Review of The Sound of Creation
Posted: 10 Jul 2024, 15:30
[Following is a volunteer review of "The Sound of Creation" by Gabriella Zielke.]
The Sound of Creation by Gabriella Zielke presents a reimagining of Earth as the personal project of a seventh-dimension entity named Zek, whose plan is to use it as a gateway for third-dimension souls to be enlightened and ascend to the fourth dimension of existence. He does so by foregoing safety measures put in place by Laer, the organization setting the rules for planet creation, causing unexpected side effects—such as a higher level of “awareness without consciousness”.
The cause seems to be a device invented by tech CEO Ava Lawson, capable of turning truth into sound so that listening to it makes one aware of hidden truths, both about themselves and about the reality they live in, and compels them to reveal them. A device like this obviously poses a great danger, as both Laer and the government want to use it for their own purposes, forcing Ava to go on the run and Zek to descend on Earth to fix his creation.
This book has one of the most original premises I have ever seen, and the first half of it had me so intrigued with its worldbuilding and interdimensional conflicts of interest that I could not stop reading. The second half, however, is where the story starts to fall apart and could have really used some structural editing.
First of all, Ava's relationships to other characters feel underdeveloped. It wasn't really clear to me why her team was so ride-or-die for her, and while I can assume they've just been through a lot together over the years, the same can't be said for the people who join her team through the story. Every single character, even the ones whose trustworthiness we’re initially told to be unsure about, just seems ready to die for her at a moment's notice, and I don’t understand why. It’s not that she’s not a good person—she is, to the point where I almost wish there had been something more to her—but even in real life, it’s not often that good intentions are rewarded so easily and unquestioningly. There is one character whose loyalty to Ava is challenged and eventually rescinded, but even then, we get no inkling of this internal conflict—we’re just told, at the very end, all the reasons this person betrayed her, without a single one having been hinted at in the story.
This is part of a wider trend I noticed where things are constantly paid off that were never set up in the first place. Ava's conflict with herself and her past is another such example—its resolution didn't feel earned or triumphant at all, because I barely felt like it was part of the story in the first place. The fact that the second half of the story is full of weirdly-placed timeskips doesn’t help with the pacing, as so many important plot or character developments happen off-screen and are glossed over in just one sentence or two.
I’m still giving the book a rating of 4/5 stars, because I genuinely enjoyed the first part and think the book has immense potential. However, I do think the author tried to bite off more than they could chew, and that the book, especially with its emphasis on self-love and self-acceptance, needed to be much longer than it actually was and more focused on the characters, with the interpersonal and interdimensional conflict between them taking center stage over plot convenience.
******
The Sound of Creation
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
The Sound of Creation by Gabriella Zielke presents a reimagining of Earth as the personal project of a seventh-dimension entity named Zek, whose plan is to use it as a gateway for third-dimension souls to be enlightened and ascend to the fourth dimension of existence. He does so by foregoing safety measures put in place by Laer, the organization setting the rules for planet creation, causing unexpected side effects—such as a higher level of “awareness without consciousness”.
The cause seems to be a device invented by tech CEO Ava Lawson, capable of turning truth into sound so that listening to it makes one aware of hidden truths, both about themselves and about the reality they live in, and compels them to reveal them. A device like this obviously poses a great danger, as both Laer and the government want to use it for their own purposes, forcing Ava to go on the run and Zek to descend on Earth to fix his creation.
This book has one of the most original premises I have ever seen, and the first half of it had me so intrigued with its worldbuilding and interdimensional conflicts of interest that I could not stop reading. The second half, however, is where the story starts to fall apart and could have really used some structural editing.
First of all, Ava's relationships to other characters feel underdeveloped. It wasn't really clear to me why her team was so ride-or-die for her, and while I can assume they've just been through a lot together over the years, the same can't be said for the people who join her team through the story. Every single character, even the ones whose trustworthiness we’re initially told to be unsure about, just seems ready to die for her at a moment's notice, and I don’t understand why. It’s not that she’s not a good person—she is, to the point where I almost wish there had been something more to her—but even in real life, it’s not often that good intentions are rewarded so easily and unquestioningly. There is one character whose loyalty to Ava is challenged and eventually rescinded, but even then, we get no inkling of this internal conflict—we’re just told, at the very end, all the reasons this person betrayed her, without a single one having been hinted at in the story.
This is part of a wider trend I noticed where things are constantly paid off that were never set up in the first place. Ava's conflict with herself and her past is another such example—its resolution didn't feel earned or triumphant at all, because I barely felt like it was part of the story in the first place. The fact that the second half of the story is full of weirdly-placed timeskips doesn’t help with the pacing, as so many important plot or character developments happen off-screen and are glossed over in just one sentence or two.
I’m still giving the book a rating of 4/5 stars, because I genuinely enjoyed the first part and think the book has immense potential. However, I do think the author tried to bite off more than they could chew, and that the book, especially with its emphasis on self-love and self-acceptance, needed to be much longer than it actually was and more focused on the characters, with the interpersonal and interdimensional conflict between them taking center stage over plot convenience.
******
The Sound of Creation
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
