I’ve always enjoyed this author’s work and was delighted to see that she’d come up with a sci fic story. I wasn’t disappointed. This isn’t just a story of a future earth with ‘humanity’ deeply divided by differences, it’s also a story that has parallels with how we are today. This is literary sci fi in that it doesn’t just tell us damn good story, it also makes you think. Tyler’s prime themes are the meaning of freedom and enslavement—including self-imprisonment from not questioning beliefs—the value of looks as opposed to character, and the power of shared beliefs.
The book is beautifully written and edited and has the best qualities of genre and literary fiction, making it entertaining as well as good food for the mind. The world building is excellent and intriguing, and the characters fully fleshed out and interesting.
I didn’t find the end completely satisfying. The end of Sabaal’s story wasn’t happy, but it was realistic and had hope for the furture. However, we didn’t see whether or not Julip got what she wanted at the end. I hope we’ll find out in the next instalment. I shall certainly be looking out for it.
Highly recommended.
Pavarti Tyler is an Awesome Indie Approved author which considering the quality of her work is not surprising.
The blurb:
They came as saviors to a deteriorating Earth.
Julip Torne questions whether there is more to life beyond the barren dirt, acidic seas, and toxstorms her people work and die in. Living in poverty on the withering Greenland Human Reservation, she wonders if the alien Mezna goddesses are truly as holy as the temple preaches.
Meanwhile, Jakkattu prisoner Sabaal suffers constant torture and heinous medical experiments as Mezna-priest captors seek to unlock the key to her genetic makeup. She escapes captivity but ends up alone on the hostile alien planet of Earth. If she is to survive, she must work with the same Mezna-human hybrids she’s loathed her entire life.
When humans and Mezna collide, will Sabaal turn out to be the genetic vector the Mezna have been searching for all along, or will she spark the flame that sets a revolution ablaze?
