Jevin Banks is searching for a killer--and answers to terrifying questions he never even thought to ask.
When his friend is murdered, illusionist Jevin Banks is determined to find out what really happened. Drawn deep into a web of conspiracy and top-secret research on human consciousness, Jevin won't stop digging until the truth is revealed. Soon he uncovers a dark secret that could change the very fabric--and future--of human life on the planet.
Based on frightening scientific realities and bristling with mystery, suspense, and intrigue, Singularity is the riveting sequel to
Placebo.
Available November 2013 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group
My Take:
My husband read and reviewed this book since he previously read and reviewed Placebo. Here is his review:
The last book that I read in this series Placebo had some good points and some bad points.
Unfortunately, this book seems to have taken the good parts out and expanded on the bad parts.
My biggest problem with the last book was with how dark it was. This book takes that to a whole new level. The descriptions of the torture in this book are extremely graphic. The things that the antagonists would do to their victims were just plain awful. There were several descriptions of sexual assault-type situations which were again very graphic. I actually had to skip several paragraphs during those parts of the book. I “watch a movie” in my mind as I read a book, and I decided that I didn’t need those images in my head. I believe that those parts could have been toned down or just insinuated, and the story would not have been affected.
The other part of the last book that I didn’t like was the long expositions on the “scientific” parts. This book does that again only much longer. The focus of this book is the ability for humans to merge with machines and computers to eventually live forever. In an effort to head in that direction, the antagonist has implanted chips into himself to control a robotic arm. That was pretty cool. However, as our protagonists are learning about all of this, they hold many, MANY conversations about what is currently possible, where we are headed, and the moral implications of it. There were a couple of times where they started talking about the moral implications of melding man and machine or engineering humans, but they would brush past that and then drone on about the details and possibilities which just didn’t help the story. The first time they talked about it, it was useful. Every time after that was just annoying and boring. And that is a shame because the author could have really done some cool and thought provoking stuff with that.
Also, in this book, the God Talk was forced and felt like it was added after the book was written. You could have completely removed any mention of God from this book and it would not have changed anything. In the last book, the two main characters, Jev and Charlene, were falling in love and taking things slowly. Charlene was a believer and Jev was seeking and growing closer to making a decision. In this book, Jev is not interested in God and the two are living together! What happened? That was a great storyline that could have really made for an excellent continuation in this book, but it was completely ignored or changed.
The “mystery” of this book was pretty lame, too. The book keeps talking about extending human life indefinitely and controlling machines with your mind. But, the impetus for the antagonists was to steal a mind controlled drone. Why? The mind control was just a shiny bell on what the bad guys wanted. They wanted to steal the drone. Make the story about that. Ignore the mind control stuff. It just made the motivation for the bad guys murky. And, frankly, I didn’t care. It was like two different stories were being told, and neither was very fully fleshed out.
Overall, I did not enjoy this book. It was too dark, too graphic, unnecessarily technical, the storylines were confusing and not fully fleshed out, and it was just boring. I will not be reading the next book in this series. And, it will take some serious convincing before I read anything by this author again.
I give it 1 BookWorm.
My husband and I were both aware that this book would be darker than most, but it just went too far. I wasn't able to even get that far into it before I had to stop reading. Again, we realized that this material would be more graphic and darker than other Christian fiction. We knew that going in, and we still we not able to get past all of the things that just made this book feel wrong. We both think that this book should not have been published by a Christian publisher. While we understand that sinful subject matter will be addressed in a Christian book (because we are all sinners), nothing in this book pointed towards redemption and forgiveness for those sins. Where was Christ in this Christian book? Where was the hope that we can have through Christ alone? It seemed like a completely secular novel with God thrown in here and there, and we expect more from Christian publishers.
The opinions expressed are our own. We feel this way towards this novel and not towards Revell Publishing's other novels.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Revell Publishing. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this is accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."
