Ramona Finn

It took me a while to get into this book but I’m glad I stuck with it. I really enjoyed the characters and the main struggle. Glade Io is a pretty standard main character. She’s likable but a bit flawed in her absolute belief in the Authority. Still, I felt it was true to her character that she wouldn’t immediately believe those that oppose the Authority. It’s that struggle (Glade’s ability to parse the truth) that really drew me in.

The Ferrymen of Charon are your standard rebels or resistance. They just want to protect their families and have enough to live a decent life. Coopier inherited the leadership of the Ferrymen when his brother Loose died. The Ferrymen have come up with a plan to take out the Authority, but they need a Data Point and set about kidnapping a few (Glade and Sulia). This is where things finally got interesting for me. Glade’s 16 years of believing in the Authority are challenged by the Ferrymen (how they act & what they show her) and her world begins to crumble a bit.

Back at the Authority, Glade continues to train under Don, her long-term mentor. The story has set up a love triangle and love triangles are not my thing. It rarely works for me and it doesn’t work here. Despite that, I like Don and his own inner struggle – to trust Glade, hold true to the Authority, hate the Ferrymen.

The main premise of the tale is that specially trained people with a very specific personality (a little sociopathy, still maleable, highly intelligent, etc.) can work with specialized tech to read another person’s brainwaves and then snuff them out. Yep. Snuff out hundreds to thousands of people from afar. Planetwide but sometimes from other planets. I couldn’t help but shake my head at this. The writing could have made this a bit more believable but it was real loose and ridiculous.

Also there were small things that just didn’t ring true. The Authority monitors the Data Points during training… yet not during an actual culling? Some of the Data Points take up communicating silently through their tech and yet it’s not a common practice and is apparently unmonitored? Unlikely. Also, Glade is considered rather important and yet they don’t monitor all her movements all the time through her tech? It would be so simple to do…. So because of all these small things like this, I often felt the writing was lazy instead of giving us a story with solid, realistic rules.

On the other hand, the emotions of the characters and how some of them grow throughout the story kept me engaged. Even Sulia, who is a jerk, might have something more going on than just what we see on the surface. Because of the characters, I look forward to Book 2. 4/5 stars.

The Narration: Stacey Glemboski did a great job with this book. She had distinct voices for all the characters and her male voices were believable. I really liked her voice for Coopier’s little brother and for Sulia when she’s being nasty. There’s plenty of tense emotions in this story and Glemboski did a great job portraying them. There were no technical issues with this recording. 5/5 stars.

I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Ramona Finn. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.… (mere)

Set in a future dystopia, the AI runs the Norm, a domed utopia. However, all those human techs that are deemed damaged are tossed out into the barren wasteland. Lib is one such Glitch; however, she has nearly no memories. As she pieces things together, she learns from other Glitches and the local Rogue Clan how to survive in this nearly empty desert.

Despite certain issues with this story, something kept on pulling me back into it. First, I’m a sucker for domed city stories. I have this fascination with closed (or nearly closed) systems and all the inherent issues that can arise in such situations. Second, I got attached to Lib. She has few memories to work from but what little she knows compels her forward in a quest to make life better for all humans, not just those that live in Norm or those in the Rogue clans.

My biggest issue with this tale were the internal inconsistencies. The story contradicts itself multiple times, sometimes within the same paragraph. For an example, there’s a scene where Lib goes scavenging with some Rogues in a long abandoned city. Wolf, leader of this clan, explains that they don’t spend much time in the cities because they are dangerous since the AI’s drones might find them there. Yet in the same scene he later says the drones rarely come to the abandoned cities. There’s another dealing with tracks in the sand being an issue and yet they miraculously blow away in all other scenes that would leave tracks. Their underground hot spring has unpotable water but they still wash in it; yet it has bubbles… so I really hope the place is well ventilated. I don’t think it’s boiling since they are submerged in it. As you can see, these small inconsistencies are sprinkled throughout the story and I really wish it had gone through another round of beta readers, or 1 really good editor, so that I wouldn’t be distracted from the truly good story that lies among these inconsistencies.

For the first part of the story, I wasn’t too sure if Lib was caught in some little used rural part of the AI’s virtual reality or if she was truly stuck in some desert. I really liked that it took me a while to figure out which one it was. Lib is stuck between worlds on many levels and this beginning really sets that tone that lasts for the entire novel.

The other characters were interesting, though I feel they need some fleshing out. Lib is the one that shines in this tale and the rest are window dressing. Everyone seems to be no older than early 20s at most, though the doctor might be older. Raj is also a Glitch and truly wants to go home to the Norm. He says he misses his parents, which I believed. However, I would have preferred some stories showing us what life was like in the Norm instead of a handful of lines telling us how civilized and comfortable it was inside the dome. I kept interchanging Skye and Bird. One is a seer, having dreams that come true and the other is a leader of the clan and a potential mate for Wolf.

The romance was light, being almost non-existent. I think that’s understandable since Lib has a lot on her plate already. Over all, the tale was a fun, quick read. The author shows some obvious talent, and while I feel the story could have been tidied up a bit, I was still entertained throughout the tale.

I received a free copy of this book via The Audiobookworm.

The Narration: Genevieve Kaplan makes a very good Lib. She has a young teen voice that suits Lib well. She was really good at keeping her character voices distinct. Wolf is described as having a deep voice, and while Kaplan’s voice for this character sounded masculine, I wouldn’t call it a deep male voice. There were a few technical issues. For instance, the volume sometimes fluctuates, though it’s not enough to hurt an eardrum or two. Additionally, 1 chapter is in there twice (Chapter 14 if I recall correctly).… (mere)