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4.11 AVERAGE
4.11 AVERAGE
I’ve read a LOT of dystopian Sci-Fi, but I enjoyed how these characters were full of everyday-human emotions and tensions you’d struggle with in a world like this. And the action scenes were well-written so that I had to keep reading and couldn’t put it down. Looking forward to the sequel and more from this author.
See my other reviews at Never Enough Books
Reggie’s dreams aren’t what one would call normal dreams.
Each night, visions of the future flit through her mind like pieces of a puzzle. And every morning the pieces are pulled forcefully from her memory through drugs and torture by Public One.
Then one night Reggie’s dreams change. The future she sees in her dreams is never about her, until it is. She knows they are coming for her, whether they are aware of that fact yet or not. She knows they will take her away but she doesn’t know how she will convince them to keep her alive.
Public One will do anything to keep her. Reggie will have to make the decision if she is willing to do the same to stay out.
Afterimage is one of the many ‘apocalyptic type event occurred and now society is trying to rebuild itself’ kind of stories one sees floating around these days. There’s the ‘perfect society’ – in this case Public One; and there’s those who refuse to conform – in this book referred to as Nomads. Neither side can stand the thought of the other and as so often happens, skirmishes do occur.
Reggie is a member (or more accurately, a prisoner) of Public One. She is a precognitive, or precog, and through her dreams can see the future. Those in charge at Public One use her dreams as a way to keep one step ahead of the Nomads and to keep the peace inside the city.
The characters in Afterimage, while varied, tend to fall a bit flat in my opinion. There’s no real in depth description behind any one person’s background. We don’t get a real feel of why any of them act or react they way they do. It would be easy to argue that many of them suffer from PTSD in one shape or another, but the question would then be ‘Why?’. What happened during the war and its aftermath? Why would that event and not this other one make this person act this way?
Unfortunately, we are not given these answers in this first book.
Another think that threw me out of the story were the number of spelling and grammatical errors I encountered throughout. The errors weren’t glaringly obvious, nor were they constant; but they were enough to interrupt the flow of the narrative. I cannot say whose fault it was these tiny errors got through, but a good proofreader should have caught them.
As this is the first book in a series, the ending was left open for the next book. The immediate problems were resolved but the overall story arc was left incomplete. As dissatisfied as I was with this book, it is unlikely I will be looking for the second or third books.
On a last side note, is ‘enertia’ a real word or was it made up for this story? I’m afraid Google failed me as all I found were references to corporations and computer software. It is something I shall have to ponder and perhaps look more in to.
Reggie’s dreams aren’t what one would call normal dreams.
Each night, visions of the future flit through her mind like pieces of a puzzle. And every morning the pieces are pulled forcefully from her memory through drugs and torture by Public One.
Then one night Reggie’s dreams change. The future she sees in her dreams is never about her, until it is. She knows they are coming for her, whether they are aware of that fact yet or not. She knows they will take her away but she doesn’t know how she will convince them to keep her alive.
Public One will do anything to keep her. Reggie will have to make the decision if she is willing to do the same to stay out.
Afterimage is one of the many ‘apocalyptic type event occurred and now society is trying to rebuild itself’ kind of stories one sees floating around these days. There’s the ‘perfect society’ – in this case Public One; and there’s those who refuse to conform – in this book referred to as Nomads. Neither side can stand the thought of the other and as so often happens, skirmishes do occur.
Reggie is a member (or more accurately, a prisoner) of Public One. She is a precognitive, or precog, and through her dreams can see the future. Those in charge at Public One use her dreams as a way to keep one step ahead of the Nomads and to keep the peace inside the city.
The characters in Afterimage, while varied, tend to fall a bit flat in my opinion. There’s no real in depth description behind any one person’s background. We don’t get a real feel of why any of them act or react they way they do. It would be easy to argue that many of them suffer from PTSD in one shape or another, but the question would then be ‘Why?’. What happened during the war and its aftermath? Why would that event and not this other one make this person act this way?
Unfortunately, we are not given these answers in this first book.
Another think that threw me out of the story were the number of spelling and grammatical errors I encountered throughout. The errors weren’t glaringly obvious, nor were they constant; but they were enough to interrupt the flow of the narrative. I cannot say whose fault it was these tiny errors got through, but a good proofreader should have caught them.
As this is the first book in a series, the ending was left open for the next book. The immediate problems were resolved but the overall story arc was left incomplete. As dissatisfied as I was with this book, it is unlikely I will be looking for the second or third books.
On a last side note, is ‘enertia’ a real word or was it made up for this story? I’m afraid Google failed me as all I found were references to corporations and computer software. It is something I shall have to ponder and perhaps look more in to.
I picked this book up at our local Comic Con this year in the Artist/Author Alley.
It sounded interesting, and it did not disappoint!
I held off buying the whole set just in case I didn't like the first one. Wellll now I am regretting that decision. haha.
This book is 'post war USA' time frame, after bombs have dropped and people have lost nearly everything. The Government as 'cities' where they've basically stripped humans from emotion, and put them together in the 'perfect world'.
Anyone outside these city limits are known as 'Nomads', and they are to be rounded up and dealt with such as those people above, in the city. Or taken care of in worse ways.
How does the city know where the nomads are though?
A special weapon called a Precog. Thats how.
To learn more you must read it.
Picks it up I tells ye!
CJ
It sounded interesting, and it did not disappoint!
I held off buying the whole set just in case I didn't like the first one. Wellll now I am regretting that decision. haha.
This book is 'post war USA' time frame, after bombs have dropped and people have lost nearly everything. The Government as 'cities' where they've basically stripped humans from emotion, and put them together in the 'perfect world'.
Anyone outside these city limits are known as 'Nomads', and they are to be rounded up and dealt with such as those people above, in the city. Or taken care of in worse ways.
How does the city know where the nomads are though?
A special weapon called a Precog. Thats how.
To learn more you must read it.
Picks it up I tells ye!
CJ
I really liked it! Now I have to wait to know what's going to happen next :( A very good book :)
Afterimage…it’s a dystopian book,a dystopian book set in the time after World War III.Yeah,you read it right guys,the Third World War,and as you can make out,it was devastating.Like seriously devastating to the human race,with just few pockets of communities of humans left after the war,apart from the government facilities that are striving on creating ‘perfect’ humans to prevent another war of the kind.
Before getting into the plot,world building and the other stuff,I just wanted to write a few words about the title.Afterimage.I like the sound of it.It’s just a single word,but it provides a powerful,captivating and sophisticated image to the reader,exactly the things that draws one to a book.
This was a book I received for review,and given that,I had like no expectations,like seriously it was months back that I actually saw the blurb,oh wait…I dont even remember reading the blurb,which is like diving blindly into a sea without any idea of how deep it is.I didnt even remember it was a dystopian.The way I went blindly into the book,J. Kowallis’s writing took me by surprise.This book is so damn well written,like way it’s written could as well be the only thing to secure a place for the book in the top dystopias list.
Apart from the crisp and eloquent writing style,the characterisation and the world building,they go so well hand in hand.It isnt like there’s a lot of character development and noting about the world the characters live in..nor it is that the characters are bland and the world is an active place.In this one,as the charcters grow and develop,so does the backdrop against which the story is set,the world in which the characters live.
For full review , https://liveinthepagesofbooks.wordpress.com/2016/12/12/reviewafterimage-by-j-kowallis/
Before getting into the plot,world building and the other stuff,I just wanted to write a few words about the title.Afterimage.I like the sound of it.It’s just a single word,but it provides a powerful,captivating and sophisticated image to the reader,exactly the things that draws one to a book.
This was a book I received for review,and given that,I had like no expectations,like seriously it was months back that I actually saw the blurb,oh wait…I dont even remember reading the blurb,which is like diving blindly into a sea without any idea of how deep it is.I didnt even remember it was a dystopian.The way I went blindly into the book,J. Kowallis’s writing took me by surprise.This book is so damn well written,like way it’s written could as well be the only thing to secure a place for the book in the top dystopias list.
Apart from the crisp and eloquent writing style,the characterisation and the world building,they go so well hand in hand.It isnt like there’s a lot of character development and noting about the world the characters live in..nor it is that the characters are bland and the world is an active place.In this one,as the charcters grow and develop,so does the backdrop against which the story is set,the world in which the characters live.
For full review , https://liveinthepagesofbooks.wordpress.com/2016/12/12/reviewafterimage-by-j-kowallis/
Holy crap that was a good book! I absolutely love it! by now, you guys probably know that there is 3 things important for me in a book : Writing, characters, storyline. This book has everything I like and enjoy. The writing is wonderful. i was hooked from the start and it didn’t let me go until the very end. Such a well written page turner. The plot is entertaining and intense. You just never know what is going to happen next or who’s going to get hurt, you are never sure if your favorite is going to survive until the end. Oh my poor little heart, I got very emotional during some parts. I also really enjoy the brutality of the story, it’s dark and bloody and oh so good. The character development was incredible, just wow. I love all of them so much. Reggie and Nate are both strong and fascinating. Their relationship is so interesting and i love watching these two together. I enjoy all the POVs, it was fun seeing a little bit of all of them. It made me care more. My only problem with this book was maybe the word building, i feel like it was not develop enough. I wanted to know more about it. I feel like I needed more details about this world and the Public One.
This book was an intense and incredible ride and i am SO EXCITED for the sequel!
This book was an intense and incredible ride and i am SO EXCITED for the sequel!
This book was crazy creative. I don't read a lot of dystopian just because so many feel too alike to me. I guess they have so many of the same elements in them that it can be difficult to differentiate them from each other. That being said I think this book had many differences to the rest in this genre.
There were kind of a lot of characters and probably too many POV's. I did like the different perspectives sometimes but it got a little annoying at times. The main two POV's are Reggie and Nate. Reggie is a precog that Public One keeps to find the Nomads. Nate is a tough guy that is just trying to survive in this apocalyptic world and keep his friends alive. When a stranger asks Nate and his group for help rescuing his family from Public One they agree. Not all are happy about the decision to help out a stranger and about going into the lions den but they do. There they find Reggie and help her to escape being tortured everyday. There is no trust for Reggie though not until she helps them to find and rescue their friends.
I liked Reggie's character a lot. I liked how bold she was and how she stuck up for herself when Nate was being harsh. I'm glad she didn't let Nate's words get to her and instead let him know that he was being a dick. I did not care for Nate at first, I understand the times are different and now you just survive but it wasn't her fault. I was so glad when she put him in his place and that she didn't let him bully her. I ended up liking all of the characters in the end and that's always a good thing.
All in all I really enjoyed this book and I heard that the next book is even better. So I'm looking forward to that. I did get the feeling the closer it got to the end that this book was more of a stepping stone for the next book. I guess I'll find out.
There were kind of a lot of characters and probably too many POV's. I did like the different perspectives sometimes but it got a little annoying at times. The main two POV's are Reggie and Nate. Reggie is a precog that Public One keeps to find the Nomads. Nate is a tough guy that is just trying to survive in this apocalyptic world and keep his friends alive. When a stranger asks Nate and his group for help rescuing his family from Public One they agree. Not all are happy about the decision to help out a stranger and about going into the lions den but they do. There they find Reggie and help her to escape being tortured everyday. There is no trust for Reggie though not until she helps them to find and rescue their friends.
I liked Reggie's character a lot. I liked how bold she was and how she stuck up for herself when Nate was being harsh. I'm glad she didn't let Nate's words get to her and instead let him know that he was being a dick. I did not care for Nate at first, I understand the times are different and now you just survive but it wasn't her fault. I was so glad when she put him in his place and that she didn't let him bully her. I ended up liking all of the characters in the end and that's always a good thing.
All in all I really enjoyed this book and I heard that the next book is even better. So I'm looking forward to that. I did get the feeling the closer it got to the end that this book was more of a stepping stone for the next book. I guess I'll find out.
Holy crap that was a good book! I absolutely love it! by now, you guys probably know that there is 3 things important for me in a book : Writing, characters, storyline. This book has everything I like and enjoy. The writing is wonderful. i was hooked from the start and it didn’t let me go until the very end. Such a well written page turner. The plot is entertaining and intense. You just never know what is going to happen next or who’s going to get hurt, you are never sure if your favorite is going to survive until the end. Oh my poor little heart, I got very emotional during some parts. I also really enjoy the brutality of the story, it’s dark and bloody and oh so good. The character development was incredible, just wow. I love all of them so much. Reggie and Nate are both strong and fascinating. Their relationship is so interesting and i love watching these two together. I enjoy all the POVs, it was fun seeing a little bit of all of them. It made me care more. My only problem with this book was maybe the word building, i feel like it was not develop enough. I wanted to know more about it. I feel like I needed more details about this world and the Public One.
This book was an intense and incredible ride and i am SO EXCITED for the sequel!
This book was an intense and incredible ride and i am SO EXCITED for the sequel!
This book grabs you right from the beginning. It's fast paced, engrossing, and inventive.
The characters are fantastic and the setting is beautiful.
It was a little difficult to get through the alternating 1st and 3rd person POV. Especially when the entire book alternates several character POVs at the same time. The writing could be a little choppy and difficult to get through; however, I will definitely continue the series.
The characters are fantastic and the setting is beautiful.
It was a little difficult to get through the alternating 1st and 3rd person POV. Especially when the entire book alternates several character POVs at the same time. The writing could be a little choppy and difficult to get through; however, I will definitely continue the series.