Stepping WAY out of my comfort zone today, I’m bringing you a science fiction, fantasy, thriller read. If you want a read that will give you the willies just in time for Halloween, then grab David Meredith’s story. Giving a shout out, Aunt Carol this one is for you that we talked about back in July ☺️. While I can meet certain deadlines, I had this story since July. I had hoped to get to it in August, but alas, real life comes in and here we are in October. That said, I think it’s perfect timing to read right around Halloween. I know after finishing it, I needed to read a funny read just to keep the creepies at bay. The cover alone gave me the creepy feels, as you read, it is a fitting cover for the story but (shivers) it’s creepy. If you are a Doctor Who fan, you might find a correlation to Aaru and The Silence in the Library episode. When I read the blurb, that was the first thing that came to my mind. Now that we got that out of the way, here is my take of this story.
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This is a young adult, sci-fi, thriller read. Aaru is a computer system that can save the essence of what it means to be human. Imagine your body dying, but your essence that makes you, you, uploaded to a database, where you can live again. That is exactly what Elysian Industries plans to do.
This story is broken down into two realms and follows the path of two sisters. The Before realm is the real world where Koren lives and has to grown up after tragically watching her sister Rose succumb to her sickness and die. The other realm is Aaru. This computer mainframe database where Rose’s essence has been saved and uploaded. She can live a life pain-free and completely happy. So what’s the catch? Well you will have to read the story to find out all the nuances and regulations imposed on those in Aaru.
Koren is a thirteen year old girl who doesn’t understand the loss of her sister and death. While most of her actions and antics throughout the story mirrored that of a teenage girl, there were some times where I struggled with how she acted and what she did. While this is fantasy, I found it appalling how she behaved, even considering she lost her closest friend and sister. Her parents handled their grief in an odd way as well. They basically give over rights to allow Koren to be a puppet for Elysian Industries. I’m guessing because of my background and things I’ve seen in real life, it is why I was so uncomfortable with portions of this story in how Koren was portrayed. What I did like was how human she felt with her emotions, grief, and lack of understanding of so much. She had to grow up quickly and you could see the toll it was taking on her.
Rose awoke in the beyond. Not fully understanding what is going on, she meets a friend Princess Hana. Learning that she was saved from her life of pain and suffering she has to come to terms what this new life means. I really wanted more of this side. I was intrigued by it and all the fail safe measures put in place. There was so much growth in Aaru throughout this story and especially at the end. It left the window open with all that Rose could do and what all had changed.
The secondary characters added a lot to the story, especially in Aaru. It was thought-provoking the questions they posed, and the emotions they had. Since this is the first in this series, I would hope that we would get more on this end with explanations and acknowledgement of the concerns from those we met in Aaru.
Your boundaries as you read this story will definitely be pushed. Not only as you think about life after death, but also what unfolds in the real world with Koren. I don’t want to spoil it but I picked up very early on where it was going with Koren and I almost couldn’t finish because of it. Took me way out of my comfort zone for what I like to read.
Overall if you like psychological science fiction stories that have a creepy thrill factor, then this story will be right up your alley. I am giving it a 4 because for me I had parts where it was slow to build all the background and daunting to follow at times. It wasn’t until about 60% in that it really picked up for me.
Meet the Author:
http://davidmeredithwriting.com/home
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