Review: Reverence by Joshua Aaron Landeros
Reverence by Joshua Aaron Landeros is a suspenseful work of dystopian science fiction about a not-too-distant future. In an action-packed novel that touches on many of the issues of the day, readers are dropped in the near future (2065), where a new empire has risen to power, the United Nation Republic, leading the world and dominating all who threaten their security with a cyborg army.
Will, the protagonist of the novel, is one of these enhanced cybernetic soldiers, and his incredible abilities are put on display before the end of the first chapter. The premise reveals itself in a very […]
Fighting to survive in a world gone mad is a bold premise for any novel, particularly a dystopian one where the author is simultaneously required to world-build and deliver high-intensity action. In Paroxysm Effect, author Ashleigh Reynolds creates a utopian world of peace and prosperity, and then quickly destroys that façade, dropping her main character into a tangled plot of behavior-control chips that have suddenly ceased to function after 5 decades of dominion. The subsequent murder and mayhem makes for fast, voracious reading, and the pacing of this novel rarely lets up.
It’s the year 2035, a decade after a series of cataclysmic environmental events led to the breakdown of society and its resurrection by a global corporate/political force called “The Autonomy.” The Autonomy’s elite upper class rule with an iron fist, keeping the masses starving and working 14 hour factory shifts until their bodies become deformed. Everyone is forced to wear government-issued “iNet” glasses which supply mind-numbing entertainment and access to “The Faith,” the government-sponsored religion, while having their locations and activities monitored.
