Hoodoo Sea by Rolf Hitzer

(Amazon has gone insane. If you can't see the cover, I apologize.)

4 Stars
R-2 (refreshingly clean!)
Very very little language for this type of book!
Source- received copy as part of a Virtual Book Tour

So not what I thought it was going to be. Like really really not.

How to classify it? I'm not sure. It's a bit Sci-Fi, which I expected.... a bit paranormal, okay that's cool.... and very Christian, which I didn't see coming. I absolutely cannot decide where on my shelves to put this!

And for the type of book, shockingly clean. Which I'm sure is the Christian influence, though it took me most of the book to fully make the connection. There is a little sex, but it's not in the least bit graphic. AND it reconfirms for the character why casual sex is a bad thing! Not a lot of that in books today.

It starts out as your typical sci-fi. A four person crew about to test out a brand new ship for NASA. One with light speed technology. Very hush, hush. No one knows about the test flight that doesn't happen.

All is going pretty well, until they enter freaky fog over the Hoodoo Sea-- that's the Bermuda Triangle, in case you were wondering. Then all sorts of crazy things happen. Like flying through a blue tunnel and landing in the Stone Age.... or some alien equivalent.... or something. (And through it all, second-in-command James continues to be an absolute jerk... not quite dumb or loveable enough to be the village idiot, but seriously... what a moron.)

Now, I'll be totally brutally honest here-- this is a first novel and you can tell. The writing could have used more polishing and the editing wasn't fabulous (though my copy might be a galley or ARC, not sure). And I really wish some things had been filled out more, like the tension between the US and Canada. Some of the dialogue was a bit stilted or awkward.

But hey, it's a first novel. First novels tend to be rougher around the edges. I'm curious to see what Rolf Hitzer will do in the future.

Now the ending (nope, not going to tell you) was abrupt. And utterly bizarre. And sooooooooooooo not something I saw coming.

Holy cow.

In fact, I don't think I've ever read anything quite like it, and given how much I read that's nigh unto miraculous.

And it's really sticking with me. Can't seem to get it out of my head.

Which is why I am now DYING to hear what you all think of it! So go read it. It's short, I'll wait.

:D