DEV1AT3 (L1FELIK3 - II) by Jay Kristoff
Following the explosive conclusion to the events at the Babel Tower - at the end of LIFEL1K3, DEV1AT3 continues to explore the meaning of being human, following the footsteps of now the broken up trio of Eve, Lemon-Fresh and Ezekiel, along with the logika-now-turned-warbot Cricket.
I would never tire of reading Jay Kristoff. Period. Despite the overly-purple-prose and the tendency to invent his own 'colourful phrases in place of curses - and even cringe-worthy romance or sex scenes. He is a born storyteller. His action scenes are second to none. His twists are mind-fucking-blowing. And he does it again and again, with so much panache and style, that I've come to depend on his tales for escaping reality.
L1FELIK3 is set in the nuclear wastes of an erstwhile USA, drudge lands and desert warrens crowd the face of the ravaged earth. In Book-I, we encounter Eve/Anna, the girl who is the youngest of Minrova family. Nicholas Minrova, her father and one of the greatest scientists who worked for the Gnosis labs, had invented the lifelike-robots. A bio-mechanical clone with emotions and logic embedded in their hearts, who are perhaps one notch too perfect to be just humans. Years ago, he and his family were wiped out in a rebellion by these lifelikes, when he himself injected them with an experimental virus that enabled them to override the laws of robotics that commandeered the bots to obey and protect human lives at any cost. Eve apparently survived. Living in isolation out in the wastelands, her life is turned upside down, when one of the lifelikes arrives on her doorsteps. Zeke, the boy has always been in love with Anna, the youngest and has now vowed to protect her at all costs, going against his brothers. Things go off on a boil and secrets buried deep ages ago, crash through Eve's careful constructed secret world.
Unfortunately, I cannot do justice to this review without revealing spoilers for book-I, so if you haven't read book-I, would request you to stop right here!
While the events of Book-I are catastrophic for Eve and her friends, right now they are all scattered in different directions, each of them on their own different quests. Eve is now part of the Lifelike gang, seething with rage at the injustice meted out to her, throughout her life. She takes on this crazy vow to go up against the whole of humanity itself. And crucial to this, is the real Anna, the actual daughter of Nicholas Minrova. Lemon, Ezekiel and Cricket too get separated from each other in a bizarre set of events. There are quite a few interesting new characters who come into the story, plus older guys who resurface with new tales. Twists and turns abound, rollicking action sequences and mind-numbing plot twists aside, this is one solid second installment in this overall series. Through the minds of the various factions - a lifelike, a machine, a deviate and even a cyborg, Jay continues to make us think about what makes us humans. Flawed through and through, confused, cowardly or heroic by turns, our heroes are put through the grinder time and again, hurtling through their ordeals, emerging just a bit stronger perhaps.
As the name suggest, DEV1AT3 is more about Lemon-Fresh than Eve. Her ability to manipulate electricity marks her out as a deviate. No longer a sidekick, Lemon grows to be the leading lady of her own narrative quite naturally. Chased by corporates from both sides of the fighting ring, there are many who want her dead and also capture her alive, for her precious abilities. Lemon even bumps into a hidden rebel base, a group of 'deviates' who are taking the fight to the corporates and the dreaded brotherhood. The best story-arc though, is of Cricket. The tiny logika is a 7-meter tall warbot. While he still hasn't lost his spindly sparkly personality, this book sees Cricket being captured by the brotherhood, being used for their war-dome fighter games. His thoughts are fascinating to keep up with as he ponders about the laws of robotics that keep him from harming the humans, even the bad ones. And then in comes Solomon, a smart-aleck of a logika who helps Cricket out of his dilemma. Ezekiel is separated from Lemon-Fresh and bulls through his own problems, teaming up with Preacher, one of the older 'cyborgs', a hunter from the Daedalus corporation, to track down Lemon and Cricket respectively.
It's an absolutely cracker of a book in terms of pacing, headlong action and the plot jets ahead. The worldbuilding gets a shot in the arm, with the action moving beyond just Babel or the dredges. There are quite a few new towns, huddling pockets of human civilisation. The lingo, the myth of the brotherhood, the old wars between the corporations, the ethics of AI - all of this gets a nod-in in this rollicking adventure that takes no prisoners and in true, Kristoff style, ends with a bang ( like literally!) building up to an exciting cliffhanger. TRUEL1F3 is going to bring things to a head, signing off things in style and I cannot wait to be ringside for this. A solid second book in this non-stop adventure series full of super-humans, cyborgs, clones, thinking robots and lots more!
I would never tire of reading Jay Kristoff. Period. Despite the overly-purple-prose and the tendency to invent his own 'colourful phrases in place of curses - and even cringe-worthy romance or sex scenes. He is a born storyteller. His action scenes are second to none. His twists are mind-fucking-blowing. And he does it again and again, with so much panache and style, that I've come to depend on his tales for escaping reality.
L1FELIK3 is set in the nuclear wastes of an erstwhile USA, drudge lands and desert warrens crowd the face of the ravaged earth. In Book-I, we encounter Eve/Anna, the girl who is the youngest of Minrova family. Nicholas Minrova, her father and one of the greatest scientists who worked for the Gnosis labs, had invented the lifelike-robots. A bio-mechanical clone with emotions and logic embedded in their hearts, who are perhaps one notch too perfect to be just humans. Years ago, he and his family were wiped out in a rebellion by these lifelikes, when he himself injected them with an experimental virus that enabled them to override the laws of robotics that commandeered the bots to obey and protect human lives at any cost. Eve apparently survived. Living in isolation out in the wastelands, her life is turned upside down, when one of the lifelikes arrives on her doorsteps. Zeke, the boy has always been in love with Anna, the youngest and has now vowed to protect her at all costs, going against his brothers. Things go off on a boil and secrets buried deep ages ago, crash through Eve's careful constructed secret world.
Unfortunately, I cannot do justice to this review without revealing spoilers for book-I, so if you haven't read book-I, would request you to stop right here!
While the events of Book-I are catastrophic for Eve and her friends, right now they are all scattered in different directions, each of them on their own different quests. Eve is now part of the Lifelike gang, seething with rage at the injustice meted out to her, throughout her life. She takes on this crazy vow to go up against the whole of humanity itself. And crucial to this, is the real Anna, the actual daughter of Nicholas Minrova. Lemon, Ezekiel and Cricket too get separated from each other in a bizarre set of events. There are quite a few interesting new characters who come into the story, plus older guys who resurface with new tales. Twists and turns abound, rollicking action sequences and mind-numbing plot twists aside, this is one solid second installment in this overall series. Through the minds of the various factions - a lifelike, a machine, a deviate and even a cyborg, Jay continues to make us think about what makes us humans. Flawed through and through, confused, cowardly or heroic by turns, our heroes are put through the grinder time and again, hurtling through their ordeals, emerging just a bit stronger perhaps.
As the name suggest, DEV1AT3 is more about Lemon-Fresh than Eve. Her ability to manipulate electricity marks her out as a deviate. No longer a sidekick, Lemon grows to be the leading lady of her own narrative quite naturally. Chased by corporates from both sides of the fighting ring, there are many who want her dead and also capture her alive, for her precious abilities. Lemon even bumps into a hidden rebel base, a group of 'deviates' who are taking the fight to the corporates and the dreaded brotherhood. The best story-arc though, is of Cricket. The tiny logika is a 7-meter tall warbot. While he still hasn't lost his spindly sparkly personality, this book sees Cricket being captured by the brotherhood, being used for their war-dome fighter games. His thoughts are fascinating to keep up with as he ponders about the laws of robotics that keep him from harming the humans, even the bad ones. And then in comes Solomon, a smart-aleck of a logika who helps Cricket out of his dilemma. Ezekiel is separated from Lemon-Fresh and bulls through his own problems, teaming up with Preacher, one of the older 'cyborgs', a hunter from the Daedalus corporation, to track down Lemon and Cricket respectively.
It's an absolutely cracker of a book in terms of pacing, headlong action and the plot jets ahead. The worldbuilding gets a shot in the arm, with the action moving beyond just Babel or the dredges. There are quite a few new towns, huddling pockets of human civilisation. The lingo, the myth of the brotherhood, the old wars between the corporations, the ethics of AI - all of this gets a nod-in in this rollicking adventure that takes no prisoners and in true, Kristoff style, ends with a bang ( like literally!) building up to an exciting cliffhanger. TRUEL1F3 is going to bring things to a head, signing off things in style and I cannot wait to be ringside for this. A solid second book in this non-stop adventure series full of super-humans, cyborgs, clones, thinking robots and lots more!
Comments