Review : Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi

Posted by on December 15, 2012 1:59 pm in 4 stars reads | 2 comments

under the never skyUnder the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi
Pages : 374
Genre : YA, Speculative fiction
Series : Under the Never Sky, Book 1
My Rating : 4/5

What it’s about :

Sometime in the future, the outside world has grown too dangerous to live in; most people live in enclosed cities, where technology keeps you perfect and alive for centuries and you get to escape in virtual realms of all sorts. Outside live savages and cannibals, and never should people from the inside meet with those on the outside.

Aria has spent all of her life in Reverie – until a foolish decision condemns her to a life in exile, on the outside. There she meets Perry, an unpleasant savage with whom she reaches an agreement : he’ll help her get back to her old life, if she first helps him to get his brother back.

If they want to survive through the hardships of the road, Aria and Perry will need to learn to live with each other; and they’ll learn that they might be more alike than they first thought.  

My Thoughts :

Under the Never Sky was such a weird reading experience. At first, I did not like it at all. I was merely intrigued by the first few scenes, which take you into Aria’s world with very little clues about what is what. I found the writing to be stiff, the characters unlikable and flat. I almost gave up. Had it been any other book, I probably would have; but Under the Never Sky had received such glorious reviews from bloggers with similar tastes to mine that I felt the book deserved another chance.

And this second chance was for the best! I was struggling through it, and then suddenly I wasn’t and I was hooked. I’m not sure what happened there; the writing, which I still would say wasn’t stellar, suddenly became more engaging. The characters gained depth, and when they got together, developed a complexity I had not been expecting. The story was captivating, too. All pleasant surprises after such a difficult introduction. To me, it felt as if Rossi had this great idea for a story, but struggled to find a way to get the characters together. The first few chapters felt really contrived, but once the story got going, it was an adventure I needed to see through to the end.

Aria and Perry made a really interesting pairing. They are opposites in many ways, but their differences complemented each other. Their friendship grew at a nice, realistic pace, as they discovered who the other was other than a “mole”(Aria) or a “savage”(Perry). I was glad it wasn’t one of those “love at first sight” romance : it made their connection realistic and all the more intense.

The book is told from both Aria and Perry’s point of view, but all narrated in the third person, which makes it less jarring when the author switches between characters. Many times I did feel Perry needed to get over himself, and I felt annoyed that Aria was, predictably, a singer; but overall, I liked both enough to enjoy both sides of the story. I also really appreciated the secondary characters, and I hope we get to know them more in the coming sequels.

The world-building was interesting, too. Nothing too complicated, but with enough opportunities to develop many stories. Two things I mostly enjoyed : first, that the story happened mostly outside the technological world, with the characters having to rely on their senses (some more than others…) rather than convenient devices. I love creative technologies in science-fiction novels, but it was nice to see what a character like Aria, who had grown to depend on technology, would do without it.

The other thing I really liked was the fact that, while there were plenty of bad guys and dangers of all kinds, the main one was the aether. It wasn’t clear to me what the aether was exactly (other than some form of eletrical energy?) and how it came to be, but it was a real menace for everyone. Sure, there is a main bad guy and I’m guessing we’ll see more of him in the next books, but it was refreshing to have an element of danger that the characters couldn’t take control of.

Side note : I absolutely loved that Aria’s pod was named Reverie! Perfect name for it.

In the end, I enjoyed Under the Never Sky a lot. I’m happy I struggled through it and that it payed off so beautifully! Through the Ever Night is coming soon – January 8th, to be exact – and I can’t wait to put my hands on it!

Series Reading Order :

  1. Under the Never Sky
  2. Through the Ever Night (coming January 2013)
  3. Into the Still Blue (coming in 2014)

2 Comments

  1. I was lukewarm on this one. The beginning was sooo confusing. Like, the author expected the reader to know what x, y, and z were without explaining what that scientific thing was. I didn’t mind the romance. The best thing was Roar who brought some levity to the book.

    • I had a hard time with the beginning too, for this very reason. I have seen other authors attempt something similar with success (Uglies by Scott Westerfeld comes to mind) but this one didn’t work so much. I liked the adventure though, and I agree, Roar was much fun! Have you read the short story with him and Liv?

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