JANUARY 2009

 ABOUT   ARCHIVES   AWARDS   LINKS   SUBMIT   HOME

A Review of Fairney’s Single Acts of Tyranny
By Jason Jordan, Dec 08, 2008

What would’ve happened if the South had won the Civil War? It’s an intriguing question, and one that’s answered in Stuart Fairney’s 300-page novel Single Acts of Tyranny. In the book, the two Americas are referred to as the United North American Republic and the Confederacy, though slavery was abolished in the Confederacy in 1934. While the latter is prospering, the former is not, provoking a UNAR delegation to seek reform ideas from their neighbors to the south, which is how the protagonist Halle du Bois becomes involved.

Fairney does a good job characterizing. Du Bois is a young, hard-shelled black woman who, as Vice President of Georgia National Bank, is called upon to join the Southern delegation that will meet with the North. Antagonist and political mastermind John Legree doesn’t want things to change, however, as he’s enjoying his time playing puppet master, which allows him to rack up a sizeable fortune in the process. Inevitably the two butt heads, and when du Bois becomes romantically involved with Legree’s son Emerson, the complications multiply, increasing the dramatic tension and number of plots. For the most part, as said earlier, Fairney breathes life into these characters. I wasn’t enamored with du Bois, but I liked her well enough to root for her. The other characters are recognizable, too, especially the sleazy Legree—best described as a villain you love to hate.

Another aspect worth mentioning is Fairney’s knowledge about governmental policies and how they work. I appreciated the information that he relayed, in addition to the implicit urge for reform in certain areas, but sometimes the relaying culminated in lengthy monologues that were overly dry. Still, the plots will keep the reader curious enough to push on.

The absolute worst part of Single Acts of Tyranny, though, is the sloppy editing job. Fairney’s latest is riddled with errors, including missing punctuation marks, misspellings (homonym-related, mostly), comma splices, inadequate capitalization, and more. As a matter of fact, the presentation mars what would otherwise be a solid novel. If you can get past the miscues—as ubiquitous as they are—there’s a decent story to be told.

decomP Editor-in-Chief Jason Jordan has a large red beard. Visit him (and his beard) at his blog.

Back