AN/ THE DUALITY BRIDGE / THE ILLUSORY PROPHET (Singularity #1-3) by Susan Kaye Quinn-a review

(The Legacy Human / The Duality Bridge -Singularity #1 & #2-reviews)

 

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N /

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date October 13, 2016

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.

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REVIEW: THE ILLUSORY PROPHET is the third full length installment in Susan Kaye Quinn’s young adult (YA) SINGULARITY sci-fi/ dystopian series focusing on the merging of mind, body and soul with the technology of the future.

BACKGROUND: The ‘Singularity’ resulted in most of the world’s population transforming themselves into a hybrid known as the Ascended-part man/part machine but the few remaining humans become what is known as the Legacy-the true descendants of humankind. The Singularity series looks at the struggle between the Ascended and everyone else.

Told from first person point of view –seventeen year old Elijah Brighton -THE ILLUSORY PROPHET is the continuing story of man versus the hybrid machine known as The Ascended. As the face of The Resistance Elijah’s presence is both a curse and a blessing- our hero has the ability to bring the recently deceased back to life; travel outside of his body; and absorb the memories of those he touches while in the ‘fugue’-all of which are a threat to those battling for command and control. Elijah’s trips into the ‘fugue’ find our hero straddling between the body, mind and soul but it is Elijah’s growing abilities that threaten to destroy any semblance of peace when he is targeted for destruction.

Susan Kaye Quinn merges spirituality and God with a transcendental philosophy of abstract beliefs and the battle for power and control. The premise focuses on a belief system wherein all that is human is found in the souls of mankind, and with it the possibility that the Ascended have lost their souls when they opted for immortality and life ever after. The connection between body, mind and soul is a constant theme throughout the series. The search for the truth finds our hero battling for survival and the lives of the people he loves.

The Singularity Series blends the familiarity of The Hunger Games and Divergent with Star Trek nanobyte technology ala The Borg, and an artificial intelligence of the collective mind. The cult-like factions of the Resistance battle one another for dominance but are at a distinct disadvantage as the Ascended continue to prevail. Elijah Brighton is thought to be the ONE-the savior foretold to deliver mankind from the destructive nature of the Ascended.

Susan Kaye Quinn’s SINGULARITY series is brilliant in its inception; a post-apocalyptic ‘movie’ for the mind where technology, omnipotence and the battle for control is a threat to the survival of man in the future. The writing is flawless; the author’s imagination is intelligent and inventive; the premise is dramatic, energetic and wondrous.

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

 

THE LEGACY HUMAN
(Singularity #1)
by Susan Kaye Quinn
Genre: young adult, sci-fi, speculative fiction

ebook copy 99¢: Amazon.com / Amazon.ca /

About the book: Release Date March 2, 2015

Seventeen-year-old Elijah Brighton wants to become an ascender—a post-Singularity human/machine hybrid—after all, they’re smarter, more enlightened, more compassionate, and above all, achingly beautiful. But Eli is a legacy human, preserved and cherished for his unaltered genetic code, just like the rainforest he paints. When a fugue state possesses him and creates great art, Eli miraculously lands a sponsor for the creative Olympics. If he could just master the fugue, he could take the gold and win the right to ascend, bringing everything he’s yearned for within reach… including his beautiful ascender patron. But once Eli arrives at the Games, he finds the ascenders are playing games of their own. Everything he knows about the ascenders and the legacies they keep starts to unravel… until he’s running for his life and wondering who he truly is.

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REVIEW: THE LEGACY HUMAN is the first installment in Susan Kaye Quinn’s young adult, Singularity Dystopian, Sci-Fi series that looks at the merging of technology with the body, mind and soul. Following the ‘Singularity’ that resulted in the most of the world’s population transforming themselves into a hybrid known as the Ascended, the few remaining humans become what is known as the Legacy-the true descendants of humankind.

The storyline follows seventeen year old Elijah Brighton who desperately wants to Ascend. An artistically gifted young man whose Ascended ‘patron’ Lenora knows there is more to Eli than a canvas and paint but Elijah’s talent comes at a price. When Lenora’s second (lover) Marcus offers to ‘sponsor’ Elijah for the Legacy Creative Olympics, Elijah jumps at the chance to become one of the Ascended in order to keep his ailing mother alive. With life ever lasting and access to all knowledge the ultimate prize, the Ascended are both revered and despised by the human population. To become one of the Ascended, technology must marry the body, mind and soul-but what becomes of the soul when your humanity is stripped away? To be Ascended means to become part of the whole; your choices are no longer your own.

THE LEGACY HUMAN parallels some of the premise and many of the scenarios found in Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games and Veronica Roth’s Divergent. Young men and women, under the age of eighteen must compete against one another to become one of the Ascended. If they win, their families and friends will benefit from the Ascended privileges but there is also the probability that they will never make it out alive. Sides are formed; allegiances sworn; a revolution is on the horizon. The Resistance is waiting for Elijah’s next move.

The world building is amazingly detailed, well organized and revealed as the storyline develops; the characters are colorful, eclectic and unique. Susan’s imagination knows no boundary.

Susan Kaye Quinn looks at the philosophical and theological questions: Does mankind really have a soul? To become one of the Ascended do we lose the freedom to think; to love; to believe in a higher power? If you had the choice to become one of the Ascended, would you risk your soul for everlasting life?

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

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THE DUALITY BRIDGE
(Singularity #2)
by Susan Kaye Quinn
Genre: young adult, sci-fi, speculative fiction

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca /

About the book: Release Date August 15, 2015

What does it mean to be human?

Elijah Brighton is the face of the Human Resistance Movement. He’s the Olympic-level painter who refused an offer of immortality from the ascenders—the human/machine hybrids who run the world—in solidarity with the legacy humans who will never get a chance to live forever.

Too bad it’s all a complicated web of lies.

Worse, Eli’s not even entirely human. Few know about the ascenders’ genetic experiments that left him… different. Fewer know about the unearthly fugue state that creates his transcendent art—as well as a bridge that lets him speak to the dead. But the Resistance is the one place he can hide from the ascender who knows everything the fugue can do. Because if Marcus finds him, he’ll either use Eli for his own nefarious purposes… or destroy him once and for all.

The Duality Bridge is the second book in the Singularity series and the sequel to The Legacy Human. This thrilling new young adult science fiction series explores the intersection of mind, body, and soul in a post-Singularity world.

••••••••••••••

REVIEW: THE DUALITY BRIDGE is the second installment in Susan Kaye Quinn’s young adult, sci-fi Singularity dystopian series focusing on the merging of mind, body and soul with the technology of the future.

BACKGROUND: The ‘Singularity’ resulted in most of the world’s population transforming themselves into a hybrid known as the Ascended, the few remaining humans become what is known as the Legacy-the true descendants of humankind.

Told from first person point of view –seventeen year old Elijah Brighton-THE DUALITY BRIDGE is the continuing struggles of man versus hybrid machines, and the battle for control of the power and the collective mind. Our hero Elijah is more than just the face of the Human Resistance Movement, he is believed to be the ONE sent to save the world, but Elijah is more than the sum of his mother’s DNA-Elijah is a genetic experiment whose powers are slowly being revealed.

THE DUALITY BRIDGE is a storyline awash in familiar sci-fi and dystopian scenarios found in The Hunger Games, Divergent, and a little bit of the Matrix and Star Trek cyborg nanobyte technology. But THE DUALITY BRIDGE also takes a close look a God and spirituality; a system of belief wherein the sum of all that is human is found in the souls of mankind, and with it the possibility that the ascended have lost their souls when they opted for immortality and life ever after. There are definitive cult-like scenarios both in and out of the collective mind; and the promise of forever for those who worship at the altar of the ascended.

THE DUALITY BRIDGE has a large ensemble cast of characters that continuously loop between reality and the fugue. The premise is a study in philosophical, psychological and transcendental assumptions, knowledge and understanding-even the Dhali Lama pontificates about man, technology and the otherness.

The world building is a movie set for the mind. Elijah Brighton is the BRIDGE-the Duality-the ONE-foretold to be the savior of the world-Susan Kaye Quinn’s mind knows no boundary as it takes the reader into a future where man is no longer in control.

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy