Posted by **Bingo Squares: Indie Author, Audiobook format, Debut Novel, Dystopian, Non Human POV, Time Travel** *Whew that’s a lot of squares*
This is sort of a sci fi/fantasy combination? Maybe leaning more towards sci fi. The main character sort of reminds me of the Dax symbiont from Star Trek Deep Space Nine. Both characters have the ability to live multiple lives and remember things from past lives – except Akal has lived billions of lives, not just 8 lives. It makes for a very interesting story when you’re billions of years old and jumping from planet to planet in the process. What’s interesting is he’s lived non-human lives
This is single POV book and it’s not too long, around 300 pages so it reads rather quickly. Goble is a sensory writer and does a good job immersing you into the world, there are a few illustrations that can help you out as well getting a feel for the world. The intro to the book is strong starting us out with a dystopian setting where humans have destroyed themselves with a small number of people left in the world. The world now has very strict rules about what’s acceptable and what’s not, and you’ll be shunned/outcast from the group of survivors if you break their rules. The main characters wife doesn’t want to comply with the birthing rule and she gets thrown out for being angry about it. This leads to the main character getting himself killed over it. Akal lives many lives and we see through his eyes the Civil War era, all the way to galactic adventures. It’s very different and I had fun with it.
The characters are likeable which is nice for me because if it’s a single POV and I don’t like the main character I struggle with those sorts of books. At first I thought Akal was going to be a flat character because it seemed like it was going to be a story about revenge for his wife, but over the course of the book Akal grows a lot and I was relieved that it didn’t flop.
This book is available in all formats, paperback, hardback, ebook *and* audiobook. The author did his own narration, and although I haven’t listened to it since I have the physical book, I’ve heard he does a decent job with it.
This is also a finished trilogy so it will appeal to people tired of waiting for the conclusion to their series.
Disclaimer – this story leans pretty far into sci fi rather than fantasy so if that’s not your thing you may want to take a pass, however you could always try it out and see, it’s not expensive.
**It’s FREE on kindl Unlimited or 2.99 to buy if you’re not a member** low risk investment!