The Illusory Prophet by Susan Kaye QuinnMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Source: Received from Author to Review
Genre: Sci-Fi/Dystopian
Book Description: What if you could paint with reality?
Elijah Brighton can bring a girl back from the dead, travel outside his body, and absorb a lifetime of memories from anyone he touches in the fugue state. Everyone seems to think he’s the prophet they’re waiting for… including the girl he’s falling in love with. The truth is, the fugue is bleeding over into reality, bringing his sketches to life and haunting him with visions of a girl in metal armor. She stabs him with her blade and denounces him as any prophet worth the name—and it’s not like he disagrees.
People who change the world generally aren’t losing their minds.
He just wants to hide out in his tent and kiss Kamali, but a vision of his death and an attack on the Human Resistance Movement convince him something bigger is coming. Maybe Augustus—the power-mad ascender he barely defeated. Maybe the Makers, a tinkering cult with their own kind of ascendance. But when his best friend Cyrus disappears, questions of destiny and prophethood will have to wait—because the fugue is always showing a version of the truth, and Eli must discover that truth before his terrifying visions become reality.
The Illusory Prophet is the third book in the Singularity series. This young adult science fiction series explores the intersection of mind, body, and soul in a post-Singularity world.
READING ORDER
Singularity Series
The Legacy Human (Book 1)
The Duality Bridge (Book 2)
The Stories of Singularity #1-4 (Novella Box Set)
The Illusory Prophet (Book 3)
Stories of Singularity
(novellas)
Restore (Story 1)
Containment (Story 2)
Defiance (Story 3)
Augment (Story 4)
My thoughts: The question that I pondered through this book was "What is the worth of a soul". This is a sci-fi book and not religious, other than the Ascenders are trying to be God-like. They are trying to live cognitively live forever. But they question whether or not they have a soul? The humans are valuable partly because they do have a soul. It's an interesting situation for ascended beings who plan to live forever.
Elijah is a reluctant leader of the fight against the control of the Ascenders. He is a young man who has been tampered with. He was born to be human, but not human at the same time. He is a bridge connecting the two species. He undergoes quite a bit of growth and enlightenment in this book. He begins to understand what he is capable of and how he can help everyone to co-exist.
This book is very interesting. There is romance, action, war, and knowledge gained in this book. To fully understand this book, you must read the first two before this one. This series can not be read out of order. Each book builds on the other and there isn't a lot of back story explained.
This is a dystopian type of book that is about humans rising up to gain freedom from their oppressors. I would recommend this book to readers who are mature enough to grasp the complex concepts and handle war situations. The main characters are teenagers, so it would appeal to a YA reader.
About the Author: (Taken from Goodreads) Susan Kaye Quinn is a rocket scientist turned speculative fiction author who now uses her PhD to invent cool stuff in books. Her works range from young adult science fiction to adult future-noir, with side trips into steampunk and middle grade fantasy. Her bestselling novels and short stories have been optioned for Virtual Reality, translated into German, and featured in several anthologies.
She writes full-time from Chicago, inventing mind powers and dreaming of the Singularity.
Visit her WEBPAGE!
Glad you liked this. I'm glad it asks such a deep question without being religious. Good to know that I need to start with book 1 in the series.
ReplyDeleteThe series takes a scientific approach. There are religious people in the book, but it is not a book about religion.
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