Judge's Commentary

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In this sci-fi adventure, the author places her characters on an alien planet where they are tasked with exploring an area known as the Major region (thus the pun in the title). The narrative goes back and forth from various points of view, but the resident animals of this planet are refreshingly original. Like bird-like creatures called Flash and Flame and three-legged trees that walk and talk. There is a resident entity that also has a plot developing involving a three-person team of humans who are simultaneously stranger in a quasi-strange land and dealing with a love triangle.

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The author gives the reader a few high tech touches for a plot set in a time with eight digits. The alarm pillow seems a recurring nuisance. The narrative is readable thanks to alliteration, details, and similes which help make up for the occasional misspelling and typo. The author cleverly creates a world populated with beasts and women who treat their men beastly. And where even an alien creature appears as female, giving the plot the subplots of flirting and sexual tension.

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A contemporary bestiary for this world, perhpas as an Appendix, would be helpful and entertaining. The cover suggest an alien landscape, beast-free.