Aaru by David Meredith

Aaru is the first book in the Aaru Cycle series written by David Meredith.

Rose is extremely sick. In fact, she is dying. She wants nothing more than for death to claim her and for the pain and agony, she has endured for years, to stop. But her sister Koren would not let go. Not just yet. So, Rose agrees to try one final attempt to save her life, and that is to upload her mind to a super computer called Aaru.

Aaru is a virtual world where the residents can live forever, free of pain, sickness and death. It is developed by Elysian Industries ‘to allow the truly great members of the human race to continue their work of advancing mankind’ and to save unfortunate children, like Rose, from pain, misery and death.

Now, Elysian Industries is offering this virtual paradise to those who can afford it and with sweet, innocent and beautiful Koren as the spokesperson, Aaru is trending on social media and getting the attention of not only prospective clients but also of moralists and degenerates.

This is a very interesting book with a very timely subject. It actually reminds me of the movies Transcendence and Chappie but more creative since it also presents the virtual world from the inside. The book is told in alternate settings between Koren in the physical world and Rose in the virtual world. It features multiple issues including immortality, familial relationship, fame, obsession and cyber crime.

However, I find the style of writing too verbose for my simple taste, but aside from the few misspelled words (like drug instead of drag and breath instead of breathe) I like everything about the book and I enjoyed it a lot especially the suspense part which actually brings up the dangers lurking in the internet.

Congratulations to David Meredith on such a great book. Can’t wait for the next book in the series. For other books by the author, click HERE.