some notes on
robert gibson's
the drop
(Kroth, volume 2)
critique by
christine sims

A lady has sent in the following notes - we hope to hear more from her.

Some notes on The Drop by Robert Gibson.

The general conversation, especially that of Duncan and his Uncle Vic, is very ‘down to earth’ as opposed to the contrasting storyline that is literally ‘out of this world!’  I found this a clever contrast even though many of the scientific explanations of theories went way over my head, but would obviously be understood more by sci-fi readers. 

Again, the sophisticated way of thinking comes out in turns of phrase and some very beautiful, poetic and/or comic ways of expression, for example

…oh the longing for action, urgent as a fresh salmon in the post, useless if delayed...

…slope and sky, the magnitudes that cushion the soul… 

…No peril existed in the dictionary, it possessed the stealth of the unnamed…

…the wire upon which my stressed self had no choice but to walk…

Further points:

Obviously a reader would have had to read The Slant for him/her to understand the references at the start.

I found The Drop to be full of action with many changes of terrain and a feeling of ‘going down’ in stages with the storyline.  It had a balance of humour, science, astronomy, romance, hope and fear.

Chapters and part chapters end on a ‘cliff hanger’, sometimes literally and leave the reader constantly saying to themselves – ‘well, how are they going to get out of that one?’

The descriptions of the descent bring images to mind of the world and of space from distorted angles and would work well as a film.  The characters are believable in the context of the story, again with those strange animals and non-humans, I think a film would certainly do them justice.

It does leave the reader with a curiosity of how and where they go from here and why are the visitors and Duncan all holding on to rails, which begs for an explanation in the follow up book.  Well done again, Robert Gibson.

Solar System Heritage