Date of Reading: 27/03/2018
Author: Leonora Meriel
Publisher: Granite Cloud
Year: 2017
Format: Ebook
From: the author in exchange for an honest review
About the Book (from the cover):
What if the earth we knew is just the beginning?
A New York banker is descending into madness.
A being from an advanced civilization is racing to stay alive.
A dead man must unlock the secrets of an unknown dimension to save his loved ones.
From the visions of Socrates in ancient Athens, to the birth of free will aboard a spaceship headed to Earth, The Unity Game tells a story of hope and redemption in a universe more ingenious and surprising than you ever thought possible.
Metaphysical thriller and interstellar mystery, this is a 'complex, ambitious and thought-provoking novel' from an exciting and original new voice in fiction.
My Review
The description of this book makes you expect a thrilling sci-fi fantasy but 'The Unity Game' is none of those. It is a sci-fi for sure, but our curiosity is aroused by the unique concept of the universe that the author has managed to incorporate into the story.
The plot is developed through three narratives, the connection being revealed to the reader only in the last pages.First, there is David, an investment banker who is obsessed with the desire to win, then the next part deals with the story of Noœ-bouk, a being on another planet where instead of talking the life forms there communicate their thoughts to others. The third narrative traces the afterlife of Alisdair, a renowned lawyer who is being revealed into the mysteries of life.
The book in a sense embodies the philosophy of life and its unpredictability. A life down in the dumps may soon see the bright days which rings true for this novel too. The first half is rather dull (I would have quit this if I didn't have an obligation to review) but once you pass that fifty percent sign on Kindle, things start perking up. What we find is a refreshing thought about how things work in the universe and what we need to achieve. It gels together the big bang theory and the concept of enlightenment and moksha, if you take it in an Indian perspective.
Still, it smoothens over some questions that have troubled me always. The author fails to give a convincing explanation for the presence of evil (Duncan's remarks do not sound that logical to me), but we get some reflections through the life of David, a being who is entirely cut off from his life's purpose.
We don't really know what will happen after death, but the speculations like these are energising.
About the Author
Leonora Meriel grew up in London and studied literature at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and Queen’s University in Canada. She worked at the United Nations in New York, and then for a multinational law firm.
In 2003 she moved from New York to Kyiv, where she founded and managed Ukraine’s largest Internet company. She studied at Kyiv Mohyla Business School and earned an MBA, which included a study trip around China and Taiwan, and climbing to the top of Hoverla, Ukraine’s highest peak and part of the Carpathian Mountains. She also served as President of the International Women’s Club of Kyiv, a major local charity.
During her years in Ukraine, she learned to speak Ukrainian and Russian, witnessed two revolutions and got to know an extraordinary country at a key period of its development.
In 2008, she decided to return to her dream of being a writer and to dedicate her career to literature. In 2011, she completed The Woman Behind the Waterfall, set in a village in western Ukraine. While her first novel was with a London agent, Leonora completed her second novel The Unity Game, set in New York City and on a distant planet.
Leonora currently lives in Barcelona and London and has two children.
