Wonderland's Reader: Tour Stop: Persistence of Vision

Welcome to my stop in the Persistence of Vision tour! I'm excited to have Liesel K. Hill, the author of this book, visiting today!

Title: Persistence of Vision

Series: Interchron #1

Author: Liesel K. Hill

Publisher: Tate Publishing

Pages: 386

Format: PDF file

Source: A copy was provided to me by the author in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

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...

*New Adult futuristic dystopian fantasy

My Review: This was an interesting and unique book, like nothing I've ever read before. There was a lot of new concepts and ideas that I'd never been introduced to in any other story and that made this an exciting and fun book to jump into.

The beginning was a bit erratic and confusing, jumping from scene to scene without any real flow but I was quickly pulled into the main story. There was a lot of action and adventure that I had a lot of fun reading. I was constantly rooting for Maggie. I was on the edge of my seat, flipping through the pages to find out more and understand just exactly what was going down with Marcus and the other members of the rebellion. There were a couple of times when a lot of information was piled onto us as we tried to learn more about what was happening and that could be a little confusing and overwhelming at times. It did help catch us up to speed though.

The characters were easy to sympathize with and relate to. Maggie took most of what happened to her in stride and I was happy about that. Though I do feel like she should have questioned a bit more in the very beginning of the book. Marcus was a cutie. I really enjoyed having him in the book. I felt like Marcus and Maggie made a really great team and I loved seeing them together! The other characters were good but not as well developed as Marcus and Maggie in my opinion. I felt that with a bit more, they could've really stood out.

Persistence of Vision was a fantastic idea with a lot of original and unique concepts that kept me interested and guessing throughout! The main characters were easy to relate to and kept me rooting for them. There was a lot of positives but also some negatives that held me back from completely loving it. Still, I feel like Persistence of Vision is a book that a lot of readers will adore and be eager to read. I'm excited to see what's next for Maggie and Marcus!

Liesel has also written up a guest post on how to create a dystopian world that I am so excited to share with you! Here it is!

Creating Dystopic Worlds

Hello All! I'm so excited to be here at Wonderland's Reader! I'd like to thank Ashtyn for hosting me today.

To write a great dystopian story, there are eight story points you must follow to make the story complete. Even if you're more a reader than a writer, apply these to your favorite dystopian stories. You'll find the good ones hit them all! I'll be using Hunger Games for examples, so if you haven't read/seen it an abhor spoilers, maybe come back to this post later. Consider yourselves warned!

1. Dystopic Starting Point--This is the beginning of the story. Introduce your main and other central characters, but we should also be introduced to the dystopia. In a dystopian story, the dystopian world itself is a central character. We must see it and its undesirable attributes.

Ex. Katniss lives in a poor district where they aren't allowed to take their lives into their own hands even to hunt for their own food. The people are poor and oppressed.

2. Introduce Conflict--The character's life or world must chance in some way. introduce your dystopia's "normal" (step 1) then turn it on its head.

Ex. Katniss was happy to live in her world, doing what she could indefinitely. It was the Reaping that changed everything, throwing her into upheaval.

3. Introduce Complications--This can be a dangerous/deadly situation, a villain, or just some other reason why the hero is doomed and won't be able to overcome the dystopia.

Ex. Katniss finds out about other, well-trained tributes that've been practicing for years and are brutal killers.

4. Turning Point--The turning point is a change in character motivations. The character goes from reaction to action. Up until this point in the story, the character has been acted upon by outside, dystopic forces. Now, they decide to be active, or pro-active, in bringing down the dystopian conditions.

Ex. Katniss volunteers for the Hunger Games and actively tires to figure out how she can win.

5. Things get worse--a mentor dies, the MC is hurt, things get harder, hope seems to be slipping away.

Ex. Things are going pretty well for Katniss when Rue dies.

6. Climax/Human-Passion Moment--this is where the MC and/or their buddies fight valiantly against the dystopian world. I call it the human-passion moment because often all hope seems lost, but they fight tooth and nail against the oppressive force because that's what human beings do. This scene/part always ends in despair. They can't do it. All hope is lost.

Ex. Katniss fights to win the Hunger Games against everything they throw her way. Then it looks like either she has to kill Peeta or die herself.

7. Ah-Hah Moment--This is when the MC finds the one thing they've been missing that will help them overcome the oppressive dystopian regime. Often, this is something they find within themselves.

Ex. Katniss uses something she learned from her father (about the poisonous berries) to manipulate the Capital into declaring them both victorious.

8. Resolution--Individual triumphs; dystopia overcome in some way.

Ex. Katniss and Peeta win together.

Here's to creating dystopian worlds!

Thank you so much, Liesel! As both an writer and a reader, I always love getting advice and tips from authors!

About the Author: Liesel K. Hill graduated from Weber State University with a degree in Creative Writing. She writes across three genres: scifi/fantasy, historical fiction, and crime drama. She comes from a close-knit family of fourteen and has very traditional views and values. She loves story-telling in all its forms, playing with her nieces and nephews, talking movies with her siblings, and any recipe with ‘dark’ and ‘chocolate’ in the title.