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Title: After the Garden
Subtitle: The Memory Bearers, Book 1
Author: Michelle Browne
Narrator: Sam Smith
Format: Unabridged
Length: 4 hrs and 51 mins
Language: English
Release date: 07-11-17
Publisher: Silverton Agency
Ratings: 2 of 5 out of 1 votes
Genres: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Fantasy: Epic
Publisher's Summary:
Memories of another life and lover guide her, but are they even hers? She is a Bearer - keeper of past lifetimes and gifted with strange talents. Ember must find her answers away from safe Longquan Village, snared instead in the sensuality and dangers of the city. Hidden among spider farmers and slaves, prostitutes and weavers, a nest of people like her are waiting.
A powerful man outside the city raises his forces, determined to hunt down the "demons" who could taint his followers. Threatened from without and within, can the Bearers even trust each other? Powers will rise and alliances will be forged in a dark new world. The Memory Bearers are coming.
Members Reviews:
A unique read
A unique read mixing elements of dystopia and fantasy, science and magic, religion and philosophy. It left me with as many questions as answers, but in a good way. The story was compelling, the characters complex, and I'm looking forward to the next book.
Confident and at Times Poetic
'After the Garden' has the feeling of the beginning of an epic series. The narrative is unhurried, the characters and their respective backgrounds unfolding at a measured pace.
We are in familiar Michelle Browne territory, on a post-apocalyptic world. Here, memories of the Time Before are scattered, much like the subsistence-living survivors. The City has been reinvented as a low-tech farmers' marketplace, while its skyscrapers stand empty and rotting. Feared religious cults - known as Purifiers - live an intolerant, self-righteous existence in isolated compounds, while they search for 'demons' and eschew what they regard as tainted commercial life.
Into this regressed civilisation comes Ember, wanderer and possessor of special talents. Haunted by fragments of memory, she encounters others with similar secretive skills ...
Ms. Browne's writing is confident, and at times poetic. 'Garden' rewards the patient reader, setting the scene for future encounters and conflicts. Bring on the second instalment!
Good start to a longer saga
Browne delivers a creative and well-considered post-apocalyptic world filled with people trying to haul themselves out of the ashes as well as the old standbys of religious cults. The pastoral life of the small silk farm is interesting, with spiders the size of basketballs that purr and hiss, and the characters have unusual abilities that make them stand out. The pacing is slow at times but the snippets of memories of life before the fall of civilization make a tantalizing puzzle. Please note that this is not the complete saga, and as such it ends on somewhat of a cliffhanger, so be aware that there is another part coming in the future.
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review.
Highly Recommended
'After the Garden' is the start of a dystopian series following Ember, a woman who is having memories of another life.
Having enjoyed the author's other novels, I knew I had to pick this one up too. It's a slow burner, but the pace is just right to allow the reader to slip into and gradually become fully immersed in amazing world Browne has created. The characters are interesting, the plot intriguing and the setting detailed and believable.