Osiris (Osiris Project) [Hardcover]

Typical of dystopian novel's the rich are insanely so, pampered beyond belief, and refuse to change. While the poor live in squalor are lucky to live to see age 40. I like the idea that this story takes place on a man made island in Alaska. It was original built to be a UN like city, but because the world fell apart became a twisted kingdom. The lead character's aren't so great. Vikram is a bit to naive for some one who is from the slums and done jail time in a horrific place. Adalaide is a typical spoilt princess, changing her name in protest of her family yet she still lives on their dime and remains a socialite not an activist of any kind. I never felt endeared to them, never really cared what happened to them. never felt for their losses. The book is 400 pages and hardly anything happens. The first hundred pages seem to simply describe how crappy life is in Osiris. We got it, clearly, please stop reiterating what we already understand and move on. The mystery of Axel and the outside world were revealed but blandly. If this had been 200-240 pages it would have been really good. And while I don't really care about the leads, I do wonder what happens to Osiris and if there still is a world outside of it, so I will probably read the next book in the trilogy.

This is a well written book with rich imagery. What I liked most about it was the setting. Imagine a city of glass towers rising from the ocean, linked by high bridges, and with boats plying the waterways at their base.

Synopsis
Rising high above the frigid waters, the ocean city of Osiris has been cut off from the land since the Great Storm 50 years ago. Most believe that Osiris is the last city on Earth. Adelaide is the black-sheep granddaughter of the city's Architect. A jaded socialite, she wants little to do with her powerful relatives -- until her troubled twin brother disappears mysteriously. Vikram, a third-generation storm refugee, sees his own people dying of cold and starvation. He hopes to use Adelaide to bring about much-needed reforms -- but who is using whom? As another brutal winter brings Osiris closer to riot and revolution, two very different people attempt to bridge the gap dividing the city, only to find a future far more complicated than either of them ever imagined.

Essentially this is a book about political & social corruption, unfair treatment of refugees, and a couple of unlikely allies trying to change things against seemingly impossible odds. The themes and characters are well drawn and the plot interesting, but I found the pacing a little uneven. The beginning moved along well enough, but the following section dragged, then it picked up again towards the end.

It's basically a good book and I wanted to like it, but I found it too dismal for my taste. Adelaide was shallow and heartless and though I felt for Vikram's plight, he wasn't a particularly likeable character either. This is an entirely personal view, of course. Others may relate to him better. I like my books to have hope as well, but this is pretty bleak, and the ending, though a nice switch, left me feeling cold. I don't require a happy ending, but I like a bit of hope, some inspiration or at least a glimmer of possibility.

I give it 3 stars and I recommend it for people who like beautiful writing, stunning settings, a cruel society and a bleak story.

I would like to thank Night Shade Books for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book for them.

Adelaide "Mystik" Rechnov is a spoiled brat socialite searching for her missing (and presumed dead) mentally-ill twin brother Axel. Vikram "Bai" is a passionate but impoverished citizen of Western Osiris fighting for the basic human rights of his Western kinsmen. Their paths intersect when Adelaide's brother Linus suggests to Vikram that his sister might just be bored enough to help him win over the City Council - lead by their father. As Adelaide fights to find out what has happened to her twin brother and Vikram fights to keep his people from starving through another winter; tensions (and passions) run hot as they both help and hinder each other in this opening book of the Osiris Project series.

This book was a bit like a pan of brownies that have been left in the oven just a little too long. Crispy and questionable around the edges, but still pretty good once you get into the middle. Character development was excellent and the reader really gets a solid feel for the emotions that Adelaide and Vikram are feeling - Adelaide's anguish over the loss of her twin and frustration with the clandestine behavior of the rest of her family, Vikram's tenacity and heartache when he describes the people in the West who needlessly starve or freeze to death on a nightly basis and guilt about becoming a little more "Citizen" that he had intended to, and of course the complex emotions that they feel towards one another.

My only real complaint was that the settings/scenes were not nearly as transparent as the characters were. More than once I found myself reading along swimmingly thinking Adelaide was in a tower or an office, only to read another paragraph and find out that somehow she had moved into a tunnel or onto a street. That split second of confusion and subsequent regrouping of my mental focus really messed with my immersion at times. Osiris is such a different city that anything in our "real world" that leaving nearly everything to context clues really bothered me. Other than that, I found this to be a pretty easy read and decently compelling story that I would recommend to anyone who likes light Sci-Fi with characters who are easy to champion. I definitely plan on reading the next book in the series.