Book Review: Everlife by Alex S. Garcia
*Minor Early Spoilers Ahead*
Everlife is a futuristic fantasy novel set, primarily, on the planet of Qojja. A world where gods walk among men. An ancient world of mysterious artefacts and misunderstood alien technology. A world of hidden cities and deep, dark, secrets.
The story follows the adventures and investigations of a wide cast of characters all, eventually, revolving around the Face of Xian. A millennia old artefact dripping with magic and embedded in stone, unmovable and unalterable.
Plot and Story
Garcia manages to pull off a complex plot with a large and discernable cast of point of view characters that pulls you in with the mystery surrounding the Face of Xian - whose face does the mask represent? Why is it stuck to a wall and all attempts to remove it have failed? Why does it, rarely, shift from a stone like texture to something else? This mystery, along with a murder investigation on the planet Exudia, drives the first chunk of the plot. We are taken on a tour of cities of the far future with tech only dreamed of but with characters that you can relate too. At first I found the names of the leading cast, Jack, Susan, Brian, etc, to be distracting. Too contemporary, too Earthen but by the midpoint onwards I was thankful that these characters were distinctly relatable as alien point of view chapters were woven into the narrative with names like Thyria and Valerian. Alien characters have alien concerns and given their status as immortals a great deal of baggage that they carry around with convincing ire. Humans live nasty, brutish, and short lives yet are full of kindness. The gods are immortal but are cruel, conniving, and detached, obsessed with their own goals and dismissive of everyone else's.
Throughout the first half of the novel there are snippets from a journal written long ago describing a world of intrigue amongst gods taking place in the lost city of Ahuaxa. Michael is tasked with finding this lost city. The diary reads and feels like an ancient lost tome. Michael reading the diary and pondering its significance were some of my favourite chapters. Taking you through the experience of Evken as he serves/assists Rakash in his schemes. This uncovering of the past in such a personal way made for great reading that added depth and weight to the story.
At times there is a sense that the plot is driving the characters. Events that should unfold over weeks or months seem to take days or hours simply to move the story from one point to another. Conflicts that are set up at the start of a chapter are resolved by the end of the chapter simply because the plot needs to move rather than the character applying wit or creativity to the problem. Characters that follow an organisations rules are at some points unwilling to break the rules and then a quick sob-story or words by the point of view character and all is resolved. Does this happen in real life, sometimes, does it read as realistic, not really. For the most part these issues are rare but they are there and broke my immersion with the story. One in particular is crucial for the plot and does make a strand of the ending feel rushed when it could have been an intricate multi-chapter arc of undercover work by two of the main characters infiltrating a cult.
Worldbuilding
The world Garcia has written feels as wide as it does deep. You hear of the Weld, a vast interplanetary empire, powerful but distant, and something of its machinations. The planets of Qojja, Exudia, and Vuulthur are all well constructed and distinct. Qojja is a planet of secrets, colonised by humans long ago but with evidence of civilisation much before humans. Exudia is a futuristic cyberpunk city while Vuulthur has sulfuric storms and a sense of unstoppable decay to it. The worlds are rich, vibrant, and imaginable. There is a thriving civilisation beyond Qojja and a living history to the universe at large.
The technology follows standard scifi imagery, flying cars, wearables, holographic projections, and the requisite new words, such as TriVid, necessary to describe these futuristic innovations. There are also some more unique elements which I will not discuss to avoid unnecessary spoilers but that I found intriguing and unique to the universe of the Weld.
Characters
The cast of point of view characters is extensive but at no point was it unnecessary. Each character weaves through the story in their own way, on their own path, and along the way the threads are woven together to a singular ending. Plot wise this was satisfying.
Honestly, it took me quite a few chapters to particularly like any of the characters. Each took awhile to stand out from the setting and the mystery surrounding the Face of Xian, along with the diary chapters, pulled me through until I grew to like the main cast. At times the human characters feel as if they have been transported from today’s real world and into the fictional world, meaning they feel out of place and not fully a product of their environment. Some of this resolves itself as the story gets going and the characters have to respond to the pressures of unfolding events. At other times the *current-ness* of character sensibilities and speech patterns breaks the spell of immersion.
Writing
Everlife is not a poetically written tale. On the scale of clear pane of glass to intricate stained glass it sits firmly in the clear pane territory. Almost excessively so. Sentences are often short, sharp, and to the point. There are flashes of the poetic, of the rhythmic, but for the most part the writing is like a razor. This made Everlife an easy and fast read but at times same-y. The tendency for short paragraphs also made for tougher reading at times regardless of word-choice. An aspect I never really considered with reading before. Length of sentences, as well as lengths of paragraphs, matters to the written landscape and how the reader enjoys it. Variation is king.
The style of writing is more tell than show and while I am not overly bothered I know some readers will be. It results in scenes that read with less weight than they should and I found my imagination filling in for it. This is not a bad thing. I read to have my imagination shown new things, to explore new places, and Garcia as written an inviting and intriguing world I want to see more of. But at times the writing feels out of place, unconvincing, or rushed.
The dialogue at times is a little comic book/Hollywood-esque. More than necessary and has an un-real essence to it. I found this to jar against the worldbuilding at times and this is when the characters felt more transported from our world than living in their own.
The first chapter is from the point of view of a paralysed character falling through the air to his death. While I would imagine a person to full of fear and panic the character is not, he is analytical to a fault. Unperturbed in a way as if he expected it all along. This element to the writing appears occasionally and reads out of place, without necessary weight. I found the second chapter to be a better hook, more engrossing, as Will and Jack wait to meet a long lost friend and the Detectives Ward and Brown begin investigating a murder.
3/5
A star rating is like an idea that comes from a dream. You just make it up but at the same time it seems to be emitted by the book itself as if it where a part of its very essence. The world of Everlife is great, I want more stories within it and I want to uncover its depths. I did end up caring for Jack but only because of his ending and before that I was following him along because he was uncovering the secrets of the Face of Xian. The writing was at times tedious to read and I do prefer a little more colour to my window panes than what was offered. Everlife is a book with strong ideas and shaky execution. 3 out of 5.
If you wish to read a free chapter sample you can do so at Alex Garcia’s Substack:
