Journey Through the Mirrors

October 27, 2014
Williams continues the postapocalyptic Rising World trilogy (following Journey into the Flame) with a race to save the world once again. The Great Disruption—a massive solar storm and subsequent axis tilt—took place in the year 2027, and its aftereffects are still being felt worldwide decades later. With the Chronicles of Satraya to guide them, the few survivors have been able to pull out of chaos and normalize most societies, but with time comes forgetfulness and carelessness. Now the Reges Hominum plot to corner the market on the world’s energy supply, and it’s up to the members of the Council of Satraya to set the balance right. Routine plotting and superficial characterization abound, and the jumble of New Age empowerment, Mayan and Egyptian religious practices, pyramid power, and world-dominating secret societies feels more like 1970 than 2070.

November 1, 2014
The unexciting middle installment in the author's Rising World trilogy.The Great Disruption of 2027 tilted the Earth's axis by 4 degrees, unleashing massive death and destruction. In 2030, the survivors must deal with aftereffects such as widespread illness and earthquakes that lack epicenters. Can humanity make a comeback? "The Rising is over," a character states. "Now we must see if the wager on mankind was well placed....Even the simple act of loving someone is risky." Key to the Earth's recovery are the Chronicles of Satraya and learning how to "unearth the secret of free energy." Bad People will kill to control the Chronicles, which dispense such wisdom as "Mind is Mind." Pyramids will generate electricity, a fact known to the ancient Egyptians. Exactly how the ancients used that power is not obvious, but no matter. Much is made of the real-life Nicola Tesla's experiments with electricity, which helps cover the story's flapdoodle with a veneer of science. For example, there are three kinds of resonances mentioned that turn out to be real, like the Schumann resonance-is the Earth out of tune? The characters are straightforward with the notable exception(s) of doctors Josef and Rosa, mixed-gender twins conjoined at the head. They have one superhigh-IQ brain between them and routinely finish each other's sentences. They might be the worst character concept inflicted on innocent readers in many a yarn, but kudos to the author for daring to try. In the end, though, it's an imaginative book with elements of science fiction, futurism and fantasy. The pace and storytelling are good, and the author makes effective use of Edvard Munch's famous painting The Scream. The ending sets up the series finale, with more foul deeds afoot. Worth a try for fans of the genre, but start with Book 1, Journey into the Flame.

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December 1, 2014
It's a nice bit of respite to find a postapocalyptic novel that, instead of being filled with zombies, marauders, and survivalist scavengers, optimistically shows us a successfully recovering civilization. In Williams' Rising World trilogy, we get to see just that in the brand new human societies on the rise in the 2070s, 50 years after the Great Disruption brought our modern era to an end. Natural disasters brought society to its knees, but that is where the survivors found faith in the Chronicles of Satraya, the mysterious and potent holy scriptures of a new world religion. This, the second novel in the trilogy, finds its strength in the cryptological, pseudoscientific, and spiritual pursuit of this faith. As agent Valerie Parrot and others travel the world uncovering the deepest mysteries of the chronicles and their origins, readers will be drawn into a pleasurable series of exciting discoveries and dangers. Some deeper characterization of the protagonists may be lost in the fixation on pursuing these secrets, but those looking for an epic mystery spanning the world will be happy to get lost with the book.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)