Paige MacGregor and Kelly Melcher if Fandomania have put together their list of 15 Best Books of 2009, and Paul Jessup’s OPEN YOUR EYES is on it! Lauded for its originality, its language, and its intensity, OPEN YOUR EYES is a surrealistic space opera novella with a cast of bizarre, fascinating characters. Here is what MacGregor and Melcher had to say:

“Words: you can’t avoid them. If you’re reading this list at this point you have already read 449 of them. What if those symbols were all it took to corrupt your mind? Jessup doles out the bizarre in Open Your Eyes, published through small press Apex Book Company, and while it is “space opera” in genre, it’s unlike almost anything else you have ever read. The imagery is surreal and takes you right out of your comfort zone, and the threat is pervasive. What is more prevalent or more exchanged than language? If you’re looking for your run-of-the-mill space opera, you will have to look elsewhere, but that is also why you don’t see any of those books on this list. Even months after reading, this book will stay with you if not for its surreal landscape than its imaginative prose. This book takes risks — this isn’t a comfortable space opera even if it does have some of the traditional tenets of the genre within its pages. This novella packs as much punch, if not more than novels twice its size. For those reasons alone it deserves recognition. Open your eyes and read this book.”

See what other books were selected for their Top 15 Best Books of 2009 here!

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