Under the Never Sky (Under the Never Sky #1) by Veronica Rossi

Synopsis:

3 out of 5 stars

*My thoughts as expressed briefly by Elizabeth Swann

Right off the bat, I felt like this book was going to be an alright book, and that's exactly how it turned out to be for me. The concept of virtual reality was kind of interesting, the storyline was okay, and the writing was nothing special. In fact, at multiple points in the book, I would stop

 and think, "is that the best way to articulate this or that?"

Aria's world is that of a future where the world is being destroyed by natural disasters called aether storms and where virtual reality is the reality of thousands of people. These people- Aria's people- live in pods in a place called the Reverie where they separate themselves from Outsiders or Savages. The story starts when Aria tries to get information about her mother's pod Bliss, whose communication link was severed. She persuades a government official's son to go "outside" with her thinking she could slowly get him to tell her why the link to Bliss isn't active. She was left sorely disappointed.

Not only did Soren not tell her anything about Bliss, but he gradually started to go crazy, he became more violent by the minute and Aria couldn't understand why except that it definitely had to do with being outside. Aria recorded all the happenings on a device they call the Smarteye, which is their means of getting into the virtual world, among other things. Put simply, it's a transparent patch placed over the eye and connects the wearer to everything important: files (at least the easily accessible ones), information, the virtual world, etc.

While Aria records footage of Soren attacking her, an Outsider saves her after she passes out and leaves her near the door of the pod. The rest of the story focuses on Aria journey trying to get to her mother as well as the Outsider, whose name is Perry and his mission to bring back his kidnapped, sickly nephew Talon. The story is told in both the perspectives of Aria and Perry. Their points of view (gender-based differences in thinking aside) are so different that I didn't confuse them, for which I'm thankful.

Again, I like the book. I thought it was okay. Nothing really special other than the whole concept of virtual reality and the not-so-easily-confused-POVs. Three stars.