Dear Readers,
the review of this week will be rather short. For one part that’s because currently I have much work to do and for the other part it’s because I got this book from the online book club (OnlineBookClub.org) to read and review it. I’m not allowed to repost the review anywhere, so I will write a short and slightly different one for my blog and a longer, more detailed one for the online book club, where you can read it too soon.
„Genex of Halcyon“ is a science-fiction novel describing a near-future utopia written by Joshua Stelling. The book was firstly published on 24th of September in 2019 by Arch Gravity Publishing. You find it under the ISBN 9780692184271.
The cover is quite dark and oppressive, the flowerlike plants in the front spend the only warm colour. As the title and author are written in a very simple style it builds an interesting contrast to the in some ways chaotic background. Though there is a light shining from far away, it seems like the cover of a dystopia. My interpretation of the cover supports the thesis that there is a little good in every bad situation, which would fit some philosophical statements explained by some characters in the book. Overall it’s maybe not the most welcoming start of a book, but it portrays the content pretty well I think.
Portraying a possible version of our future in about thirty years, Stelling created a complex social story around two to three main characters. Reading the first chapters I was mostly confused about the plot because he switched between perspectives very often. It makes it hard to understand all connections at the beginning but makes it interesting for rereading. The fiction covers a large number of interesting topics like love, death, the sense of life, betrayal, the way how minorities get treated and how to deal with no privacy for more security. Climate change and astronomy have been relevant as well, which increased the motivation to read it for me even more. Joshua Stelling presents in „Genex of Halcyon“ a version of our future that is a warning in many ways. At the same time, it fascinates as a fantasy adventure about a lot of our opportunities. He closes with a collection of his own poetry that builds a calm feeling after a thrilling end.
Stylistically it’s incredible. There are parts that I just couldn’t stop reading because they were so catching, most of them have been about philosophical theories and the meaning of stars and the universe, so I guess that’s a topic one needs to be interested in advance, but if you are, it feels like reading a masterpiece. Sadly some elements didn’t take me in, confused and bored me at some points, but to expect a book to be brilliant at every word wouldn’t be fair, it wouldn’t be real anymore in no way.
After all „Genex of Halcyon“ is a copacetic Sci-Fi – utopia (or dystopia depending on the point of view) – philosophy novel-poetry mixture. I will definitely read at least a second time. By doing so, I hope to get the plot a bit better and more rooted than so far. Of course, I’m looking forward to enjoying the philosophical, astronomical and poetic parts again as well.
Hope you’re having a good time,
Aly
PS: I got „new“ books on rebuy (a great way to buy second hand), so I’m gonna read them next and review them soon. Both are written or translated in German so I’ll probably do two entrys for each book again.
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