Solitaire

by Kelley Eskridge

Book Overview

Ren, born to rule, made one fatal mistake. Sentenced to virtual solitary confinement, she comes out a changed woman.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1931520100
• ISBN13: 9781931520102
• Release Date: January 2011
• Publisher: Small Beer Press
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.6" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Excellent

I really liked this book. It has some similarities to Nicola Griffith's "Slow River," another one of my favorites. The main character is a young woman, overeducated and sheltered, suddenly betrayed and violently thrust out of her privileged environment, where she must learn what it's like to be just herself. "Solitaire" attempts to answer the question: when you strip away all the external layers surrounding you, outside of your home, without family, love, friendship, future, or past, who are you? Is there something inalienably, inextricably YOU? Something that holds true. Then, if you do find that core of yourself, how do you make yourself fit back into the world? Once perfectly self-contained and self-content, what need do you have for other people, for connections, for love? Those are the questions it probes, but what holds the book together is the well-done plot and the vivid, fascinating character of Jackal. As a science fiction buff and a corporate monkey with high aspirations, I also greatly enjoyed the technology and the details thrown in that held the plot together. It was a fast, breathless read for me (especially as you got to 1/2 of the book).

A gorgeous tale full of humor and heartache

For her entire life, Jackal Segura has been trained to be Ko Corporation's Hope, those children chosen to be the leaders of a new world order. Two months before the ceremony that will begin her work with the global government, she learns that her status as a Hope is a lie. Forced to continue this lie, Jackal hides the truth as best she can, but a tragic catastrophe destroys her world and her identity as a Hope. She's manipulated into participating in a rehabilitation experiment where she's imprisoned in a virtual reality cell in her mind. Nearly driven insane by loneliness and her own demons, Jackal finds that her training as a Hope helps her through the ordeal. When she is finally brought back into the real world, she is a new person in a new land, and she doesn't know who she will be anymore. Jackal's journey to a new understanding of herself and to a reconnection to love begins in a place called Solitaire, where those once imprisoned in virtual reality prisons congregate. "Solitaire" is an astonishing first novel whose soul and breadth will delight and affect readers long after the final pages.

What can I say except...Wow!

Imagine being locked up in a grey room without windows or doors for six years...Solitaire is the first novel written by Kelley Eskridge...and it's a great psychological themed science fiction.She shows us detailed corporate structure and the two-dimensional world of "Miss World"-like thinking.The main character is a "Hope", a young woman bred to be the ultimate representative for a corporation named Ko Industries.She has everything, good looks, a sharp mind a nice group of friends. Anything she needs is catered for by Ko.She undergoes tough managment, advertising and financial courses and even etiquette classes. If she has the need they provide scheduled relaxation classes for her.Then one day, the whole world takes a deep plunge around her...everything she had is lost, and soon even her mind is on the verge of total breakdown...Confined to virtual-solitary imprisonment for years...she soon finds a new focus in life...keeping herself sane.But will she regain everything she's lost? Read it and enjoy this awesome first novel of a very promising author.I can only hope she writes lots of books in the future.

Best of the Newest

There's a formula for writing thrillers which includes a clearcut baddy and a close to noble hero or heroine. The action unfolds in a taught ascension of perilous event until the climcatic confrontation and conclusion. Reliable, especially for movies, and the occasional light read. But if you want some depth in your literature, there's only one word for this kind of work.Boring. More difficult and less common is the thriller based on the way in which real life actually happens. Regardless of the fantastic elements, adehrence to the truths of human nature fuels the conflicts, which are more often than not ambiguous, with hero and villain sharing one common trait--they both think they're the good guy, if they think about it in those terms at all. The frustrations that arise out of trying to sort through the suddenly murky options make such stories both real and infinitely satisfying.The best of these also possess a strong narrative flow and a superbly conceived story. "Solitaire" takes the lead on all counts. I find it hard to believe this is a first novel--it has all the polish and panache of a savvy, experienced novelist. Makes me hunger for Eskridge's next foray.Buy it, read it, recommend it.