Happy Monday, everyone! Just yesterday I was writing down this post, while watching/listening to Happy. a show recently added on my Netflix. It was absurd but probably kept me inspired, because I managed to write a lot of things, this one included.
Little disclaimer: if you havent’s read the first book, The Evaporation of Sofi Snow, you can read my review there. For some reasons, I’m kinda the only one that liked the series, but anyway…
Title: Recalming Shilo Snow
Author: Mary Weber
Series: The Evaporation of Sofi Snow #2
Publisher: Thomas Nelson Fiction
Pages: 320
Rating: ★★★
Trapped on the ice-planet of Delon, gamer girl Sofi and Ambassador Miguel have discovered that nothing is what it seems, including their friends. On a quest to rescue her brother, Shilo, a boy everyone believes is dead, they must now escape and warn Earth of Delon’s designs on humanity. Except the more they unearth of the planet and Sofi’s past, the more they feel themselves unraveling, as each new revelation has Sofi questioning the very existence of reality.
Meanwhile, back on Earth, Sofi’s mom, Inola, is battling a different kind of unraveling: a political one that could cost lives, positions, and a barely-rebuilt society, should they discover the deal made with the Delonese.
But there’s a secret deeper than all that. One locked away inside Sofi and ticking away with the beginnings, endings, and answers to everything. Including how to save humanity.
The adventure of Sofi and Miguel ends with a cliffhanger in the first book. And I wanted to scream a bit when it happened.
The theme that goes around the book, the human traffic , is more and more explored into this second novel. If you’re really sensible to this topic, I suggest you to do not read the book.
Also because one of the new POV is the one of Inola, Sofi and Shilo’s mother. It was difficult to read about this women, of her choices and how sad and bitter was her relationship with her so-not-much family. It was interesting to see someone so near the power, thinking of being right while actually hurting people. One thing that for me wasn’t deeply explored, anyway, was exactly this part.
Inola seems to feel regret, she lost things and regain some, but a further develop ends because of the series (only two books) and because or her path into the story. Not that I found it wrong, since I found it to be the best solution.
Talking about Sofi and Shilo, a thing that left a me bit perplexed, even if it didn’t bother me so much, was that Shilo is basically absent for the majority of the main plot.
The general story left a bit confused. I liked it, just to be clear, but I also had the feel that a lot of things could have ended far before the time if the Delonese took a good decision. A ruthless one, I know, but things were a bit dragged on. And it also left me with some questions, like: what really made the Delonese arrive at that point? How they reduced themself that way? And why? Like, I doubt that a group of people modify their genes and body until the reach of infertility.
A lot is focused on Sofi, the discovery of her past, her fighting a way inside the Delonese planet/ship… Really, one of the most interesting part is some sort of brain hacking, mixed with a good dose of sci-fi ideas. It’s a thing (the brain hacking) that I’ve recently studied, along all the technology trend that spread fastly in our era, including devices that should work along with our brain and it was great to read about it in a book, even with more large interpretations.
So, on the bright side, the whole tech concept captivated me. I really need to find more books related to this particular aspect.
During the whole novel it plays an important part, not also for Sofi’s ability but also because it’s the perfect reign of twist and surprises. Let me add that there was a touch of creepy too. Many scenes and the sensation transmitted by those disturbed quite a bit and I almost didn’t want to discover how some people had end up in a certain way.
Weber’s duology is quite pleasant and different from the few sci-fi novel I read, more focused onto a new type human-technology interaction and also humanitarian themes, even if the latter should have been further developed (it happened but still not enough) instead to giving space to mostly adventure and an emotional discourse.
HAVE YOU READ THIS SERIES? ARE YOU INTERESTED IN BOOKS BASED ON SOCIAL AND HUMANITARIANS THEME? ARE YOU MORE FOR THE CLASSIC SCI-FI OR SOMETHING DIFFERENT?
