Customer Reviews

Aurora Rising

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Toni Seger, author of The Telefax Box (first book of The Telefax Trilogy) sent me the second book in the series to read and review... Aurora Rising. While I wasn't quite as fascinated as I was by The Telefax Box, Aurora Rising does a good job of looking at issues like discrimination and control over societies by taking them out of their normal context and transferring them to a time and location in the distant future. Common to today's global realities, Central Command wants to take control of a planetary area and society that they consider "less advanced" than the culture of the rest of the galaxies. In reality, they are really only interested in the resources that they consider valuable and critical to their own survival. Central to this battle is Aurora, a half-machine/half-Samerac being that doesn't socially belong or fit into any culture, but has become a rallying point and lightning rod for the Samerac people as they attempt to stave off the takeover by Central Command.

In The Telefax Box, I was drawn to the technology depictions of different life forms all brought together in a planetary "United Nations" of sorts. Aurora Rising builds on that and goes more into subjects like diplomacy, societal norms and acceptance, and governmental hypocrisy. I probably would have been more in tune with everything going on had there been less time between my reading of The Telefax Box and this book. As such, my mind tended to wander a bit at times. In addition, Aurora Rising doesn't stand very well on its own. You really need to read The Telefax Box first, and there needs to be a third book in order to wrap things up. Given those "keep this in mind" caveats, Aurora Rising gives the reader a number of things to chew on while they wait for the final installment.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Author
Payment: Free

Aurora Rising, the second book of the trilogy draws you into a complexity of situations. The new main character, Aurora, the first half being and half machine product from the first book, seems calmly adapted to any situation, but is not entirely accepted by any society. What to do with her is the question that has no real answer. Like the Luddites, do we accept machines or abhor them? What if it is only half machine? The book covers all the controversial topics, cultural differences, language barriers, sociological changes, evolutional change, and bureaucracy, just to name a few. Then there is Central Command, a behemoth of political and social control, whose power affects everything and everyone. What will happen in the third book of the trilogy? Does Central take over control and resources? I am left in anticipation of the third book.

Aurora Rising had me engrossed. I rooted for Aurora and stood by her side. She's an intelligent misfit and deserves her place in society. The character's are alive and work well into the story. It was cleverly written to encompass life's most burdensome problems. I could see this becoming a movie or series on TV.

The second book of a trilogy is undoubtedly the most difficult one to deal with, and I was interested in seeing how Toni Seger would handle the sequel to "The Telefax Box", "Aurora Rising". I dislike it when an author introduces new technologies and races which would have appeared in the first book in an attempt to make the series fresh, and Toni completely avoids that, and if anything narrows her focus onto a specific area of her universe which was clearly evident in the first book. Instead, she makes the story fresh by focusing her satire on different aspects of our society than she did in the first book, at least for the most part.

In "The Telfax Box", I felt the focus was much more on social aspects of our society, such as disabilities and social status, e.g. aquatics forced to use uncomfortable troughs to interact with other species, but in this book my focus was drawn more to technology and the varying degrees which different cultures rely on it. At the same time, while the line between being and machine is a key in both books, the theme is much more front and center in this novel, as the universe is forced to deal with half-beings (i.e. half-machines, half-beings); the idea of which is abhorred by almost everyone, yet at the same time is actively pursued by their scientists.

This story focuses on beings which don't completely fit into any society. We have two key characters which have in the part of two very different societies. There is Yon, a half-Samerac, half-Zanton, who doesn't fit in either the technological universe dominated by the Zantons, nor with the anti-machine Samerac society. And there is Aurora, a half-machine, half-Samerac who is also balanced between two opposed forces. Aurora is actually three times an exile, she is part machine which excludes her from those who are beings, she is a Samerac who are exiles from the Federation, and she is with the Dodis, who are exiled from the rest of Samara for their near-worship of machines.

I found the story to be much more complex than that in "The Telefax Box". There are some wonderful moments, such as the treatment of a book as being an exotic item, and valued for being more convenient than a reading-spool. It relates well to the current technology war over e-Readers, i.e. Kindle, iPad, and Nook. Equally good is the satire of environmentalism, or lack thereof with Central Command on the verge of self-destruction through expansion and the dealings with the Dodis in a push to gain control of resources on Samera. Politics also plays a much bigger role in this book, which again adds to the overall complexity of the story.

This is a good second book to the series, but not quite as good as the first book. While the satire is still very good, I felt as if I read a complete story with "The Telefax Box", and it left me wanting to read what happened next. With "Aurora Rising" I feel as if I have only read part of a story. Thus this one is about 3½ stars for me, but I am rounding up because I like the satire and it is not the usual fare.