Review of Return to Reality
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Emily Astillberry
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Review of Return to Reality
[Following is a volunteer review of "Return to Reality" by Mark O'Dell.]
From the first line of the first chapter of Return to Reality, I was hooked by O'Dell's creation of stunningly beautiful worlds, which I was immediately and utterly immersed in. From otherworldly names of places and characters to his impeccable editing and writing throughout, I loved every aspect of this intricately woven story. The magic seeps through the prose as well as the subject with evocative descriptions that transported me to the Gloamril forest of future Earth and beyond through colour, sound and smell.
Return to Reality follows a human girl, Shrew, who lives on Earth in the seemingly archaic five hundred and seventy second century. Shrew is snatched from her life without warning, waking up in a technologically advanced but environmentally dying, late twenty first century Earth.
The ensuing adventure charts the tensions between the renewist and transcendent humans, the race to find a replacement planet for humanity and, ultimately, the involvement of the fey in the fate of Earth and takes place across numerous planets and through exciting space and time travel. It is an incredibly clever and intricate story and O'Dell crafts the many twists and turns with absolute mastery. The reader is treated to incomprehensible technology, magic, synthetic humans, brain washing, science fiction, complex characters and relationships and incredible plant and animal life on unheard of planets, to name but a few of the delights this book has in store. I particularly enjoyed the development of Shrew's relationships with the humans Trilyan and Auva and her synthetic assistant Till.
In the write -up of Return to Reality, we are told that the book is the second in a series but that it stands alone. This is the only aspect of the entire reading experience that I can find fault with but I would suggest that it is not entirely true. Although I was quickly drawn into O'Dell's universe, I found my background knowledge of Shrew was lacking and there were numerous references to her previous adventures, which, not having read The Tale of Shrew, left me with quite big gaps in my understanding. In particular, there are regular references to Shrew's connection to the dragons and/or daggers, Silfa and Sceral and, even having finished Return to Reality, my grasp of these relationships is lacking. I would definitely recommend readers to start with The Tale of Shrew but if Return to Reality is anything to go by, I'm certain that it, too, would be a gripping read.
Overall I would describe Return to Reality as a page turner; a thrilling fantasy, science fiction adventure that I found totally compelling and which kept me reading well past my bedtime. I cannot recommend it enough to anyone who enjoys a good fantasy story with wonderful attention to detail. It is an assault on the senses that kept me hooked from beginning to end. I didn't find a single editing error and actually found that I stopped making notes before I reached the end because I was enjoying myself too much. I have given this book an easy 5 out of 5 stars.
******
Return to Reality
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
From the first line of the first chapter of Return to Reality, I was hooked by O'Dell's creation of stunningly beautiful worlds, which I was immediately and utterly immersed in. From otherworldly names of places and characters to his impeccable editing and writing throughout, I loved every aspect of this intricately woven story. The magic seeps through the prose as well as the subject with evocative descriptions that transported me to the Gloamril forest of future Earth and beyond through colour, sound and smell.
Return to Reality follows a human girl, Shrew, who lives on Earth in the seemingly archaic five hundred and seventy second century. Shrew is snatched from her life without warning, waking up in a technologically advanced but environmentally dying, late twenty first century Earth.
The ensuing adventure charts the tensions between the renewist and transcendent humans, the race to find a replacement planet for humanity and, ultimately, the involvement of the fey in the fate of Earth and takes place across numerous planets and through exciting space and time travel. It is an incredibly clever and intricate story and O'Dell crafts the many twists and turns with absolute mastery. The reader is treated to incomprehensible technology, magic, synthetic humans, brain washing, science fiction, complex characters and relationships and incredible plant and animal life on unheard of planets, to name but a few of the delights this book has in store. I particularly enjoyed the development of Shrew's relationships with the humans Trilyan and Auva and her synthetic assistant Till.
In the write -up of Return to Reality, we are told that the book is the second in a series but that it stands alone. This is the only aspect of the entire reading experience that I can find fault with but I would suggest that it is not entirely true. Although I was quickly drawn into O'Dell's universe, I found my background knowledge of Shrew was lacking and there were numerous references to her previous adventures, which, not having read The Tale of Shrew, left me with quite big gaps in my understanding. In particular, there are regular references to Shrew's connection to the dragons and/or daggers, Silfa and Sceral and, even having finished Return to Reality, my grasp of these relationships is lacking. I would definitely recommend readers to start with The Tale of Shrew but if Return to Reality is anything to go by, I'm certain that it, too, would be a gripping read.
Overall I would describe Return to Reality as a page turner; a thrilling fantasy, science fiction adventure that I found totally compelling and which kept me reading well past my bedtime. I cannot recommend it enough to anyone who enjoys a good fantasy story with wonderful attention to detail. It is an assault on the senses that kept me hooked from beginning to end. I didn't find a single editing error and actually found that I stopped making notes before I reached the end because I was enjoying myself too much. I have given this book an easy 5 out of 5 stars.
******
Return to Reality
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Latest Review: Deceptive Calm by Patricia Skipper
