LOOKING FORWARD LOOKING BACK

Author: Heather Hiestand ISBN: NA 6/2008 FUTURISTIC Publisher: ROMANCE AT HEART PUBLICATIONS

Looking Forward, Looking Back and Other Stories is a linked collection of three science fiction/coming of age tales. Not so far in the future, asthma is a fatal illness. Thankfully space travel is now commonplace, and the ill children of polluted Earth are boarded on mining ships with sterile air. Do they have a future? If they can find their way through the legends built around their past, twenty-year-old Eve Hawthorne and her friends are going to find out…

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

LOOKING FORWARD LOOKING BACK is an anthology of three futuristic tales about children with asthma who are isolated on mining ships away from other "normal" fellow Earthlings. All three stories are interrelated with shared characters throughout a threaded theme, which to me made it read more like one short story rather than just a series of small novellas.

The first novella is about Eve, which sets up the future storyline of just how isolated and uninformed those living on the mining ship really are about their possible futures. But Eve also has her name for a specific reason.

The second and third novellas deal mainly with Lilith, one of the inhabitants who thinks she's sterile with no hope of a future beyond that of being a counselor and conducting Truth Ceremonies amongst the pairings of those of reproductive age who are completely unaware of what the future holds in store for them, or what the purpose of those mining starships really is. Lilith, by far, is the most compelling and interesting character of these three novellas.

I liked the odd theme and subject matter set into the future, perhaps because I could relate by having had sons who grew up severe asthmatics. Add in the twist Ms. Heisted puts into the storyline at the end—the real purpose of the so-called mining ships—and the ties that bind everything together are soon created.

As short reads go, LOOKING FORWARD LOOKING BACK is very well written and has more depth than I thought it could have. To be honest, with a little expansion this would have made a great longer short story, as by the time it was over I wanted to read more about these characters and just what happens to them after the ending—or beginning, depending upon the way you look at it. And while Eve's story is the first novella and is interesting enough, it's the final two containing Lilith that I enjoyed the most and who is the character I wanted to keep on reading about.

For an entertaining short read that's a bit of something different, I have no qualms whatsoever recommending LOOKING FORWARD LOOKING BACK. It's very well written and well worth the reading.

Nancy Davis