Aphelion

I wasn't impressed by this story. It started out with a description of an evil and threatening situation, then veered off into a long discussion of religion and philosophy that didn't do much of anything to advance the plot. Then it reintroduced the threat, and ended with a turn that didn't seem to have a logical place in the story.

It seems to me that the author has fallen in love with his studies of plants and philosophy and just built a story around them, not giving adequate attention to plot. Kind of like he was giving a lecture and using the story to illustrate what might happen to a person if these particular religious philosophies were manifested in reality. There is no clear conflict or resolution.

The style is very simplistic. That's not a criticism in itself; a simple style can be used quite effectively, but in this case, it came across as monotonous. The characterization isn't too bad, but the characters feel removed; I don't feel what they're feeling. The events are described in very careful detail; the character's reactions to them are not. It's like some sort of accident report: there's no emotional tone to speak of; it's flat.

Wow, this was some depth of literary insight. How did you do that?

Practice, practice, practice . . .