Hotel Carousel – Review

What fun! I really enjoyed S.H. Hughes' book Hotel Carousel. Science Fiction mystery, with sometimes kitschy humor. Neat. I downloaded it after reading an overview on an online site.

From the book page:

Janski Fox had a plan. Buy gold Armani Wellingtons on her credit card. Obtain a refund. Now she's over 24,000,000,000,000 miles from home irradiating drain hair to repay the debt. When a chewing gum failure destroys the ship taking Janski to join a mineral ore mining team, what's left crashes at the Hotel Carousel, where a non-paying guest soon realises Janski is the perfect mouthpiece to help it confess its crimes--hopefully she won't die like the others did! As well as staying alive, Janski must prove she's not a jewel thief, outwit a bunch of Psi officers wishing to excavate her mind, convince a mad professor that scooping out her brain isn't such a good idea and save Muse, a royal fugitive who has the genetic hots for her. And then there are the manoeuvring tests... Hotel Carousel: All Aliens Welcome!

I finished this book several weeks ago, and due to myriad complications just got a chance to write the review. I didn't have to go back to the book to find names, situations, etc., because I remembered them all. A sign I enjoyed the book.

The omniscient narrator keeps the story from getting out of hand, and also inserts these great descriptions of the "guests" at Hotel Carousel. They're all from somewhere else, and since Janski is totally out of this galaxy--very few of them (except Muse) resemble anything she knows. But this telling about aliens doesn't get overdone. It's applied skillfully and when needed.

All the characters were distinguishable not just by their quirky alienness, but with distinct personalities that played throughout the book. The several mystery elements were straightforward, which is important in a book with so many peculiar characteristics. Along with sleuthing to save her job (and her life) Janski is involved in action scenes that are believable and well portrayed.

Hotel Caoursel is witty, well written and a fun read.