Amnesiac adventure

Fantasy/sci fi | Julie E Czernada

Last month, I reread A Thousand Words for Stranger. This is biologist JE Czernada's debut novel, coming out of her musings as to what biological gains would justify heavy investment in reproduction, up to and including the life of the individual.

It's an amnesia story. The protagonist has lost her memory—everything is gone except a batch of compulsions. Slowly, things become clearer, and the villains are unmasked one by surprising one. A sweet story, getting slightly predictable towards the end—just before new surprising twists. Very enjoyable, but somehow, I never did go out madly hunting the next in the series. If it drops into my lap, I will buy it and enjoy it (the whole series), but I won't go chasing.

Excerpt:

I stared at the hand pressed near my cheek. It had five fingers, tipped with small, blunt nails, one broken. There were smudges of dirt on the parm and back; the clean skin was paler, except where a spiderweb of red marked the edges of a cut. It was mine, I decided, confused by the delay in recognition.

:)