This post is part of a book tour, and as such it will include some bonuses after my usual review. At the bottom you can find a quiz.

Down Under is a digital universe created by two brilliant minds to provide personalized lessons for the sake of a better world. Their naiveté eventually leads to their demise, leaving their creation in the hands of a fickle entity.

Almost 40 years later, Down Under has evolved into Spiral Worlds, and its new ruler brings the creators back to life as a last resort to save the universe from its creatures.

“Story and technology together are immensely powerful and dangerous.”

Full of parallelisms to Le Petit Prince and delivered in lush prose, Unanimity supplies hard truths and defies the status quo. Spiral Worlds is a relevant story in today’s social climate and a cautionary tale of the future.

Two successful young men, an AI expert and a storyteller, come together to create a tool to help humanity heal. Starting with a noble purpose, it rapidly turns into a Westworld-like simulation. They learn and adapt from the data they collect from subjects, but they’re too busy wondering if they could that they don’t stop to consider if they should. They soon discover the high price of heaven.

Spiral Worlds is a universe with a structure reminiscent of the circles of hell. Each world represents different values and some individuals are confined to lower worlds.

At first, the characters seem stereotypical, but their flaws and motivations become apparent as we delve into their pasts. Their lives are intertwined through decades of events, and their relationships are filled with as much pain as love.

The reluctance of some characters to curse (frack, ship, Leo the second) irked me a little. And it isn’t ideal that the only nonbinary character is a non-human originally designed as androgynous.

I don’t usually read sci-fi or stories in contemporary settings, but this book is a great reminder to read out of my comfort zone: good stories are independent of genre.

The end of this tale is spelled out to us from the beginning. We can only hope that the oracle is wrong and the storyteller is able to rewrite his own story. For now, every action is fueled by rage.

---

---

As promised, a quick quiz. (A “quickz“?)