Outre Mer
Michael Puttre’
Reviewed by: Tom Beauchamp
"My name is Janni. I am a
duranni, a native of Outre
Mer. I have a mind. I believe that I have a soul. I am a person."
Once in a while you stumble across a book that causes
a
horrible paradox: you want to read it as fast as possible, but you
never want
it to end! Outre’ Mer is such a book.
Puttre’ creates an utterly believable story of the distant
future and mans contact with other intelligent species. Outre Mer is a
world
removed from the core of human civilization but which has been
irrevocably
changed by Man’s presence on the planet. Many of the native “duranni”
become
awakened through mankinds interactions. The story revolves around one
such
duranni as he strives to prove that all duranni deserve this gift and
that he
deserves to live.
The story is told through 3 main sets of eyes: Janni’s
plight and quest, the story of a human militant missionary, and from
the
perspective of a government agent. Janni’s story line takes up most of
the book
and could stand on its own without the other two lines. However, both
the agent
and the missionary story lines act to define humanity in the age
represented by
the book. They serve to emphasize just how “human” Janni and the rest
of the
duranni really are.
Mr. Puttre’ has done an amazing job with this book. My only
complaint are a few editing and grammatical errors. However, on my
first pass
through his story I didn’t even notice them. Outre Mer describes a
future in
which mankind must come to terms with just what it means to be human.
It is a
world where we are working not only to define our own destiny, but the
destiny
of other species as well. The author has put together an amazing cast,
and a
worthy plot. I would love to see more books written in Mr. Puttre’s
universe.
FRONT STREET REVIEWS HOME PAGE