What better way to start off a new week than to take a look at a story that you might have overlooked amongst the thousands in GA Stories. To start off Signature Week, Yettie One has provided us with a review of Hidden Sunlight by Stellar. If you haven't already done so, you can go and download this months Signature Background to go with the story. Enjoy!

Reviewer: Yettie One
Status: Complete
Word Count: 175,938

Hidden Sunlight. I guess in a way, I am kind of biased in writing this review, as I worked with the writer as a beta reader, and was thoroughly engrossed in the story, the overall idea and the vision that the writer created in his mind for his character and their world.

The plot unfolds on a planet far from earth called Lucere. It’s central characters are a fourteen year old kid, who has awoken from a medically induced stasis to find the world he knew when he began his treatment has all but been destroyed; a mysterious, yet compelling companion that dotes on the protagonist of the story, a tough and wise Russian, and a wonderful mother figure who is like the Russian, a survivor of the devastation wrought on Lucere and a scientist looking for answers to the many problems they all face.

There are strange and powerful beasts, ruthless outlaws, a devilish mercenary, a highly dangerous infection and an ongoing fight for survival as everything seems to be against this band of determined adventurers. This story will drag you through a tangle of close shaves, risky manoeuvres, edge of your seat moments of suspense, and mind blowing scientific detail. You’ll experience moments where you will find yourself howling like a banshee in celebration of timely victories, and have your guts ripped out in moments of heart-breaking trauma, and all of it in brilliant, Technicolor detail.

It is this attention to detail that first drew me to the story and made me contact the writer. Soon, I found I would spend hours talking with Stellar about Lucere, and the mysterious power source that drives the central theme of the plot as it unfolds. His understanding of the concepts he is writing about, and the clarity in his mind of his characters and their world is breath taking, and for me this is the underlying success of Hidden Sunlight.

Stellar lives and breathes his writing. His attention to the fine detail, the intricate web of dots that connect the puzzle together, and the multiple angles that he uses to approach the plot from give so much depth and flavour to the story. As a reader you are acutely aware of the emotion and mental attitude of each of the central characters, even the one that never speaks. Every chapter is carefully constructed to build the tension and just as you think you’ll find the answers, or find some resolution to the problems confronting the kids and their friends, the chapter abruptly ends, forcing you to keep reading as the desire for knowledge is never quite quenched.

The action sequences of the book are explosive, dynamic and visceral. Frequently, I would find myself sitting on the edge of my bed, my foot quivering in the tension of the moment, my breath ragged and uneven. You live the adventure with these characters, and that is the crowning glory of this story for me. I was able to escape my reality and become immersed in the creation of the author, life breathed into the pages through his words, and excitement drooling out at me through my screen. From the beginning to the end, I have loved this story and its characters, especially the special one. If you want to know who I am talking about, I am afraid you will just have to head on over to the story and read it for yourself, but be assured, it will be one that you will remember and never regret taking the time to read. Hidden Sunlight is a wonderful gem of a story, one the author should be proud of producing, and one that you cannot afford to miss reading.