi and the race of humans. With Corvi help with the Procne's new OS, the team completes the mission to Quivera and returns to Z2 where Gisonne at last discovers who attempted murder by autopilot reset. Collins' description of human behavior in small groups is insightful; the rebalancing of roles under the stress of space travel and" culture shock" is well-imagined. Her descriptions of culture of Corvi mirror their avian physiology and behavior – you'll never look at a bird eyeing a worm in quite the same way. Collins has important things to say - Corvi culture, the evolving SPEEDship OS and human group dynamics redefine for us the nature of "intelligence."
- Dr. Nancy Tooney
In the interest of expanding my reading experience I decided to give science fiction another try. I must admit that I have not explored this genre much and more often ignored it. At www.SpeculativeFictionReview.com, the opportunity to read the first chapters was a great way to "test drive" an author. What a delight to find Helen Collins and NeuroGenesis! Collins has crafted an imaginative tale and created vivid and intriguing characters - and not weighed down with the often needless complexity and confusion of places and people found in much science fiction. Above all, she is a skilled storyteller with a good story to tell and she tells it in a very entertaining way. I certainly want to read more.
- Sally Gessner - Customer Review
Reviews of Egret
A lesbian romance with a bit of an edge! - April 23, 2002
Looking for a book about" coming out" as a lesbian, as an artist?
"Egret" cuts between the competitive art worlds of Manhattan and the Hamptons. The undercurrent of sensitivity to "East End" environmental issues adds to the reader's enjoyment. This is one good read - for the beach, or for all year 'round!
- Customer Review
Excellent Book - Jan 21, 2002
This is an excellent book. It has well drawn characters who draw you into the story.
It tells a different kind of story that keeps you reading until the end. The end is a little rushed, but the book overall is a terrific read.
- Customer Review
Superb! - Jan 19, 2002
I enjoyed all the desciptions of the Hamptons. I felt like I'd really been there. Also I felt like I was living in New York City,
but away from the glamor that tourists know. I could really sympathize with Jodi as she was trying to find her true feelings
personally and professionally. Having suffered so much as an artist, it was interesting to follow her journey.
- Customer Review
Read Egret - Jan 7, 2002
Do you want to be titilated; do you want to be turned on; do you want to read a book you can't put down?
Read Egret! Imagin being a young niave midwesterner. Image you're lovely , you're talented, and you're a lesbian! Than you're Jodi.
Jodi moves to NYC to find a place in the art world. What she finds are passions both painful and wonderful. She experiences
conflict and acceptance in the gay world. And what about her art? You absolutely must read to find out.
- Customer Review
A Good Read - Dec 9, 2001
An engrossing, fascinating and erotic book that portrays complex relationships as the high-powered lesbians of this story
get to know one another and themselves. Good writing. Sexy characters! Really captures the Hamptons "scene",
as well as that of the tempestuous New York art world. Go read it!
- Customer Review
"Reading Egret is like being part of an intimate group of interesting friends, privy to their complex emotional and artistic lives,
and sharing their fascinating experiences in the art galleries of Manhattan and the summer homes of the Hamptons...
SEETHES WITH SEXUAL ENERGY even as important points are being made about the relationship between art and ecology."
- Joan Gordon, PhD, Associate Professor, Nassau Community College, New York
Reviews of MutaGenesis
"Helen Collins' novel is not only a fascinating and enjoyable adventure romp, with enough chases to keep the reader's attention
glued to the page and a wonderful finale to boot, it is also a sterling example of the always welcome 'deviant colony' story format... Furthermore, it's also a book with a powerful message, backed by equally powerful ideas, one that combines the themes of
The Handmaid's Tale with a well-researched, frighteningly original approach to genetics. If instead of choosing to tell her tale in the SF format, Collins had selected a more mainstream mode, undoubtedly she would have had a bestseller a la Michael Crichton on
her hands. Mutagenesis is science fiction at its best. Highly recommended."
- Hean-Marc Lofficier, STARLOG '93
Helen Collins's first novel, Mutagenesis, follows a mission to reclaim badly needed genetic plant material from a lost colony planet.
The colony is supposed to be dead, the expedition finds humans under its too-hot sun, farmers living under limited technology
on a planet with little metal, who are distressed to see crewwomen in authority.
Mattie Manan does not consent to be locked in the ship for the sake of political expediency.
She makes a break for it and hides among a group of local women. She assumes they have been kept deliberately naïve by a misogynistic culture that calls young men 'fathers', old women 'daughters', but finds the guiding hand keeping women meek is more sinister than that. As childlike as her friends seem to be, they may own some of the last remnants of feminine genius on the planet. More clues can be found in 'loso', genetically engineered domestic helpers.
There is plenty of adventure and scientific puzzle, but particularly interesting is Collins' use of language.
The story points up how language shapes people's thinking, notably by alternating chapters from Mattie's and a local woman's points
of view. Mattie's colleagues... fail to detect the crisis she does, because their professional jargon focuses on other things.
Overall, the novel's language has an unusual feel: intuitive, playful, lumpy, engaging. It makes the people eccentric and real.
Collins's is a welcome new voice.
- Martha Soukup, Strange Doings, Washington Post, 2/28/93
"Helen Collins' " Mutagenesis" is a big, old-fashioned sense-of-wonder interplanetary exploration/biological puzzle novel
with feminist overtones. The author's first novel pits plucky microbiologist Dr. Mattine Manan from Earth against the mystifying inhabitants of the former Earth colony of Anu.
Five hundred years after Anu was abandoned as Earth sank into savagery, a spaceship from Earth carrying Mattie Manan
and her colleagues comes calling. Mattie soon finds herself on a quest for knowledge, alone, across and often terrifying planet
as she tries to understand how the strange males of Anu came to be the way they are, and whether the childlike,
seemingly inhuman women of Anu remain human after 500 years of biological experimentation designed not merely
to hold them down, but also to rob them of their humanity."
- William Marden, Hartford Courant '93
"Interested in sexual politics, genetics and fast paced science fiction?
If you are, MutaGenesis, by Helen Collins is the boook for you."
- Arthur Zaczkiewicz, Vignette '93
Collins said, "science fiction is really about the present... it is a different way to view the important social issues of today"...
One such theme in "Mutagenesis" is the power of language. Refering to the Loso, a non-human, mute species in the novel,
Collins said, "Language alone gives one power... a way to take power away from people is to take language way from people."
In an interview in the New London Day '93