Summerworld
by Serdar Yegulalp
Copyright: © 2007
286 Pages
$14.99 Paperback
Summerworld, by Serdar Yegulalp, is one of those books that landed on our “Pick me” tab quite a while ago. Serdar was one of the very first authors to query his book to us here at LLBR when we were getting started, and we almost passed on it. I’m so glad we didn’t. It’s philosophical journey, mixed with fantasy and realism and set in a world created somewhere between our own and whatever else is out there, is one I am now happy to have taken.
First, the book’s brilliant cover deserves much attention. I love the pale colors behind the black and white character. Those who love Japanese art, or fans of Anime, will appreciate this book cover. It is very fitting for this story. Although the author offers much description of the actual place, Summerworld, it would have been nice to have a taste of such images on the cover as well just to give the reader’s imagination a hint of what the author had in mind. But don’t get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed conjuring up my own fantastical images as I read this story.
We start with a simple letter received by Dr. Hirofumi from a patient of his who wishes to meet up with him again and catch up. Yegulalp stuns his reader by simply stating the obvious, rather than dragging out the story and keeping you guessing. This letter is quite disturbing because the patient who wrote it has been dead for three years. The letter reads…
“It’s a shame we haven’t been able to see each other, but life interferes with everything we want from it anyway.”
How true is that?!
Imagine if you were to receive such a letter in the mail one day from a dead relative calling you to come and meet with them at a resort. Would you go? Being a psychoanalyst, Dr. Hirofumi’s interest is peaked and so he sets out to find this patient and to find out the truth. He soon enters a world now known as Summerworld where the rules of yesterday have long been forgotten. If you enjoy reading fantasy, the description alone of how this place came to be will definitely grab hold of your attention and not let go, not even long after you’ve finished the last page of this book.
I really enjoyed this story because it is not cluttered with lots of subplots which you have to follow. It takes you back to a place and time when our attention spans did not require so much detail to be appeased. This story is the journey of the main character seeking out the truth in a world that is not our own. That’s it. With a nice balance of dark and light, real and fantasy, hero and villian, the author has really put a lot of time and consideration into creating this amazing tale. Not a single sentence is wasted.
Imagine taking a train to a place you’ve never been before, and when you get off that train you are in a place much like the world you’ve always imagined to be waiting for you there, but somehow things are very different. The discovery our lead character goes through in this new place, discovering people are much the same as from the world he knew and yet they are changed, is truly beautiful. All the while, he never loses focus on finding his lost friend who left him that curious note.
Serdar Yegulalp’s writing style is very simplistic, and yet complex…and again there’s that nice balance between oposing forces which we find as harmony in his book, and if you look around, in our world as well. So, spend some time in Summerworld. It is a journey worth taking.
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