Feb 28, 2013

{Blog Tour} Book Review + Excerpt: Persistence of Vision - Liesel K. Hill

Today, as part of Liesel K. Hill's blog tour for her book, Persistence of Vision, I'll be sharing with you guys a book review and an exciting excerpt!

Title: Persistence of Vision (Interchron #1)
Author: Liesel K. Hill
Release Date: January 29th 2013
Publisher: Tate Publishing
Goodreads | Amazon
In a world where collective hives are enslaving the population and individuals have been hunted to the verge of extinction, Maggie Harper, and independent 21st Century woman, must find the strength to preserve the freedom of the future, but without the aid of her memories.
After experiencing a traumatic time loss, Maggie is plagued by a barrage of images she can't explain. When she's attacked by a creep with a spider's web tattoo, she is saved by Marcus, a man she's never met, but somehow remembers. He tells her that both he and her creepy attacker are from a future in which individuals are being murdered by collectives, and Marcus is part of the rebellion. The collectives have acquired time travel and they plan to enslave the human race throughout all of history. The flashes Maggie has been seeing are echoes of lost memories, and the information buried deep within them is instrumental in defeating the collective hives.
In order to preserve the individuality of mankind, Maggie must try to re-discover stolen memories, re-kindle friendships she has no recollection of, and wade through her feelings for the mysterious Marcus, all while dodging the tattooed assassins the collectives keep sending her way.
If Maggie can't fill the holes in her memory and find the answers to stop the collectives, the world both in her time and in all ages past and future will be doomed to enslavement in the grey, mediocre collectives. As the danger swirls around her and the collectives close in, Maggie realizes she must make a choice: stand out or fade away...
I'm not a huge fan of sci-fi novels. Give me lengthy descriptions and I'll get bored; don't explain anything at all and I'll be left confused and irritated. Thankfully, Persistence of Vision ended up becoming one of the few sci-fi novels that I thoroughly enjoyed.

The story had been quite slow to take off, but once it did, I simply couldn't stop reading. I was thrust into a world of time travelers and prophecies and underground - literally - movements that made this book really exciting. I pitied the main character, Maggie, because even though she knew little about the truth, she was being attacked by assassins with weird tattoos on their faces. Lucky for her, she had a savior in Marcus.

Aside from Maggie, I loved all the other characters in here. Each one of them had their own colorful stories to tell, making them relatable and feel like real people. They all had their own personal tragedies thanks to the collectives who were trying to pursue them, but it was in those tragedies where they drew strength to keep their humanity. They were all truly admirable.

The research made to support the plot was obviously extensive. The science was amazing. I know most of it to be true in real life, and the others I'm not sure about don't seem so far-fetched, either, adding to the haunting factor of this book. This book not only taught me new things, but also reminded me of the stuff I'd already learned. Reading it was like sitting through my Science classes from before, which I really enjoyed.

Persistence of Vision was a joy to read. It had all the elements that I love in a story: adventure, action, romance, and high stakes, and already I'm looking forward to reading the sequel.

MY FAVORITE PART was when Maggie was re-learning her forgotten relationships.

RATING:
 

About the author:
Liesel K. Hill graduated from Weber State University with a degree in Creative Writing. She writes across three genres: scifi/fantasy, historical fiction, and crime drama. She comes from a close-knit family of fourteen and has very traditional views and values. She loves story-telling in all its forms, playing with her nieces and nephews, talking movies with her siblings, and any recipe with ‘dark’ and ‘chocolate’ in the title.

Excerpt
The men with Marcus had fallen back, leaving him out in front of them before the oncoming Trepids. The ground was littered with those they’d already killed, but the approaching wave of violence was gargantuan in comparison. Maggie’s heart quickened with fear and she wondered what they would do. Marcus, standing twenty feet ahead of the others, still holding that wooden staff, would surely be crushed.

He stood perfectly still, staff in hand, as dozens of Trepids rushed toward him. It was an army, coming toward him like a moving wall. The other cave-dwellers were taking slow, tentative steps backward, toward the cave.

“Joan, what’s he…?”

Joan still held fast to Maggie’s wrist, but she gave Maggie a reassuring look.

With the Trepids less than ten feet from him, Marcus finally moved. He hefted the staff in his left hand, tossing it up a few inches so he could get ahold of it further down. Then he took a knee while also slamming the staff into the ground. He timed it perfectly so that his knee and the butt of the staff hit the ground at the same time.

The wave of energy that radiated out from him was unlike anything Maggie had ever felt. She felt it in the ground below her. It came up through her shoes and into her body, spiking her heart rate and making her skeleton vibrate against her flesh. The very mountain quivered, as if from a seismic aftershock.

Everything was moving in slow motion; the power radiating from Marcus had caught and absorbed everything around him. His warped bubble of energy had trapped them all and, for only a heartbeat, connected them…

Then it was gone. Sudden vertigo made Maggie step backward with one leg to catch herself. It was like a dream where you feel like you’re falling until you kick yourself awake. The instant her foot hit the ground the dizziness was gone, and then there was only silence in the cave and Joan holding Maggie’s hand, looking at her speculatively.

Maggie looked out to where the battle had taken place. Her mouth dropped open. All the Trepids who’d been coming—every single one of them, and there must have been close to a hundred—had fallen to the ground. The utter silence made Maggie’s breathing sound loud, and she knew they were all dead. He’d killed them all.

1 comment:

  1. Thanks so much for the review and for participating in the tour. I'm so glad you connected with the book. Thanks so much! :D

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