Welcome friend! I am excited to bring you the review of an indie scifi book today. I saw Simon Tull’s book, A Mirage in the Memory, come up through a promo event and between all the huge Fantasy books I am reading (Inheritance Cycle) I needed to go to a completely different world. This was a great pick and a shoutout to my book bestie Ariel for selecting it from my shortlisted TBR! Here is what the book is about:
A Mirage in the Memory
Simon Tull
Goodreads | The Slip Saga #0.5
Dogged by a digital ghost and his own murky past, he must scour the city to kill the killer … or lose the woman he loves.
Earth, post-Apocalypse. Thibault Allard is determined to save his wife. After he escapes the addictive virtual reality that enslaved them both, he works as a bounty hunter for their unsavoury captor to gain inside access and search for his beloved. But when the morally flexible immortal is handed a ruthless ultimatum, he derails his plans in order to pursue the man who terminated his boss’s spouse.
Getting close to the dangerous cult leader responsible for the woman’s death, he scrambles to survive after he’s captured and imprisoned. And thrown into a pit for a gladiatorial battle against a blood-lusting monster, Thibault fears he’ll die before he can rescue the bride he left behind.
Can he double down on his duty without losing the rest of his soul?
Content notes include violence, torture and coarse language.
A Mirage in the Memory – Review
A Mirage in the Memory is unlike any world that I had read before. The book has a Matrix style feel but it reminded me a lot more of the TV show, 1899, by the creators of Dark, which is about time-travel and if you haven’t seen it, you need to.
World Building
There is a virtual reality and a normal reality, if I may call it. The descriptions of the world are well done and it was easy to keep track of what was happening where. How the setting affects the characters is portrayed with precision and reveals so much about the characters too, “The drops on Thibault’s face made him sigh, his virtual muscles relaxing. What did it say about him that he felt more at home in the slip than in the bleed? That a reflection felt more real to him than reality itself?” I love this way of getting to know the characters.
There are androids, augmented humans, ghosts, myths and many more interesting creatures in this book! The technology is integrated seamlessly into the narrative and I was able to imagine it with confidence based on the context that was provided. There is criminal activity, an underground network of people taking advantage of the system, a person named after a god who considers himself extremely important, of course, and many other powerful people. I liked the inspiration behind the names and their connection to authority. There is a structure of power that is conveyed with gravity and, as a reader, I can’t help taking it seriously, in both the virtual and real settings.
This is a book for a serious mood. There are some unexpected fantastical creatures in this book. They add another layer of tension to the story as later in the book, they expose Thibault’s vulnerabilities. No matter how advanced the world and the existence of immortality, some things are worse than death.
Thibault
Thibault, the protagonist of A Mirage in the Memory, is a tough guy. Hired to do all sorts of tasks by his master, he is always running into danger and doing dangerous things. He and his wife used to be in the virtual world but he got out and she is still trapped there. This book is just part of his quest to find her. When he receives a message that gives him hope that he can finally reunite with her, he is met by a spectre, a ghost that exists in virtual reality. From there, Thibault ends up on a mission to gather information about who this spectre used to be in reality and what happened to her. His path crosses old foes and acquaintances as well as intelligent androids. There are moments of despair as well as helplessness. In my recent scifi explorations, this is definitely one of the darker portrayals of the future.
Going in and out of virtual reality has its costs. Thibault is prone to losing himself and his precious memories of his wife altogether if he is not careful.
But every time he meshed, those memories decayed a little more, became a little more fragmented. Too large for Ors to fit in external storage, forcing them to be streamed on each visitation. So each time, the echo morphed again, Thibault’s mind striving to fill in the gaps until he couldn’t recall the truth anymore.
A Mirage in the Memory
I liked Thibault as the protagonist. The past is clearly heavy on him and though his age is unclear, the world has existed this way a long time and I suspect he too has been able to live a long time based on all that he knows and how weighed down he feels by what has transpired.
The Writing and Plot
The dialogues are engaging and I enjoyed the conversations in this book. I love books about memories and this second paragraph of the book hooked me right in:
Memories etched wounds worse than any acid, scarring the mind with the residues of reality. Like medicating with methadone, memories paled in comparison to the real thing, every recollection a potential of further corruption.
A Mirage in the Memory
I would have expected a prequel to be about the apocalyptic event but it isn’t. I was curious about it at the beginning but this book was so captivating that I didn’t really care too much. I was focused on what was happening and though I took lots of notes and questions to ask Simon, I was able to put them aside for later. Stay tuned for the interview, coming tomorrow!
If you are looking for an engaging scifi read, pick up this one. Books where there is a married couple at the centre of the plot are very interesting to me and I am glad to have found another one so soon after The Hexologists. Completely different portrayals and situations, but still noteworthy that this relationship is what drives so much of the story and is never forgotten. I am interested to see how A Mirage in the Memory will support my understanding of the series itself.
Many thanks to the author for a copy of the book for an honest review.
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