Where broking the law is punishable by death!
Are you ready?
Checking the author, I found out that After Darkness is a spin-off of the Eternal Darkness series. I don't know if reading the first series would influence the impact of After Darkness, but seeing the blurbs, I felt like the readers will fully experience the "darkness" if they read both series. I know I will 😃
Now, about the first volume of After Darkness - just giving the RULES, it's clear that the people of After Darkness live in a totalitarian and racist society. I didn't leave in a racist society, but I lived in a totalitarian one. Putting aside the SF-ish aspects (but really, we are closer to them than I liked), J.F. Johns totally caught the atmosphere and features of an authoritarian regime.
So, the author gave us the rules and we need to break them, to fight against them. And that the main character, Terra, does. In any way possible. For general or personal purposes and reasons, from the first page, Terra starts to fulfill her role. Details about past and present come together and sway the story. If I was a hypercritical person, I could say that there are some similarities with other books/series. Yet, I wasn't bothered nor the story disturbed by them as there is still a lot of originality in Darkness. Social issues, love issues, growing up issues, family issues... we'll deal with all of them. There are some cliches but I'm not against them as long as they are used/combined well and the effect is good - and it was.
The pace is steady. The wording is good. The author uses some expressions repeatedly and it's not clear for me if she wants to stress how (usually) the main character sees (or wants to see) another character or situation or it's just a wrong step.
There are aspects beyond SF and dystopia and closer to the fantasy genre that makes a dangerous mix that could destroy the story or make it great. To see the result I have to wait for the next volume(s). (By the way, this one ends in a cliffhanger.) Hopefully, the next volumes will come quickly; until then, I'll read the Eternal Darkness Trilogy as I already like the common characters.
Year 2160
RULE #.1
Humans AND Cyborgs are prohibited from communicating in any shape or
form with each other.
RULE #.2
Curfew is from 12 p.m until 7.30 a.m
Applicable to ALL citizens, humans AND cyborgs.
RULE #.3
All propaganda against the government, written or verbal is a crime.
RULE #.4
All the above laws if broken are punishable by death.
WELCOME TO THE NATION
Are you ready?
Goodreads ** Amazon ** Barnes&Noble
About the author:
J.F.Johns is 25 years old and was born and raised in Spain. She studied English Literature and Creative Writing at ARU in Cambridge, UK.
She's an animal lover, and spends her free time playing with her adopted dog, drinking too much coffee and posting book photos on her Instagram.
She believes in the art of dramatic sighing and eye rolling. She works as a ninja, but has been told several times that she's not very good at her job.
Eternal Darkness is her debut novel, and is the first book in the Eternal Darkness Trilogy.
First time hearing about this one, sounds good!
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