Ankaran Immersion

by  Will Weisser
Dragon Moon Press 11/3/2017
Genre: Science Fiction / Dystopia / Fantasy
Pages: 286
Goodreads

Author’s website

As you know if you are a usual visitor here, I usually don’t read fantasy nor YA, but the synopsis of Ankaran Immersion sounded really geeky and I thought I would enjoy it.

The story is set in a dystopian world, where you have basically two groups of people: those who went along and accepted to have implants made of a special strand in their body, and those who resisted.

Evie, 16, and her little brother Hunter, 11, are members of a tribe who doesn’t want to have anything to do with that Strand. But their clan had to escape, and the 2 young ones are left behind. As they try to rejoin their group, they run into all kinds of adventures.

That Strand is actually  alive, it’s some type of nanotech organism that can totally enhance your body and mind. But this cannot come at any price, can it? So at the same time, it is a dangerous element, ready to take over the whole world.

Hunter ends up being kidnapped, which leaves a hard choice for his sister: remain steadfast to her principles, or compromise to save her brother. But at what cost?

If you love YA and dystopia, I think you will really enjoy this one, plus there are some war scenes with a lot of suspense.

There’s also suspense in regards to many characters, as Evie and Hunter, and the reader, don’t always know for sure who are the good and the bad guys, and whom they can trust.

A good illustration of this is the character of Ono, part human, part strand. His body basically hosts two beings, two personalities. Which one will overcome? Which one can the children trust? And what will be the consequences for them?

And what about the woman shaman? And the quirky character of the little talking otter that shows Hunter a way of accessing another dimension (the Immersion of the title), in which he can make himself super tiny?

The theme of choice and temptation is powerfully developed in the book. Should you choose some new elements that can enrich your life, though containing the risk to endanger it? If you receive the advice not to go somewhere or not to do something, should you listen to that voice and accept this limitation in your life, or should you go ahead to discover the “world of possibility” that’s beyond?

Some passages sounded a lot like our current world situation:

They might be fighting in some ways, but they also cooperate at the same time, to get energy and other things.
chap 20

All that said, it was a disappointing book for me. I was expecting something much more geeky. But again, if you like the themes I mentioned here, I expect you to really enjoy it.

VERDICT: A suspenseful dystopian YA offering interesting thought provoking ideas on choice and temptation.