Jennifer Marie Brissett

Real Rating: 4.75* of five

The Publisher Says: The Matrix meets an Afro-futuristic retelling of Persephone set in a science fiction underworld of aliens, refugees, and genetic engineering in Jennifer Marie Brissett's Destroyer of Light

Having destroyed Earth, the alien conquerors resettle the remains of humanity on the planet of Eleusis. In the four habitable areas of the planet—Day, Dusk, Dawn, and Night—the haves and have nots, criminals and dissidents, and former alien conquerors irrevocably bind three stories:
*A violent warlord abducts a young girl from the agrarian outskirts of Dusk leaving her mother searching and grieving.
*Genetically modified twin brothers desperately search for the lost son of a human/alien couple in a criminal underground trafficking children for unknown purposes.
*A young woman with inhuman powers rises through the insurgent ranks of soldiers in the borderlands of Night.

Their stories, often containing disturbing physical and sexual violence, skate across years, building to a single confrontation when the fate of all—human and alien—balances upon a knife’s-edge.

I RECEIVED MY DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: ↡↡↡ HEED. THE. CONTENT. WARNINGS. BELOW. ↡↡↡

Humanity is clinging to existence on the tidally locked planet called "Eleusis." Their enemies, the krestge, have destroyed Earth (no one knows why) and evacuated them to Eleusis without doing anything more to complete the extermination (no one knows why). But life must go on. Being humanity, you know what this means: infighting, resource grabs, atrocities, all the usual stuff.

We follow the entire nightmarish fight between people, used in the sense of "humans," who would do better to question the hows and whys of the aliens who exist among them, as the entire planet careens towards some climactic cathartic cleansing of...of...of what, exactly? Is it time for Humanity to finish its extinction at the hands of its squabbling selves? Or is it just barely possible that this awful mirror is held up to make Humanity confront its worst and most enraging aspects?

You don't know Author Brissett's work if you think she provides an answer to that question.

Intricately interconnected strands of Eleusis's enhanced and unenhanced human remnants, violently abusing themselves and each other, aliens with the demonstrated capacity to end the entire human lineage sitting still and doing nothing are some of the mainstays of this book's architecture. The manner in which Author Brissett makes one care about the architecture is, in common with the subtle and unjustly undercelebrated [Elysium], left for you to discern. The clues are there. The point of the read is to get out of it what you put into it. While I myownself am indifferent to spoilers, having watched The Crying Game decades ago and thinking The Big Reveal was...kinda obvious...but in any event anticlimactic, I still think you'll enjoy the read more if you're left to mull over the roles of the krestge, the enhanced humans, the nature of the need for child soldiers, and the book's title. Hang on until the ending, and you will feel so very rewarded for your efforts.

There is MUCH to unearth. The pleasures in these words are very significant.

CW: sexual assault, CW: violence… (plus d'informations)

Review of Uncorrected Advance Reading Digital Galley

The aliens came, they attacked, they destroyed Earth.

Gathered up and resettled on far-away Eleusis, remnants of humanity live with their conquerors, ostensibly in peace. Settled along the planet’s narrow perimeter, they live in the area that circles the center of the world. On Eleusis, Dawn is one half of this narrow habitable ring, Dusk is the other. The borderlands are known as Night.

The shimmering/shifting krestge believe they hold control over the humans on Eleusis, but they remain unaware of some long-ago preparations. And they have failed to account for how the alterations wrought in some could change everything they believe they understand.

What does fate hold in store for krestge and human when, ultimately, the often-troubling years lead to confrontation?

Does humanity harbor resentment toward the krestge or have they moved past the memories of that long-ago attack when the krestge came and rained down total destruction on their home world?

And what do the krestge think and feel?

The unfolding narrative alternates between the abduction of Cora, the strange abilities of genetically-modified twins Jown and Pietyr who search for a lost boy, and the rise of a young woman with uncommon powers. Revealed alternately, occurring in one of the three habitable areas of Eleusis, and moving forward and backward in time, the stories eventually coalesce, but readers may find the presentation a bit confusing.

Nevertheless, the worldbuilding here is first-rate; the characters, diverse and interesting. Along with some important social morés . . . haves and have nots, prejudice, drugs, family dynamics . . . there’s an intriguing coming-of-age component in this evolving narrative. The stage is set for a conflict between human/post-human and krestge in what readers might consider a staple of the science fiction genre. But some unexpected twists and unforeseen events change everything, taking the story in a surprising direction.

All of these components make for a complex, intriguing story that could certainly be a positive contribution to the science fiction genre.

HOWEVER . . .

It is difficult to believe that depicting the vicious rape of a child is necessary to the telling of any story, science fiction or otherwise. These brutal scenes do absolutely nothing to advance the telling of the tale. So, why, on more than one occasion, do readers find themselves confronted with this heinous act? To say it is simply a part of the story, a component in the telling of this child’s life on this alien planet, seems to suggest that, on some level, the foreignness of this place and this culture makes this acceptable.

In truth, it does not.

Add the wanton murder of other children, and it simply becomes too much . . . the story that follows pales in the light of these horrors so nonchalantly tossed into the narrative with no more apparent concern than a discussion of Cora sitting in the kitchen eating kremer porridge.

The struggles of an alien civilization and humanity seeking to exist together on a planet far from Earth could become an amazing story, but that narrative lies sacrificed on the altar of detestable events that seem inserted into the telling of the tale simply for the shock value they bring. And that is an insult to the reader.

If scenes like these are a necessary part of the “new golden age” of science fiction, many readers will simply decide that the genre is not for them, after all. Who would blame them?

Although the book carries a warning . . . “This book is designed for audiences 18+ due to scenes of physical and sexual violence, and themes that some may find disturbing” . . . it fails to supply the essential information that these scenes of rape and violence are being perpetrated against young children.

As a result of these concerns, this book earns a lowered rating and cannot be recommended.

I received a free copy of this eBook from Macmillan-Tor/Forge and NetGalley
#DestroyerofLight #NetGalley… (plus d'informations)