Elysium

Or, the World After

By: Jennifer Marie Brissett

Narrated by: Jamye Meri Grant

Length: 7 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's summary

A computer program etched into the atmosphere has a story to tell - the story of two people, of a city lost to chaos, of survival and love. The program's data, however, has been corrupted. As the novel's characters struggle to survive the apocalypse, they are sustained and challenged by the demands of love in a shattered world both haunted and dangerous.

©2015 Blackstone Audio, Inc. and Skyboat Media, Inc. (P)2015 Skyboat Media

For those who like experimental, non-linear

I really loved the non-linear, experimental structure of this book. For at least the first half, it kept me completely off-balance about what was happening, and I mean that in a good way. I was completely invested in trying to figure out who, what, when, where, and why. It actually kept me guessing right up until the end.

This is a book that would benefit from a second reading, once you know what is going on. Maybe then I'd understand what the elk is supposed to represent?

I listened to this as an audio book, and while I really liked the performance, I do wonder if it might have been a little less confusing if I had been reading a physical/digital version, because then I could have gone back and forth to compare the names and locations and other details of the various chapters.

Collage?

I don't know how to describe this., but read it. There are a couple of things I could kind of compare this to, but there's really nothing comparable. Definitely a book to read several times. Cerebral turned up to 11.

Fragmented…

This book suffers from its summary, since it doesnt live up to it. The main characters change sexes and relationships to every combination possible in the first 5 chapters then switches to a prisoner of war story- almost like this story doesnt know what it wanted to be. I understand the author wanted it to feel fragmented but, imo it wasnt done well. The explaination seems more like a cop out than sense. It had potential tho….

I was really engaged

I was really engaged I couldn’t stop
Really appreciate all the twists and turns and the great imagination and clever ideas that kept me guessing and intrigued to the very end!

Great moving story

The audio narration is stellar!! The story has things to say and is quick paced because of a constantly shifting narrator and circumstance. Recommended.

Let Down

Kept waiting for a plot to develop, but it never really did. I wanted all the tedium of the repeating fragments to amount to something that would bring it all together for us or at least prove to be insightful. This does not happen.