Aaru Review
Aaru is by David Meredith and is science-fiction. It is the first installment in the Aaru Cycle.
"'…Death and the stillness of death are the only things certain and common to all in this future…'
-Friedrich Nietzsche
Rose is dying. Her body is wasted and skeletal. She is too sick and weak to move. Every day is an agony and her only hope is that death will find her swiftly before the pain grows too great to bear.
She is sixteen years old.
Rose has made peace with her fate, but her younger sister, Koren, certainly has not. Though all hope appears lost Koren convinces Rose to make one final attempt at saving her life after a mysterious man in a white lab coat approaches their family about an unorthodox and experimental procedure. A copy of Rose’s radiant mind is uploaded to a massive super computer called Aaru – a virtual paradise where the great and the righteous might live forever in an arcadian world free from pain, illness, and death. Elysian Industries is set to begin offering the service to those who can afford it and hires Koren to be their spokes-model.
Within a matter of weeks, the sisters’ faces are nationally ubiquitous, but they soon discover that neither celebrity nor immortality is as utopian as they think. Not everyone is pleased with the idea of life everlasting for sale. What unfolds is a whirlwind of controversy, sabotage, obsession, and danger. Rose and Koren must struggle to find meaning in their chaotic new lives and at the same time hold true to each other as Aaru challenges all they ever knew about life, love, and death and everything they thought they really believed."~Goodreads
One of the points in the summary that convinced me to read Aaru is the line about the "whirlwind of controversy." It sounded intriguing and drew me in, wanting to know how crazy Koren and Rose's lives were about to get. It definitely didn't disappoint.
When Koren was first introduced I felt sorry for her. After all, her sister is struggling in a hospital and she hasn't been allowed to see her. Then there was a while I didn't like her because she was acting like a jerk. Then I liked her because she sorted herself out and became a better character. However, I would have protested to wearing some of the outfits she had to if I were in her position. I loved seeing Koren and Rose's relationship. Despite being in two different worlds, per say, they still cared deeply for each other, and I liked seeing how it impacted the story. I loved seeing Rose get to be happy for the first time in years, even if life decided it wasn't done playing games. (I think out of her friends Runa might have been my favorite. Penguin butlers are so cool!)
At first I kind of liked Koren's parents. They were struggling and handling the tragic situation the best they could. Then they just weren't the parents Koren needed. If your daughter is uncomfortable with something, you do not brush it off and act like it's no big deal. Thank goodness they came around by the end of the book and started to support her more.
Whenever Magic Man opened his mouth or started thinking about how superior he is, I rolled my eyes. He's clearly smart because not anyone can pull off what he does. How he uses his brain is just flat out wrong. He's such an egotistical stalker that really needs to take a good, long look in a mirror.
In the story there are multiple people opposed to the idea of having your very being uploaded for various reasons, some religious, others security. They got me thinking of what if for some crazy reason, a system like Aaru was actually invented. Would I support it and find it a good thing or would I be another protesting the new software? I still don't have the answer, however, as of right now, I'm very glad the supercomputer is nowhere in existence and is a thing of sci-fi. I will say, though, that if there was a virtual reality like it that would be cool. I would love to create by own critters and world and the only limit be my imagination.
I don't know if I'll continue on with the series. I mainly want to see how the big argument goes down, how Koren and Rose continue to be affected, and to see Magic Man end up behind bars (for a very long time). Sorry people thirteen and under, but this read isn't for you right now just because of some of the content. I would recommend Aaru to the fans of The Mortality Doctrine series by James Dashner, as they both deal with similar concepts.
Rating:
-Friedrich Nietzsche
Rose is dying. Her body is wasted and skeletal. She is too sick and weak to move. Every day is an agony and her only hope is that death will find her swiftly before the pain grows too great to bear.
She is sixteen years old.
Rose has made peace with her fate, but her younger sister, Koren, certainly has not. Though all hope appears lost Koren convinces Rose to make one final attempt at saving her life after a mysterious man in a white lab coat approaches their family about an unorthodox and experimental procedure. A copy of Rose’s radiant mind is uploaded to a massive super computer called Aaru – a virtual paradise where the great and the righteous might live forever in an arcadian world free from pain, illness, and death. Elysian Industries is set to begin offering the service to those who can afford it and hires Koren to be their spokes-model.
Within a matter of weeks, the sisters’ faces are nationally ubiquitous, but they soon discover that neither celebrity nor immortality is as utopian as they think. Not everyone is pleased with the idea of life everlasting for sale. What unfolds is a whirlwind of controversy, sabotage, obsession, and danger. Rose and Koren must struggle to find meaning in their chaotic new lives and at the same time hold true to each other as Aaru challenges all they ever knew about life, love, and death and everything they thought they really believed."~Goodreads
One of the points in the summary that convinced me to read Aaru is the line about the "whirlwind of controversy." It sounded intriguing and drew me in, wanting to know how crazy Koren and Rose's lives were about to get. It definitely didn't disappoint.
When Koren was first introduced I felt sorry for her. After all, her sister is struggling in a hospital and she hasn't been allowed to see her. Then there was a while I didn't like her because she was acting like a jerk. Then I liked her because she sorted herself out and became a better character. However, I would have protested to wearing some of the outfits she had to if I were in her position. I loved seeing Koren and Rose's relationship. Despite being in two different worlds, per say, they still cared deeply for each other, and I liked seeing how it impacted the story. I loved seeing Rose get to be happy for the first time in years, even if life decided it wasn't done playing games. (I think out of her friends Runa might have been my favorite. Penguin butlers are so cool!)
At first I kind of liked Koren's parents. They were struggling and handling the tragic situation the best they could. Then they just weren't the parents Koren needed. If your daughter is uncomfortable with something, you do not brush it off and act like it's no big deal. Thank goodness they came around by the end of the book and started to support her more.
Whenever Magic Man opened his mouth or started thinking about how superior he is, I rolled my eyes. He's clearly smart because not anyone can pull off what he does. How he uses his brain is just flat out wrong. He's such an egotistical stalker that really needs to take a good, long look in a mirror.
In the story there are multiple people opposed to the idea of having your very being uploaded for various reasons, some religious, others security. They got me thinking of what if for some crazy reason, a system like Aaru was actually invented. Would I support it and find it a good thing or would I be another protesting the new software? I still don't have the answer, however, as of right now, I'm very glad the supercomputer is nowhere in existence and is a thing of sci-fi. I will say, though, that if there was a virtual reality like it that would be cool. I would love to create by own critters and world and the only limit be my imagination.
I don't know if I'll continue on with the series. I mainly want to see how the big argument goes down, how Koren and Rose continue to be affected, and to see Magic Man end up behind bars (for a very long time). Sorry people thirteen and under, but this read isn't for you right now just because of some of the content. I would recommend Aaru to the fans of The Mortality Doctrine series by James Dashner, as they both deal with similar concepts.
Rating:
I received this book in exchange for an honest review.
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