BOOK BLITZ: The Unity Game by Leonora Meriel @leonora_meriel @BookReviewTours
About the Book:
WHAT IF THE EARTH YOU KNEW WAS JUST THE BEGINNING?
A New York banker is descending into madness.
A being from an advanced civilization is racing to stay alive.
A dead man must unlock the secrets of an unknown dimension to save his loved ones.
From the visions of Socrates in ancient Athens, to the birth of free will aboard a spaceship headed to Earth, The Unity Game tells a…
I received an advance copy of this book from netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
The Unity Game is one of the most interesting I have read in a while. It mixes existing concepts from religion and philosophy, both mainstream and a little more far-fetched. Weeks later I found myself learning something new (youtuber Onision’s “religion” Sicesca, actually), and where I saw the influences from other religions (Mormonism, I believe?), I was immediately reminded of the Unity Game.
Beyond that, the worldbuilding was incredible, especially considering the book was split between three very different universes which didn’t seem at all connected at the beginning, but which slowly made tiny connections until everything was so clear yet so sudden at the end. This was so tied to the intelligence I’ve mentioned, but it was more than that too, which was so obvious when describing the harsh world of brokering and banking, which was solidly realistic and yet so captivating.
The one strong downside of the book were the characters, with the exception of one which I’ll mention in a bit. They were shallow and unrelatable across the board, but especially the women. There was one woman with a point of view, starting a bit later in the book, but even she was completely unrelatable, and very close to being a Mary-Sue. She had an in-plot reason to be the way that she was, but it was still a wholly irritating, ungrateful and stuck up character. The other two female characters were there explicitly for support, and I feel that was a missed opportunity, even if the main character needed support.
The one character I did like was the one furthest from human. It started as a sci-fi race which was completely logical, but nothing about it was kitschy or cliched. In fact, the book completely sold it to me, together with all the character’s struggles with becoming more emotional and irrational. I loved this character with all my heart, and wished they had more time dedicated to them.
All in all, it was a fantastic book which left me thinking for a long time, and apart from some bad characterisation, it was an all-round success.
‘Choices, mistakes, consequences and childhood’ – Leonora Meriel When I invited this week's guest to the Undercover Soundtrack, she told me we'd met before, IRL.
