The Aqueous Transmission by Mike Eye

Title: The Aqueous Transmission
Author: Mike Eye
Published: December 2016 by Fastpencil Publishing
Genre: Science-fiction (visionary and metaphysical fiction)
How I got the book: I received a free digital copy from the author in exchange for an honest review.

Summary:

IN A DYING WORLD NOT UNLIKE OUR OWN, two elemental forces are controlling two avatar demigods who seek to perpetuate the planet’s existence by reshaping a new world in a certain way after it has finally fallen to a post-apocalyptic state. On the One side we have Mother Magdalena, a strong and fierce pregnant Hankerhawk woman of the Earthen Bry Dellows who will be faced with the challenge of reviving humanity in a changed, desolate, dark world with no living creature in sight. On the other side we have Al Rodnam, a wise, old Sirian guru mystic who has much love for the dying world of Earth and is the last of his kind, the Godheds, who had helped Mother Magdalena restart civilization One age prior. Both personas will cross paths and have to help each other meet the commands of their elemental forces.

Meanwhile, throughout it all, Magdalena is continuously haunted by the shade of a mysterious man she somehow feels fiercely attracted to and also reminds her of someone important she had met Once, someone she had Once loved… Upon giving birth to her child, Magdalena feels compelled to search for this man, wherever his real person may be, fully believing the man to not only still be alive, but to in fact be the Last Godhed of whom she had been searching for for a long, long time. However, we come to find that the shade of this familiar man, although not in fact the Last Godhed, is indeed the Last Godhed’s fully manifest Shadow Identity toying with the Mother. Once the prerequisites for Magdalena and her High sisters are met, Al Rodnam must use his High powers to help beckon the Mother to his Shadow. But first, there must be a divine transformation through a magical pond located at a secret, special spot upon the ruins of the destroyed Earth, a spot that’ll help shift the gears of the story up a couple of notches in an extremely powerful and enchanting way, but not consciously quite exactly the way in which either avatar was ever expecting…

My Review:

When the author contacted to review his debut science-fiction novel, I’ll admit I was hesitant. The novel sounded intriguing, but I don’t typically read science-fiction. However, it’s always good to try something new and that’s what I did.

We get a great sense of the what the world is like the moment the story begins. Magdelena is trying to figure out what is going on as she experiences some memory loss and notices the world around her is dark and empty.

I felt as though the plot took a little while to get started as Magdelena was alone. There was a lot of narrative and it was well written, but the longer it went on, the more it became redundant. When the plot was finally in motion, it was executed well and moved at a steady pace.

I wasn’t a huge fan of the protagonist, Magdelena. It’s hard to read through a book when you can’t enjoy the main character. She was very arrogant so full of herself. I understand that’s who she is as a Hankerhawk and that’s her personality, but I just couldn’t get into it.

The other characters in the story were well written and I do wish we got to see more of them as we mostly followed Magdelena in her third-POV.

Overall, I found this book to be well written. The narrative was spot-on and while I felt as though the dialogue could have used a bit more work, but this is an epic read, so it evens out.

The author hid different meanings and messages within the text which was clever. Certain words were always capitalized within the sentences. This isn’t a bad idea, but it got confusing and jarred me out of the story. A lot.

I’m not saying this wasn’t a good idea on the author’s part, I think for the genre it was a clever idea. But as someone who doesn’t typically read science fiction, I just didn’t get it. It went over my head. I might not have fully understood the plot well enough to get the different interpretations, but because of that, it kept distracting me from the overall story.

This book is not for everyone. As I’ve said, I don’t typically read science fiction because I rarely understand it, so take this review with a grain of salt. It’s well written, the characters were developed throughout and each one had their own point to the plot, but if you don’t get science fiction then you may not fully understand this book.

That’s why I’m giving this book three stars because it was just an okay read for me.

The Aqueous Transmission by Mike Eye gets…
3 out of 5 stars

Favorite Quote:

“Trying to remain calm, focusing her force inward, the woman subconsciously sensed a dark reflection of the heavy smoke in the deep black swirls emanating from her Heart.” –Mike Eye, The Aqueous Transmission

Buy the book:

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