Brandon Sanderson

The Original

Juliana Matias

The Original is a novella that was produced specifically to be launched as an audiobook, and I honestly love that concept. While I don't think there is anything that would make it less successful as physical book, I like to think that audiobooks have become so widespread that authors are now considering publishing things in audio format first - it's neat.

Anyway, moving on...

The story begins with our protagonist, Holly, waking up in a hospital room and subsequently being told she is actually not Holly at all, but a Provisional Replica, i.e. a clone with an expiration date, whose purpose of existence is to find and kill her original, upon completion of which she will be granted the nanites that will allow her to live forever and take over Holly's life as if she'd been the real one all along. So yes, Pinocchio, you can be a real boy. :)

The concept is of a society where all needs of human life have been met. There is no disease, no hunger, no poverty, therefore no real crime. Everyone's consciousness is backed up. So when someone goes wrong and commits murder and manages to evade law enforcement, the last ditch effort of the government is to create a clone, load it with the person's last backup, along with all kinds of battle abilities, and tell them to murder their original so they can continue to live.

Holly is told her original murdered her husband and is evading justice, and it's her responsibility to find and kill her. But Holly loves her husband with all her heart, and as she could not understand what could have driven her to kill him, she is convinced her Original is being framed and it's up to her to find her and prove her innocence. I won't go into more detail, because this is a short novella, and I don't want to spoil it for anyone.

Overall I liked this novella, but didn't love it. So here's a small list of pros and cons.

Pros:

The world building is kind of awesome. Everything is basically a blank, surgical, sterile canvas, and people can define themes to overlay on things so they can see the world as they'd prefer. This goes from simple things like wall colours, fabric prints and background music, to editing out people so it appears you're alone in the wilderness when you're really in a crowded theme park.
The story is compelling and the authors do a great job with the pacing. It's fast and action-packed and you're kept in the dark and on your toes. It's also pretty short so a lot happens in a short period of time. The time-limit on the PR's existence also imbues the story with a sense of urgency.

Cons:

Although I love the narration, this book includes sound effects which I personally abhor. There is a scene in a club where the music was so loud I could barely hear the narrator. Now other people have read this and they found the music was fine, but I am particularly sensitive to noise.
This is not technically a spoiler, but the story ends with somewhat of an open ending, and that is a deal breaker for me. I like my books finished, preferably all wrapped up in a little bow, so the ending bugged me.

Cindy Lieberman

A short audiobook (about 3 hours) with interesting ideas about reality in the future, when we view the world and others through our own “themes.” The government controls our regenerative properties and therefore controls all except those who have “checked out” and will age and die. A woman in a happy marriage who arranges parties and carves oranges professionally wakes up in a regenerative center to learn she is a duplicate. Her original murdered her husband. But how is that possible? Now the duplicate must find out what happened and kill her original, or will die herself.

Todd Luallen

I thoroughly enjoyed this short story - and in true Sanderson fashion, he included a unique take on some element of science fiction. The book heavily relied on this unique element, and the world that was created from it was easy to envision. To avoid spoilers I'll just say that it's a bit of a twist on virtual reality, and it's very well done. 

On a separate note, am I the only one that was confused by some of the personal pronoun use in this book? There were two fight scenes in particular that I had to listen to multiple times to understand what was happening and who was involved. 

Otherwise, I enjoyed the book and the concept as a whole. The ending did seem a bit rushed - not the typical 5 star ending that Sanderson usually delivers.

Vilde

Cheryl Hedlund

A sci-fi thriller novella with some great concepts and decent development considering the short length. This is a high-tech dystopia with a tailor made veneer in the form of personalized themes to make everything and everyone appear to suit your fantasy. What happens when the veil is ripped away? What is underneath? Can you trust anyone? I would read more in this world, but in an interview I watched on YouTube with Mary Robinette I heard that there are no plans to continue. But who knows. Things can change. We can hope.

The premise: Holly wakes up in a (near-future) hospital and finds out she's not really herself: her consciousness has been copied and put into an enhanced body with one single mission: to kill herself - her original self - or die. Why? And what will she do now? 

This is a brilliant, fast-paced novella which I'd categorize as an SF thriller with some very cool reveals and twists and turns. 

This also has some interesting interpersonal dynamics in terms of Holly and her husband in flashbacks, as well as some fascinating future world-building in which we all live in and see our own individual (digitally altered) version of reality. This last point was incredibly interesting and was also explored a bit, but I think it would have easily provided enough material for a full-length novel. So, I guess I would have preferred it to be longer, but it's still definitely worth reading just for the very thought-provoking ideas and quick-paced plot.

The Original

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