Review: Aerovoyant – The Industrial Age Volume 1 by PL Tavormina

The Book:

On planet Turaset, droughts ravage farmlands, cyclones rip through coastal cities, and with every barrel of oil the combustion industry pumps from the ground, the climate worsens. Alphonse has just refused a council seat because taking it means serving that rapacious industry. He leaves the city to seek solace in the wilderness, and there, a power to live the past awakens within him. Alphonse walks the steps of his distant ancestors on long-dead Earth, soon growing plagued with memories of its collapse, and he’s left with a troubling certainty: he must infiltrate the combustion industry to secure proof of its treachery, or Turaset will be next to fall.

Alphonse finds an ally in Myrta, a farmgirl who sees air, every molecule in every pulse of breath or blast of exhaust. With her talent, she can evade the patrols on the industry’s grounds. Together, Alphonse and Myrta can prove the industry lies about emissions. They can convince the councils to shut down fossil fuel use permanently.

But people in the industry have grown wise to Myrta’s power—and now she’s marked for death.

My Thoughts

This book is a slow burn. It’s a book to savour. The worldbuilding is fascinating and well developed and the gentle pace enabled me to become really invested in both the characters and the environment in which they live. There are lots of clever ideas here that gently reveal themselves as you read. For example Myrta’s ability to see air is quite fascinating.

The two main characters, Myrta and Alphonse, move along separate yet parallel paths before they finally join forces quite late in the story, but I felt this worked really well because when they do come together then the pace heats up, and because I had become so invested in their lives and their world, I really couldn’t put this book down.

The writing is vivid and evocative, the characters are compelling and genuine and the parallels with what we are doing to our own planet (Not to mention Turaset’s history) are a salutary warning, both for what could happen here if nothing changes, as well as the tendency for humanity to repeat the same mistakes.

All in all I enjoyed reading this book very much.

Strongly recommended.