I bought this book as the premise of a slow turning planet intrigued me and I generally like science fiction novels. From the very beggining I found this book hard to put down and spent several nights up till late reading more than I had intended to. The plot is fast paced and intriguing with sinister soldier priests of Etoradom who will convert or kill all the other races. I would highly recommend this book anyone I know.

This book has a fascinating premise: a world that rotates once every ninety years. The lands under the noon-day sun, and those under the night sky are uninhabitable, and the people are forced to constantly migrate, keeping themselves to the twilight regions in order to survive. Fights over territory, mutants adapted to the extreme marginal areas, and deadly beasts encroaching upon their path would be enough for anyone to cope with, but now the Vasagi tribe meet a new and unheard of foe on their migration; soldier-priests with metal weapons who preach about God, and who enslave or kill ‘heathen’ tribes such as themselves.



On the face of it, we have recipe for a great science fiction or fantasy novel, yet instead the plot diverges to explore the intrigues of a pseudo-religious order and its hypocrisy. In facilitating this, the churning dynamics of this fascinating world are displaced in favour of a static environment: Etoradom, city of permanent sunrise. While the main character’s sojourn there might have been used as a breathing space - a contrast to the fast pace we’re given right from the get-go - a fair proportion of the book’s action takes place here, making the slow-turning world premise null and void, which is a great shame, and kind of puzzling.



It makes me wonder if this was originally intended as two different books with very different stories.



This is Andy Sparrow’s first novel, and leaves us in no doubt as to his talent and competence in the field of writing. It is a sound and engaging novel, with intrigue and suspense aplenty - well worth the read! Hopefully we will see more of Mr Sparrow in the near future.

This book is definitely worth buying if you like thoughtful, insightful sci-fi as opposed to the galactic-domination-and-military-hardware variety.
Andy Sparrow skilfully evokes a world that rotates so slowly that its days are several generations long. Traditionally, the tribes who inhabit this world cope by migrating slowly around the globe so that they stay in their habitual sunset, or sunrise, lands, but it all goes pear-shaped when some groups try to use religion and industrialisation to exert control over others. Tension builds as we follow a hunter, Torrin, who becomes separated from his tribe and undertakes an epic voyage across the world and back again.
The book reminded me of Hal Clement’s classic novel Mission of Gravity, a personal story of a dangerous journey across a bizarre world.
The writing is very atmospheric, almost poetic in places, but not overdone, and the voice is consistent throughout. The end is satisfying but leaves you wanting more. I’m told there’s a sequel on the way.
It’s a lot better written than much self-published stuff, but only rates 5/6 from me, not 6/6, because of a sprinkling of typos and punctuation errors.
I have no connection whatsoever with the author, other than the fact that I bought his book. If he produces another I'll certainly buy it.

This novel takes place on a world where a day lasts for ninety years. Under the noon sky and on the night side, the land is uninhabitable. The world’s population is therefore under a continual migration, with fights over territory and the re-population of frozen cities as they emerge into the dawn sunlight. Although this is an interesting concept, it is – surprisingly – not central to the plot, which mostly concerns the vicious crusades of the soldier-priests of Etoradom. The author appears have been influenced by Terry Pratchett’s Small Gods, which has a similar theme. Instead of the dungeons of the Quisition we have the cloisters of the Brothers of Redemption, who fight heresy with torture; and Lord Vagis’s debates with his bonded servant Torrin (our hero) are not unlike Vorbis’s double-speak with Brutha in Small Gods.
Torrin’s tribe believe in a ‘Maker Of All Things’, but do not worship him. “If any king or chieftain demanded worship, or the sacrifice of living things, we would think him evil and unworthy. Why should we judge God differently?” says Torrin, when quizzed by Lord Vagis, who responds “An interesting philosophical question, but probably best not asked. Our more zealous theologians tend to employ crude methods of persuasion when reasoned argument fails”, which demonstrates that Lord Vagis is a more humane character than Pratchett’s Deacon Vorbis. The author clearly has much to say about religion and the corruption of the church – his characters present their arguments well – and even includes a Messiah-like character, Torrin’s companion Valhad, whose healing powers are a result of the surreptitious use of a potent plant.
There is a revolution against the church in Etoradom but the outcome is different to that of Small Gods. For one thing, there is absolutely nothing supernatural or fantastical about this book; no deities manifest themselves, no characters have secret powers, and no evil, winged creatures appear at convenient moments. This book is not really in the genre of ‘epic fantasy’, but obeys the physical world as we know it – apart from the astrophysical concept of a slowly turning world.
It would be petty to pick holes in the astrophysics, but there was an aspect of this that puzzled me. The world turns slowly, but the North Pole is tilted towards the sun to keep it in perpetual daylight, with the sun low on the horizon. However, I think Sparrow has neglected to consider the effect of the seasons. Likewise, it would be petty to marvel at the earth-like nature of a world with such an extreme ecology!
I bought this book because the author is an acquaintance of mine, and I was curious to see what he had been up to. I dislike most epic fantasy, because it is so often done badly, and I was reluctant to begin reading this book. But once I had got through the first few chapters and perceived its true nature, it became a lot more interesting – definitely a good read. The other reason I bought it was to find out how Lulu’s self-publishing worked. On the technical side, I have to say that the text was better presented than I have seen in other self-published books. There were only a few grammatical mistakes, where I would have inserted hyphens or commas; and only the occasional homophone (e.g. ‘anymore’ for ‘any more’); and the author’s persistent use of the verb ‘lay’ when he meant ‘lie’. The one typesetting oddity was the use of straight apostrophes, but curly quotation marks.
All in all –an excellent first novel.

'Slow Turns The World' is the first book for quite a few years that has compelled me to remain up all night until I found myself at the last page.

Usually when I come across a book as good as this I rush out to Barnes and Noble and pick up all other books by the same author. Alas, it seems I will have to make do with this one until Andy Sparrow puts pen to paper again.

Has all of the ingredients of a top class book - honour, war, religion, greed and passion.

I suppose I will have to go back to reading the same Wilbur Smith novel I have been trying to complete for the past 3 months until a book of this calibre presents itself again.

Well done!