Under The Never Sky

Under The Never Sky by Veronica Rossi

I'm obsessed. I almost immediately started to reread this book after I finished it. First, I had to look up to see when the sequel is coming out (freaking January 2013, FOUR MONTHS! OYE!), and then I had to make myself write this blog post. Dedication. What what!

Anyways.

So Under The Never Sky is about Aria and Peregrine (or Perry). They're the narrators of the book that's told in third person. Let me set the scene. It's a futuristic sci-fi book that is grounded in real elements of the world. Clearly, an apocalypse happened of some sort which forced people to live in pods. Everyone who doesn't live in a pod is referred to as outsiders (or savages), all areas that are not in a pod is referred to as 'The Death Shop'. Everyone inside the pods has a little screen that attaches to their left eye where they can go to 'realms'. Realms are places that are virtual worlds except with integrated senses. So say you want to go to the opera, BAM! Opera realm. Curtains, horrible seating, etc. All through a screen on your eye. Also, you can change your physical appearance in the realms too. There seem to be a limitless amount of realms, although I'm not quite sure. Eh. Whatever, realms = cool. Enough said.

So in these pods there is a central dome that's the biggest where most of the civilians reside. They have little other domes that are connected to them where the government does it's business and where they grow food and all that good stuff. So the book literally starts with Aria in a damaged pod with four other people. They shut off their eye gizmos, get in because one dude is the son of the head of security, and things go horribly wrong. The boys build fire, and a savage breaks into the pod. Aria is almost raped by one of the boys but the savage throws him off and kills another. The savage rescues Aria by putting her in a connected room.

The savage turns out to be Perry.

We learn more about how the death shop operates and about different tribes of the savages and etc. The system is interesting, so I won't spoil it for you to encourage you to read the book. ;) Eh eh?

Anyways, so through unfortunate events, Perry is set off into the open lands in search of his nephew and meets up with Aria after she got banished from her pod. She was banished as the fire that the boys started in the damaged pod was blamed on her. And she wasn't so much as banished as they told her they were taking her to her mother in a different pod but basically just dumped her out into the death shop.

I really enjoyed this book for the gripping voices from both narrators and I extremely look forward to a second book. I don't want to say too much about this book as I feel like I wouldn't be able to stop.

Although I will say on the back of my copy it reads after a brief excerpt from the book, "In a world of danger an unlikely alliance breathtaking adventure and unforgettable romance!" Usually, that kind of ambiguous message deters me since I've always felt that if you can't give me something a little more solid on the back of the book, why would I want to read the contents of the book? But still, this was pretty damn good.