A review by thebookishelf
Dissonance: Volume I: Reality by Aaron Ryan

adventurous reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

 

As a hardcore sci-fi nerd always on the hunt for fresh, intelligent speculative fiction, I can't overstate how stoked I was to discover Aaron Ryan's Dissonance, Volume I: Reality. This gripping post-apocalyptic saga isn't just a thrilling alien invasion yarn - it's a masterclass in immersive world-building, morally complex storytelling, and spinning compelling human drama amid the bleakest of futuristic scenarios. 

 

From the opening pages, Ryan establishes a richly unsettling milieu like few other debut novelists. In the year 2042, Earth has been overrun by a mysterious alien race dubbed "gorgons" - sleek, ghostly creatures with the ability to psychically paralyze humans before devouring them. It's the stuff of visceral nightmares, made all the more palpable by Ryan's meticulous attention to terrifying detail. These gorgons are rendered in disturbingly tactile depth, from their translucent corpse-like complexions to the eldritch mists and susurrations that herald their arrivals. It's pure high-octane cosmic horror fuel. 

 

But what really hooked me was Ryan's grounded, emotionally authentic entrance into this sci-fi hellscape through the eyes of 23-year-old infantry sergeant Cameron "Jet" Shipley. Having narrowly escaped the gorgons' decimation of 85% of mankind, Jet belongs to the scattered human resistance taking shelter in makeshift underground "Blockades." His is an existence defined by abject terror, having born witness to unfathomable tragedy and loss - including his entire family save one sibling. 

 

That surviving brother Rutledge immediately emerges as the key emotional anchor to Dissonance's overarching tale of shattered humanity, broken bonds of allegiance, and perseverance in the face of soul-rending despair. When a pivotal plot mission to implant a tracking device onto a live gorgon claims Rutledge's life, the narrative spirals into a gut-punch of philosophical provocation and psychological inquiry - what moral atrocities are justifiable to ensure humanity's endurance? Just how far is too far in the name of species survival? 

 

I was in awe of how deftly Ryan literalizes these knotty conundrums through riveting twists and escalating shards of recontextualization that have Jet questioning the very people and military authority he's pledged himself to. No motivation is simple, no alliance left unruptured by the time the shockwaves from these cascading paradigm flips have fully landed. It's powerful, bracing storytelling that tangles the mind as much as the heart. 

 

At the same time, Ryan orchestrates all the visceral pyrotechnics and balls-out action set pieces that make for a raucous genre spectacle. Numerous combat throw-downs with the gorgons explode off the page in deliriously immersive strokes, each brimming with hard-core, guns-blazing kineticism that never skimps on the raw grotesquerie. He also deploys some awesome original sci-fi conceits around "DTF" sonic weapon tech derived from the gorgons' own biologies - the sort of clever high-concept flourish that makes for legit, fist-pumping awesomeness. 

 

Ultimately though, Dissonance transcends mere genre thrills into something starkly compelling and brutally profound thanks to its meticulous excavation of just what happens to humanity itself when social orders and ethical rubrics start fraying amid desperation and survival-at-all-costs mentalities. With each revelation and upending of assumed power dynamics, Ryan bears down uncompromisingly on those most harrowing human truths lurking at the apocalyptic brink. 

 

By its haunting climax, Jet's entire rationale for fighting hangs in shards around him - and the novel stands as a searing character piece pondering whether morality and integrity have any place in a civilization's death gasps. Massive props to Ryan for going so unflinchingly there while tantalizing us with the promise of escalating soul-ruptures still yet to come. This is thinking-person's sci-fi dynamite of the absolute highest caliber. 

 

Dissonance makes for an electrifying genre juggernaught, turbo-charged by soaring imagination yet anchored in raw human vulnerability. Ryan's ambitious narrative scope and layered philosophizing mark him as a unique new voice with the potential to be breaking massively huge before long. For mind-blowingly intelligent dystopian world-building fused with all the intricate human anguish and cathartic hope that makes sci-fi endure, this is essential reading of the absolute highest wattage. I can't wait to see where this saga detonates next.