Special Review: Seven-Point Star · 11:07pm Dec 27th, 2016
Who here remembers Queen of Queens? How about Twilight Sparkle: Night Shift and its exceptional counterpart Monsters? If you are a fan of JawJoe, then here's a little something that might interest you.
JawJoe has asked for my help on many things in the past, but this is the first time I've assisted in the creation of a published original novel. To be specific, I acted as a pre-reader and helped to iron out the early stages of the plot's development. I elected to read the story right before release so as to write a proper review for it here. Given the author's penchant for continuous worrying over every minute aspect of the story, I expected quality. As usual, JawJoe didn't disappoint.
JawJoe usually operates a story based on a theme or an idea, and that holds true here. In this case, the best word to describe the story is 'meta.' Designed to challenge common conventions by utilizing the very things considered to be ‘taboo’ in the literary world, Seven-Point Star is a curious tour de force that is, like most of JJ’s works, clever and crafted with the utmost care.
In an alternate Earth history, magic was discovered and given practical applications during the onset of World War I. This led to the defeat of the Allies and the rise of a pan-European coalition that dominates the world stage. The Soviet Union has hidden itself behind a lethal Shimmering Curtain and the Americas fall behind in the race for magical and technological development. Fast forward to our story in the 1960's, where busineswoman and magus supreme Luca Varosi sits atop the world on the floating city of Nova Horizonto, a shining beacon of European superiority and strength.
Enter Der Poltergeist: Raina Durand. Professional thief, enemy of the elite, and perhaps the most wanted woman in Europe. When a daring heist backfires in the most painful of ways, Raina finds herself in the uncomfortable position of being cast a lifeline by Luca herself. But the world’s most powerful woman isn’t the only one interested in Raina’s unique abilities, and soon Raina finds herself caught between meeting her own selfish goals and saving the lives of those she loves. Things grow even more complicated from there, with Raina’s growing feelings for the child scientist Nikola and her frequent conversations with Sila, the unseeable A.I. that controls all of Nova Horizonto. And let's not forget the hidden menace known only as the Leviathan, a being Luca is convinced threatens the entire world.
Seven-Point Star is exactly what I’ve come to expect from JawJoe: a simple idea on the surface brimming with messages both hidden and direct. The character of Raina truly sells the overall premise, as it is one full of complexity. She tries to put on the appearance of a selfish jerk, but as the story goes on she finds it harder and harder to hide her bleeding heart. This makes her the perfect springboard for all of the niggling little questions that pop up in the story, from questioning the humanity of the likeable Sila to attempting to justify the morality of paying for lives with lives. Raina is never boring to watch, making her one of the better characters I’ve seen in a while.
What really entertained me about the story is the way it flippantly plays with literary taboos. Seven-Point Star is a very self-aware story, which makes it all the better. It will utilize a story trope commonly frowned upon today – take Dues Ex Machina, as a random example – and then adds a little something in there to show that JawJoe knows exactly what he’s doing. These instances, when I caught them, always left me with a grin.
But what really makes that aspect of the story so good is that JawJoe wrote them into the story in a way that works. The ending in particular strikes me as exceptionally clever, because the hints are present throughout the story that it is going to happen. They’re easy to overlook – indeed, I probably only noticed because I had a hand in brainstorming the story – but once you finish I suggest looking back at some of the events. Think of it as an Easter Egg hunt; I promise, the clues are there.
The story is fun, well paced and effectively written. Every character is interesting to some degree, even the villain. The events felt realistic in terms of the world presented and the underlying themes are cleverly represented. At times contemplative and at other times an action-packed thrill ride, the story never felt boring or – perhaps worse – preachy, and there were occasions where I didn’t want to stop reading.
Simply put, this is another solid piece of fiction. I’m happy to recommend it, and I did be get my own copy. I should point out at the story is free until year's end, so grab it now while he can't make any money off of you! 
Neat! I remember hearing about that novel when it was still conceptual.
You should probably post this review on the Amazon page itself. It can make a huge difference.
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I already have, actually. I edited them side-by-side to try and get pone words out of the Amazon variant.
I'll give it a go.
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Oh! I'm curious. Do let me know what you think; with how polar we can be in our opinions, it'll be interesting to see if you look at it even remotely in the same way.
Nice! I'll have to check this one out
Oh my gosh! Thank you! Please accept this as my payment.
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/27/Scottish_Shilling_Reverse.png
Seriously though. Thank you. This means... more than I can describe. To everyone reading this, I hope you'll give my story a shot. I really put everything I had into it. And it's free until the 31st, so hey, what do you have to lose?
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How many years has it been? Jesus.
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I'll grab the lube.
4358118 Two-ish. I'm still kicking around, writing stories about skittle colored human lesbians.
4358305 Nah, Jawjoe's still writing about lesbians in his spare time, just not skittle colored.
And to think it all started with a necroed thread.
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Aaah, so you're the one who helped come up with those names! Approval much.
Well, thanks for bringing this to my attention, now I get it for free. The concept seems interesting enough, but the other aspects such as the meta theme are what really grab me a little more. So I downloaded it at the very least, though I'm not sure I'll actually ever get to it since I already have a reading backlog (and not just your stories). But good to know it exists anyway, in case I do get around to it.
And also a nitpick, the italics did not transfer over correctly to the Amazon review. Theres a good chance you realized already, but I don't see it pointed out anywhere, so I figured I would take the opportunity to be a that guy anyway.