"What a pleasure it is to review this gem of a book. I think it fits into a hybrid genre called sci-fantasy. To me, there's a correlation with the long admired work of Rod Serling's “Twilight Zone,” but it certainly stands on its own uniqueness. You're welcome to decide where it fits in. The setting is a couple hundred years in the future in Tallahassee, Florida, but the tentacles of this story extend to the Bermuda Triangle, suggesting mystery and intrigue from the start. To suspend disbelief is an absolute must,and up pops a rhetorical question, “Could it happen or is it purely fantasy?” That likely will linger in one's mind as the story unwinds. The reader will journey down avenues of suspense as we become attached to the players. Regular people? Yup! Fantasy people? For sure. What will happen to them as the story unfolds? The essence of a good book, and this is not original, is whether we care about the actors. I did. I wanted Wren and Esme to be O.K. That's impressive, since the landscape transcends the usual concept of reality and fantasy. While not confusing, I found it compelling, fun even, to track the lives of a roster of intriguing characters. With the pace of action, as well as the author's creativity, she described things better than most authors I read. I read a bunch of books, but I've abandoned many of them as being formulaic or just dull. Not this one. This fictional world of the future brings along conflicts between groups that will seem familiar to us in the 21st century. Oh! From the more things change department, the reader will recognize jealousy, deceit, and hostility as a conflict that is never completely resolved, even within groups that appear to be mostly homogeneous. It's not unlike our world of today. I don't think the author intended it to emulate today's events. However, behaviors tend to repeat themselves as representative of our earthly world. So it is with the world of imagination. Undoubtedly, we want to understand Syn. Who is Syn? Is Syn actually Wren? An important heads up: Be not hasty to assume characteristics of an individual from just a name. There's plenty of guidance to aid readers (me) to understand a world unfamiliar to us. Examples are the maps and Glossary. Starting with the Glossary would be a wise decision. The ending is not a dead end, as it made a me avidly looking forward to the next book, a further exploration of Syn, no matter who she really is." --Charles Hasbrouck