Author: Veronica Rossi
Series: #1 - Under the Never Sky
Format: Hardcover
Release Date: January 3rd, 2012
My Rating: 4.5 out of 5.0
Since she'd been on the outside, she'd survived an Aether storm, she'd had a knife held to her throat, and she'd seen men murdered. This was worse.
Exiled from her home, the enclosed city of Reverie, Aria knows her chances of surviving in the outer wasteland - known as The Death Shop - are slim. If the cannibals don't get her, the violent, electrified energy storms will. She's been taught that the very air she breathes can kill her. Then Aria meets an Outsider named Perry. He's wild - a savage - and her only hope of staying alive.
A hunter for his tribe in a merciless landscape, Perry views Aria as sheltered and fragile - everything he would expect from a Dweller. But he needs Aria's help too; she alone holds the key to his redemption. Opposites in nearly every way, Aria and Perry must accept each other to survive. Their unlikely alliance forges a bond that will determine the fate of all who live under the never sky.
My Review:
Under the Never Sky was raw unbelievable, and made me want to keep reading. The characters were very well developed and thought out. As well the difference between the two worlds, the Moles and the Savages, as both groups named each other. The stereotypes fit perfectly and how the two different groups would view the other is actually very accurate. I loved how immerse the two worlds were, and how they both differed from each other like night and day. The depth of how both groups have their own issues and problems that they both need to deal with, come to light as the book goes on and makes the story feel that much more deep.
Perry and Aria, these are a couple that at first I wasn't sure if I wanted them to be together. Their dynamic relationship grew on me as the book went on and I found at the end I was cheering for the two and the heartbreak when they were sometimes separated. Even though they came from two completely different worlds, there was this connection and bond between the two that seemed natural. Another aspect of the book that at the end made my mouth drop in awe, the relationship didn't take place and bloom in a series of pages. The relationship grew with the dilemma and the turmoil at hand, everything they went through brought them closer and I could feel their relationship grow as they did as well. It was a good and relaxing pace.
Now I am probably going to disappoint a few people here, I didn't give it a 5.0 like I probably should have. And that was simply because at the end of the book, I felt it was lacking, where that was I am not sure off hand, it has a superb relationship, the world was fantastic, the plot and conflict were all original and well thought out. I just don't know what it was, but I felt there was something missing, a hole someplace in everything that would keep it from that 5.0 rating.
The world building was actually really good. With the Scire, Seer, and Audile marks and how the Outsiders or Savages possessed all these specific traits aided in seeing the outside world. As well when the book started, trying to grasp the virtual world that all the Dwellers or Moles were so immersed in was rather hard. Then there was the concept of fractioning that added another complication on top of it, but at the end of the book I understood completely what was going on, and how everything fit together. I thoroughly enjoyed how the two different traits from both worlds came together and shown a world that we all take for granted in a new light and Rossi seemed to make it all new again. Very very refreshing world building in this book!
