Book Review: Persistence of Vision

Synopsis:

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...

PERSISTENCE OF VISION starts with a bang, throwing us right into a mysterious conflict. The entire first chapter is one bizarre event after another that immediately grabs hold of the reader, launching a horde of questions that I was eager to find the answers to.

Maggie is the type of main character I can get behind. She has reasonably terrified reactions to horrible and mystifying events, but she’s also willing to work things out. She wants to know how to make things better, how to help everyone. She gets so much thrown at her in a very short amount of time, and she’s good at rolling with the punches.

Marcus is the romantic interest, but not obnoxiously so. There aren’t constant descriptions of his dreaminess or his never-ending and disgustingly overpowered skills or abilities. Sure he’s a cool guy with an acceptable amount of dreaminess, but he felt like a real person. Marcus and Maggie’s relationship developed slowly and as a sub-plot, only interfering with the main conflict when absolutely necessary. This was mostly awesome because the plot didn’t need an overbearing romance to keep the book interesting.

The big bad here are what is known as “collectives”; basically hive minds, where individuality is stripped away. Chilling, no? And yet it makes for such a good nefarious presence throughout this book as our heroes try to figure out how to destroy the leaders of said collectives. Throw in some fun sci-fi ideas like time travel and other super human powers, and you have yourself a wildly entertaining read.

I can definitely say I didn’t know what to expect when I was asked to review PERSISTENCE OF VISION. What I can say is I wish I had gotten to it sooner; it was clever, fascinating, romantic, well written and well plotted. I would feel comfortable recommending this book to any fans of sci-fi/thrillers.