Review: Nirvana

Nirvana by J. R. Stewart
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

(Advance copy via NetGalley... pub date Nov. 10. 2015.)

I do love science fiction and this promised to be good. Well, it has a great deal of potential to be really good, but the actual delivery is not quite there, yet.

This story is not very well organized. I was being jerked hither and yon, and I was constantly trying to figure out what was going on. I have a vivid imagination, and can keep up with a fast paced novel, but this was too disjointed and jumped between characters without any transitions so readers are left wondering where they are in the story.

The character development was great at first, then dwindles into two-dimensional versions that are moved about like chess pawns rather than driving the story themselves. I think it is supposed to be a series of scenes that tell the story, but it doesn't quite mesh correctly so it reads like grinding gears. The journal entries read better...

If this story had some really good editing, it would be excellent. Without the editing, it falls flat and does not fulfill all the description promises. It isn't typos, it is story flow that has a major problem.

I realize this story may have great impact on something that is very close to reality... virtual reality. It is scary what is being done and is being considered. This story shines a bright light into this rather dark industry. Kudos to the author for that!

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