Review: Nirvana

Nirvana by J.R. Stewart
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

New Review 10/17/15
The author completely rewrote this book based on reader feedback. I was invited to read and review the rewrite by their publicist.

I was very taken by the concept of a post-apocalyptic novel based on an alternate reality in which all the bees die, leaving the plants unable to pollinate which in turn die, killing the animals and leaving the humans with nothing. A reality that is completely unlike my own. All without zombies. I didn't like the way the author originally realized the concept because the protagonist Kenders was almost entirely passive. She had one idea in her head, nothing could disabuse her of it, but other than that she didn't do anything.

In the rewrite, Kenders comes into her own. She's no longer passive and simply waiting for something, anything to happen, she's out there striving towards her goal of discovering the truth.

I now love this book. Kenders is transformed into a punk-rock animal rights activist. She had a life before she met Andrew, which means that her entire existence wasn't predicated solely on her love interest. That's an important message.

When Andrew dies, she refuses to believe that he is dead. He comes to visit her in the virtual reality world of Nirvana. As a master programmer, he could easily have inserted code before his death, yet there's something that keeps her believing that it's him and not just a simulacrum.

As the novel unfolds the reader joins Kenders in her quest to find out the truth behind Andrew's fate. Is he dead? Or is he hiding in Nirvana? I had to keep reading to find out, and can't wait for the next book in the series to learn more.

We still aren't told what happened or why the bees and everything else died or why technology hadn't advanced to a point where the humans could have stopped it from happening. But, now we're given hints and a potential villain. The world building has truly come together. I applaud the author for listening to their readers and offering us something more.


Original Review 08/29/15: In a world where all the bees die, so too do the plants, and the animals that depend on them. And the humans are left with little to build on. This is how the world that we know it ends in Nirvana. What a great concept. Unfortunately, that's as good as it gets. Even though we learn how it ultimately happened, by that time we just don't care.

Protagonist Larissa Kenders refuses to mourn the death of her husband Andrew, instead steadfastly choosing to believe that he is still alive and out there somewhere. He was involved in a series of secret missions that took him into danger and never returned from his final foray. Despite a prolonged search, no sign of his body was ever located. Kenders uses virtual reality as an escape and meeting Andrew there fosters her belief that he's not dead.

This could have been so interesting, but there was little to no character development. Kenders is very one-sided and she never grabbed me or reeled me in. I found it very hard to care what happened to her, or even care if her belief in Andrew was true.

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