Danae is not only herself. She is concealing a connection to a grieving collective inside of her body. But while she labours as a tech servant in the dangerous underwater enclave of Bloom City, her fractured self cannot mend. In a desperate escape, Danae and her lover Naoto hire the enigmatic ex-mercenary Alexei to guide them out of the imploding city.
But for Danae to reunify, the three new fugitives will have to flee across the otherworldly beauty of the post-apocalyptic Southwest. Meanwhile, Danae's warlord enemy, the Duke, and a strange new foe, the Borrower, already seek them at any price.
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THIS IS THE FIRST THING I remember when I begin to cohere in unity; a woman standing at a railing, peering down into the vats at the final bottom of Bloom City - and a man in a cramped air transport lavatory, watching his reflection in the scuffed plastic mirror point a wave pistol at its own head. 1
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(@TachyonPub, 13 April 2021, 463 pages, ebook, #ARC from the publisher and voluntarily reviewed)
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This is the author's debut. I really enjoyed it and look forward to seeing what the author comes up with next. I wasn't sure I was going to like Unity at first; it's so far outside my comfort zone, even for science fiction. It took a few chapters for me to really settle into the story and get to know the characters. I found the shared consciousness premise at first a little far out there and it took a while to get used to. However, I ended up really liking the book and characters. The best way to describe it is to think of Danae's consciousness as a soul which moves between different bodies and lifelines across time and space making her ancient. Unity is original and hugely enjoyable.
