Blog Tour: Persistence of Vision by Liesel Hill

As soon as I read the synopsis for this book, I knew I had to be in the tour. What, with a dystopian genre and sci-fi elements like time travel...well, how could the geek in me resist?

Review

Title: Persistence of Vision
Author: Liesel Hill
Publisher:  Tate Publishing
Released: January 29th 2012
Pages: 386 (Kindle)
Buy: Amazon UK / Amazon US


In a world where collective hives are enslaving the population and individuals have been hunted to the verge of extinction, Maggie Harper, and independent 21st Century woman, must find the strength to preserve the freedom of the future, but without the aid of her memories.

After experiencing a traumatic time loss, Maggie is plagued by a barrage of images she can't explain. When she's attacked by a creep with a spider's web tattoo, she is saved by Marcus, a man she's never met, but somehow remembers. He tells her that both he and her creepy attacker are from a future in which individuals are being murdered by collectives, and Marcus is part of the rebellion. The collectives have acquired time travel and they plan to enslave the human race throughout all of history. The flashes Maggie has been seeing are echoes of lost memories, and the information buried deep within them is instrumental in defeating the collective hives.

In order to preserve the individuality of mankind, Maggie must try to re-discover stolen memories, re-kindle friendships she has no recollection of, and wade through her feelings for the mysterious Marcus, all while dodging the tattooed assassins the collectives keep sending her way.

If Maggie can't fill the holes in her memory and find the answers to stop the collectives, the world both in her time and in all ages past and future will be doomed to enslavement in the grey, mediocre collectives. As the danger swirls around her and the collectives close in, Maggie realizes she must make a choice: stand out or fade away...


Five percent into this book, and I wanted to cry. What was I supposed to do? I was part of a blog tour of a book I wasn't even sure that I wanted to finish! I was confused, frustrated, disappointed...and then I hit 10% of my way through, and suddenly it became one of the best books I've read in a long time.

Bet you weren't expecting that, huh? Weirdly in my experience, some of the best novels I have read have had poor beginnings. I suppose it isn't great to begin on a sour note, but I want to make it clear that although to start with you may not like this novel, once you get into it, you become hooked - Hill's writing digs her claws into you, and you are left craving more!

Rescued and taken to the future, the main protagonist, Maggie, is dumped into a world where individualists are fighting the collectivists - a group of people whose minds are connected together, meaning that there are never any secrets. A prophecy has foretold that there is a group of seven individuals who will come together and be able to take down the collectives; Maggie is one of them. As she begins to settle into life in the future, she realizes that she has been there before - that she was there for the better part of the year, but unknown events occurred and she lost her memories. As she tries to piece together the time she has lost, things start to bubble to the surface that she and the rest of the team are vastly unprepared for.

I think the concept for this book is amazing. We've all seen dystopian done a gazillion times - I'd say it is one of the most popular genres of this moment. Because of its popularity, many themes are being done over and over again, becoming repetitive and uninteresting - then BAM! in walks Hill with this crazy good idea. I'm not going to go in-depth into it, because I think a lot of this concept you discover whilst reading it for yourselves, but I just wanted to point out that it is unique and fabulous - so I tip my hat to you, Liesel!

I really enjoyed getting know the different characters. I liked them all a lot, but I felt a bit detached from everyone aside from Maggie. Maggie was supposedly very close to Clay, to Karl, to Marcus, but I didn't feel it - it was too forced for me, I think. I'm very picky about friendships and romance, I know, I know! I just wanted a bit more of a spark to shine through. But nevertheless, I did like the characters, and found that they each had their own distinct personalities - no character-blending at all.

I think my favourite characterizations had to be with the bad guys, though! If you've been around me when watching comic-based films, I constantly root for the bad guys to win - and I just adored them in this book! They were ferocious, terrifying, badass - the list is endless. I also loved the fact that the man on the book cover is a baddie! It's rare that you see something like that done - it's usually models trying to look fearless! And I am overusing the exclamation marks, so let's move on...

Hill's writing was so good, and incredibly easy to slip into - aside from the beginning, it was so easy to follow, despite the complicated storyline and concept, and I think the author explained it well, so that even dummies like me could understand. I even went so far as to not hate the fact that there were loads of physics references (I detest the subject strongly, if that wasn't obvious.) It was interesting and did not fail to capture my attention at every turn.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this read. It is my first of the New Adult genre, and I am pleased at how good it is - I constantly worry that I'll reach an age when I no longer enjoy YA! Luckily, NA is now there to take over. If you love dystopian fiction, or are obsessed with time-travel and sci-fi, then this is definitely the book for you. It is Hill's debut, and already I can tell that she is going to become a big name in the years to come. Persistence of Vision was a perfect series-starter, and I can't wait for more of Interchron to be released.
Rating: 4/5