"7th Sigma"

Steven Gould is the author of Jumper, Wildside, Helm, Blind Waves, Reflex, and Jumper: Griffin’s Story, as well as many short stories. He is the recipient of the Hal Clement Young Adult Award for Science Fiction and has been nominated for both the Hugo and the Nebula Awards.

He applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, 7th Sigma, and reported the following:

7th Sigma has an episodic nature to it. The chapter that page 69 falls into involves a sheep rancher who is in danger of losing sheep from a pack of feral dogs. He thinks. He is mostly right, but there is an unexpected element, too. Is it typical of the entire book? No. It is right for where it is. Kimble, my protagonist is growing up through the entire book. This chapter is a stepping stone.

7th Sigma is several things. It's a book set in the American southwest after an invasion of self-replicating metal bugs have eaten all the metal based infrastructure in the region. It's a retelling of the Rudyard Kipling's Kim. It's an alien invasion novel. It's a book about the martial art Aikido. It's about spying. It's about moral choices. It's about religious intolerance. And it's about coming of age. So, identifying a page as "typical" doesn't really work.

The first review I saw said I'd made the situation (the inability to use metal in the region) just so I could write a Western. I don't think the reviewer has ever noticed how much metal was used in the average western.

Learn more about the book and author at Steven Gould's website.

Writers Read: Steven Gould.

Check out the complete list of books in the Page 69 Test Series.

--Marshal Zeringue