December 12, 2015

[Review] Nirvana (Nirvana #1) - J.R. Stewart

I received an invitation from netgalley to read and offer my honest review, which is based on the ARC version.

Probably one of the worst books I've read in a long time.

Set in a chaotic future following an environmental disaster, Larissa or Kenders, as she prefers due to a past trauma, faces a dilemma now her husband is gone, she has to sign off his death or risk a very difficult path that could involve poverty and/or even a trial, of which the results seemed fixed not to be on her favor.

I think it's major flaw was the beginning. We're thrown in the middle of a great number of unknown characters clearly holding different agendas plus this is the future, a lot has happened that everyone in the book knows about except for us. his book could have gotten even three stars had the author taken the time to present characters, terrain and then plot instead of mixing it all and throwing it in our face. I find the parts with the Bubble and Serge to be what the beginning should have. There she seemed to get the pacing right. Something has to be wrong with a book taking so long to teach us the main character's first name.

I read it to the end just because it was short. This wouldn't even get the single star otherwise.

Still, situating the reader was one of many mistakes. We'd get into important flashbacks all of a sudden, as if the reader wasn't confused enough.

Too much is going on with Larissa but I liked her character. Corporal and she were the only ones I actually enjoyed.

I can't say the same about the world. I mean, what was the world? I understood there were the Farms, surely to be explore in a following book I'll make sure never to touch, the Bubble and the Barracks. Also, where were they? I never understood where in Earth were any of those points, if it really was planet Earth. There was a mention of the Milky Way. Also, the author mentions some outside threat or was it just me imagining too much?

The whole Extinction caused by and leading to some big corporation turned Big Brother sounded silly. Instead of showing us the issues gradually, the author would dump information of that as if taken off the summary to a very weird Japanese animation. It was too fabricated, too superficial. I regret the Japanese animation mention, I mean to say that cartoon, The Bee Movie. If anyone has watched, let's imagine the bees never went back to work at the end, also let's imagine them not working was cause by a big company seeking to control the world. And that's what caused the catastrophe. No bees, major disaster...

Oh, yes, there's this machine that generates virtual reality by copying you into the program. And suddenly Larissa sees her missing husband there.

To be honest, if there was something of the plot I enjoyed was Larissa's confusion and search for her husband. Not my favorite drama, but the only part that read real, with verisimilitude. And that I can get from any other book without the headache the rest of the plot gave me.

Rate: 1 out 5

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