Review: Quantum Entanglement by Liesel K. Hill

Quantum Entanglement (Interchron #2)
By Liesel K. Hill

* A copy was provided by the author for review.

To Sum It Up: Returned to her own time, Maggie anxiously awaits word from the Interchron team. It appears, however, that danger has followed her in the form of a powerful young woman with a talent for blocking Maggie’s neurochemical abilities. When some familiar faces from the future arrive at last, they’re not quite whom Maggie was expecting. Meanwhile, Marcus and Karl are on a perilous mission of their own to find and eliminate Colin, who is more determined than ever to kill Maggie. With the survival of the resistance against the collectives on the line, some tough battles lie ahead for both groups if they hope to see Interchron again.

Review: The last two dystopian novels I’ve read have both been sequels, and I’m pleased to report that Quantum Entanglement is another winner. It provides just enough details from the first book, Persistence of Vision, to reacquaint you with the world and bring you up to speed with the characters while avoiding spending too much time recounting what happened before. It’s not long until the action kicks off, and it doesn’t let up from there.

Quantum Entanglement finds the team split into groups, each on a separate mission. Maggie and her brother, Jonah, wind up being rescued by David, Lila, and Kristee, a new arrival to Interchron in Maggie’s absence and a time traveler, when Jonah’s girlfriend, Justine, turns out to be superhuman and homicidal. Meanwhile, Marcus and Karl are hunting another psycho, Colin, to remove him as a threat permanently. The novel shifts between the story lines, with the occasional look in on Doc and Joan back at Interchron. In addition to all of this going on, there are flashbacks and quite a bit of time travel. Thanks to the deft storytelling, though, you always have a firm handle on what’s happening, and the time jumps are never confusing. In fact, they supply insightful, and often chilling, glimpses into society at different moments in time. Maggie gets to see firsthand what the world is like right before its collapse, and it’s an eye-opening experience to say the least, not just for her but for the reader as well.

Karl was my favorite character in Persistence of Vision, and Quantum Entanglement only endeared him to me more. I love his sense of humor, his devotion as a friend to both Maggie and Marcus, and the fact that he’s just a badass. You couldn’t ask for a better traveling companion or fighter by your side, and Karl’s personality was the main reason why his and Marcus’s chapters were my favorites. I was also really intrigued by Marcus’s flashbacks to his past; they shed a lot of light on his strained relationship with his brother, David. We learn something very interesting about Doc, too, but if you’ve been waiting for him to divulge everything that he seems to be keeping under wraps, you’re going to have to wait a little longer. Though I’ve been dying since the first book to know all that Doc appears to know but isn’t sharing, I have to admire his superior secret keeping skills.

Quantum Entanglement seamlessly picks up where Persistence of Vision leaves off and takes you on an intense journey with its characters. From Maggie’s struggle to counter Justine’s seemingly unstoppable abilities to Marcus and Karl’s attempts to stop Colin, a sense of foreboding hangs over the novel. There’s quite a twist toward the end; I’m eager to see how it fits into the bigger picture of the next book, which, based on events here, promises to be a thrill of a novel.

All in All: Liesel Hill continues to impress with this series. There’s no shortage of action and surprises in Quantum Entanglement, which, along with Persistence of Vision, should be on your dystopian to-read list.

Quantum Entanglement Blog Tour: Author Interview with Liesel K. Hill

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for Quantum Entanglement, the second book in the Interchron series! Today I'll be chatting with author Liesel K. Hill, and be sure to click on the link below for your chance to win a copy of the book on Goodreads!

Quantum Entanglement (Interchron #2)
By Liesel K. Hill
Publication Date: September 17, 2013
Amazon | Smashwords | Goodreads

Synopsis:Five months after traveling to a post-apocalyptic future where collectives reign supreme and individuals have been hunted to the verge of extinction, Maggie Harper was returned to her own time until the threat to her life could be neutralized. She thought Marcus and the others would return for her within a few weeks, and now she’s beginning to worry.

When travelers from the future finally show up to collect her, it’s not who she expected. With the return of her memories, she wants more than ever to see Marcus again, but a snake-like woman whose abilities are a perfect match for Maggie’s, an injured Traveler, and decades of civil unrest to wade through all stand in the way of their reunion.

Meanwhile, Marcus and Karl traipse through the countryside, trying to neutralize Colin, who’s promised to brutalize and murder Maggie if he can get his hands on her. When a collective woman is left for dead, Marcus heals her, hoping she’ll be the key to killing Colin and bringing Maggie back. But she may prove as much a hindrance as a help.

The team struggles to get their bearings, but things happen faster than they know. The collectives are coalescing, power is shifting, and the one called B is putting sinister plans into action. If the team can’t reunite and get a handle on the situation, their freedom and individuality—perhaps their very identity—will be ripped away before they can catch their breath.

** Interview with Liesel K. Hill **

Hi Liesel! Thanks so much for answering a few questions today!

Of course! I’m glad to be here, Lee. Thanks so much for having me. :D

Did you face any particular challenges in writing a sequel?

Sure I did! While I’ve done enough writing now that actually writing a new novel isn’t as hard as it once was, sequels have their own, unique set of dangers. You want to make certain the story doesn’t bog down; that your book doesn’t suffer from “book 2” syndrome, as they call it in trilogies. You must propel the reader forward and keep them immersed in the world you’ve created. Easier said than done.

For me, I also had to deal more heavily with time travel, which is always tricky, and delve more deeply into several characters’ backgrounds, which must be done with both delicacy and conviction. It’s definitely a balancing act.

As a reader, what elements do you like to see in a dystopian novel?

In dystopia, the stakes are the key issue. If the biggest worry for the character is not going to the Friday night dance, well that’s fine for YA contemporary romance, but dystopia is about post-apocalyptic worlds. It’s one character or a select few against a corrupt institution. The stakes must always be earth-shattering—death or enslavement—not just for the main characters, but for the entire world, and all those they hold dear.

Of course, the characters need to have an emotion reaction to what’s happening as well. The stakes must be emotional as well as physical. And a little romance always makes the journey more fun.

What do you love most about writing dystopia?

The scope and grandeur of it. My innermost drama queen can spill out onto the page with abandon. Everything is always so dark and bleak in dystopia. I know not everyone is into that, but for me, it’s just that much more for the characters to overcome. It’s kind of the ultimate life analogy: bleak world, everything going wrong, humans who must fight for what they want—usually their freedom and their lives—in order to make a better world and find peace and happiness. Who doesn’t love stories like that?

If you could swap places with any of the Interchron characters for a day, who would it be and why?

Oh definitely Maggie because 1) Marcus is hot, 2) Karl would be a really fun guy to be friends with, and 3) she has awesome neurochemical powers. I’d like to use them just once, even if it was just to knock over a turtle or something.

If you were at a dinner party with your characters, what topics would you want to discuss with them (and what are the odds that Colin would crash the party?)?

I think I’d like to wax philosophical about the moral consequences of individuality vs. collectivism. I’d also like to know how all their powers work and bug them until they instruct me on how to tap into my own. And I’d ask Karl to do comedic impressions for me.

As for Colin, let’s just call him a B-movie villain. He’ll probably keep popping up in unexpected places; the bug that just wouldn’t die. So the likelihood of him crashing the party would be high. In a way, though, that’d be okay with me. If I’m Maggie, I have the ability to defeat him, and I’d like to take him on. Just to say that I did.

Can you describe in five words or less what you hope readers' reactions will be after they finish reading Quantum Entanglement?

“OMG! Where is the next book!” — If they say that, or something like it, I’ve done my job.

Thank you again for your time, Liesel! I really appreciate it!

Sure thing, Lee! Thanks for having me here. Quantum Entanglement is on sale for $0.99 during the tour, so I hope your readers will snatch it up while it’s cheap! Happy reading, everyone! :D

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Goodreads Book Giveaway

Quantum Entanglement

by Liesel K. Hill

Giveaway ends September 30, 2013.

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Persistence of Vision Blog Tour: Review & Character Interview

Welcome to our stop on the blog tour for Persistence of Vision by Liesel K. Hill! As well as our reviews, we have an interview with one of its characters, the enigmatic Doc, for you today.

Persistence of Vision (Interchron #1)
By Liesel K. Hill
Publisher: Tate Publishing Amazon | Goodreads

* A copy was provided by the author for review.

Synopsis:

In a world where collective hives are enslaving the population and individuals have been hunted to the verge of extinction, Maggie Harper, and independent 21st Century woman, must find the strength to preserve the freedom of the future, but without the aid of her memories.

After experiencing a traumatic time loss, Maggie is plagued by a barrage of images she can't explain. When she's attacked by a creep with a spider's web tattoo, she is saved by Marcus, a man she's never met, but somehow remembers. He tells her that both he and her creepy attacker are from a future in which individuals are being murdered by collectives, and Marcus is part of the rebellion. The collectives have acquired time travel and they plan to enslave the human race throughout all of history. The flashes Maggie has been seeing are echoes of lost memories, and the information buried deep within them is instrumental in defeating the collective hives.

In order to preserve the individuality of mankind, Maggie must try to re-discover stolen memories, re-kindle friendships she has no recollection of, and wade through her feelings for the mysterious Marcus, all while dodging the tattooed assassins the collectives keep sending her way.

If Maggie can't fill the holes in her memory and find the answers to stop the collectives, the world both in her time and in all ages past and future will be doomed to enslavement in the grey, mediocre collectives. As the danger swirls around her and the collectives close in, Maggie realizes she must make a choice: stand out or fade away . . .

Ally's Review:

Dystopians have become remarkably popular ever since the The Hunger Games. They usually maintain the same guidelines: a broken society, often as a result of plague or war, and a group of righteous characters devoted to mending the tattered world. Therefore, my taste for regular dystopians has sadly been waning. I just don't like the conformity that is now following this genre. Reading Persistence of Vision has been utterly refreshing. It's different. Not in the one or two new unique things different, but in an entirely new twist different. There's time-traveling and other various supernatural abilities. It's like X-Men meets dystopian, meets sci-fi! Everything mixed well together and contributed to the enjoyability of the story.

Persistence of Vision is one of the most mysterious books I have ever read. As the reader, you are left with gaps in the information. This wasn't a bad thing; actually, it was rather intriguing. I like figuring things out; I'd like to fancy myself the Sherlock Holmes of the book world, so it was really fun piecing together the pieces of the puzzle. The main character, Maggie, had missing memories, resulting in the mystery bit of the book. This was all very clever.

Maggie was a great heroine. She was fearless without being unrealistic. She took what she learned in stride and did the best with what she had. This was admirable, especially since everything about this world was complicated. I feel like I need to go into more detail about the story line. So, in the future, society has crumbled, hence the dystopian genre, and everyone is pretty much mindless and telepathically chained to each other. This is called the collective. Now, the intentions were good. The collective made the world an easier place to understand, but then the baddies became power hungry and went on a world domination rampage. The rebels, or the individualists who are not linked to the collective, do what they do best—rebel. Maggie is obviously in the middle of all of this, being the prophecy's "executioner" of the collective. The whole plot line can be quite confusing, and I think that's where Maggie's memory loss came in handy. The reader doesn't have to shield himself or herself from an information overload. The world was explained slowly as Maggie relearned everything.

The other characters were very likable. Marcus was Maggie's love interest. They had romantic history, but after Maggie lost her memory, things obviously changed to a more awkward note. He was sweet and patient through all of this. I did, however, like David better. I am not ashamed to say that I gleefully ship David and Maggie, rather than Marcus and Maggie. My favorite character was Karl. I usually become annoyed with secondary characters, especially if they are purposely placed as comic relief. That wasn't the case with Karl; I found him hilarious. He has a sense of humor that I can relate to. Karl would enthusiastically crack a very funny joke and everyone else would just roll their eyes and tell him to shush. That happens to me all the time! I feel you, Karl!

The world building was well thought out and, for the most part, neatly and evenly covered. One of the two things that bugged me was Jonah, Maggie's brother. Jonah was introduced into the book, seemingly important, and was dropped off within the first thirty pages. The guy seemed significant enough. He was there when Maggie disappeared into the future, but nothing that happens to him is ever elaborated on. Jonah must know something; he was right there! The other little thing that bothered me was the lack of interaction with the true antagonist. I wanted to know more about this bad guy and I barely got anything. The team didn't really get into the thick of the action until the end of the book, and all of that seemed to happen in a blur.

The ending killed me. I would love to say that Ally Holmes foresaw everything that went down, but I can't. Persistence of Vision is a complicated book. It's impossible to unravel all the secrets in one go, though I did have fun trying. I really enjoyed reading this book and I can't imagine what's in store for the sequel.

All in All:

Persistence of Vision is a complicated and mysterious read, but that's what makes it so good. It has a little bit of everything—dystopian, sci-fi, romance, you name it! I think anyone can find something to like about this book.

Lee's Review:

At this point in my reading life, I feel like I’ve read enough dystopian novels to realize that I have a love/hate relationship with them. When I can immerse myself in the world and think, hey, this could really happen, we’re OK. When the world lacks enough details of how it came into existence or worse, is just nonsensical, well, we have a problem. Knowing our rocky history together, I now try to be extra selective about the dystopians I choose to read. I’m still bound to make mistakes, but happily, Persistence of Vision was not one of them.

This book revolves around the idea that in the future, the human brain will be mapped, its inner workings unlocked like never before. Tapping into the power of previously unused areas of the brain has made abilities like healing and telekinesis possible. As with all discoveries, however, there are some who would exploit this knowledge for nefarious purposes, and that is the scenario Persistence of Vision poses. The majority of the population lives in collectives, linked together through the mind. A group of individuals, of which the protagonist, Maggie, is a part, fights to free those in the collectives. I loved this concept and the crystal clear manner in which the formation of the collectives was explained. Liesel K. Hill’s world building is top-notch here. I never felt overwhelmed by scientific facts and jargon; the details were presented in a logical, eloquent flow that made this world easy both to understand and to find plausible.

Although most of the story focuses on Maggie, I thought that the book had an ensemble feel to it as well because of how fleshed out the supporting characters are. It’s quite fitting because working as a team is so vital to Maggie and her companions in order to bring down the collectives. I liked reading the team members’ back stories about how they ended up at Interchron, their mountain base of operations. As for the characters themselves, Maggie is a strong, resilient heroine who doesn’t allow her memory loss to become a cause for self-pity. She has to relearn everything she’s forgotten since leaving Interchron and being returned to her own time and willingly does so because the mission is so important. I loved Karl, one of Maggie’s best friends on the team, for his vibrant personality and sense of humor. I have to say, Karl has one of the coolest abilities among the team: time travel. I also liked how Marcus, the healer of the group, gave Maggie plenty of space upon her return to Interchron. The two were once close, but Maggie recalls nothing. It’s obvious that Marcus wishes she could, but he never presses her about their past together, which I found very sweet.

In a genre that sometimes gets bogged down in overcomplicated scientific explanations and disaster scenarios that stretch credulity, Persistence of Vision always maintains its focus on the story. And it’s a story that I found extremely fascinating—the battle to retain individuality and free will in a world mostly fallen to collectivism. This is an excellent sci-fi/dystopian novel with one of the most thought-provoking premises I’ve read about in a dystopian. Liesel Hill’s writing and storytelling are both stellar, and I eagerly await the next installment of this series.

All in All:

If all sci-fi/dystopians were written in such an accessible way, I’d definitely read more of them. I highly recommend this to anyone who’s shied away from the genre before.

** Our Interview with Doc **

Welcome to Rally the Readers, Doc! We thank you for answering a few questions for us today.

Not a problem! I’m happy to be here.

We’re quite curious to learn more about your background. Can you tell us a little about what your life was like growing up?

I’m not someone who likes to talk about my past much. I can tell you that I grew up with two brothers, and that my life has seen a lot of tragedy and turmoil, most of it brought on either directly or indirectly by the collectives.

How did you earn your nickname? Do you find it a bit ironic that your role in the prophecy is that of Witness instead of Healer?

My nickname comes from my profession, which is a medical doctor. I understand why many people think my role is ironic, but I’ve never found it so. I became a medical doctor before I had full grasp of my neurochemical abilities. I’ve never shown as neurochemical talent with Healing, so the situation has always felt quite natural to me.

You seem to keep quite a bit of information to yourself, sharing it with the other team members only when you think it’s necessary. Is this important to your role as Witness, are you just naturally secretive, or a combination of both?

A bit of both, I’m afraid. There are some things I worry about sharing with the team, because I don’t want things I know, things I’ve been through to affect them in a negative way. Again, some of the things I’ve seen and experienced in my past are quite tragic and personal, so I have a hard time sharing them anyway.

Both the mysterious B and the Remembrancer seem to know you. Are you able to elaborate on why that is?

I’d rather not in detail. Both entail painful memories from my past. I will say that, if the Remembrancer is who I think she is, who she’s claiming to be, I was once very close to both her and B. They were big parts of my life before, well, life happened. Now, in B’s case, we find ourselves on opposite sides of a raging war. As for the Remembrancer, I’m not sure what to make of her yet. I hope to run into her again and be given the chance to find out more.

If you ever had the misfortune to find yourself in a collective, how easy/difficult would it be for you to break away?

That I can’t answer with any certainty. As we now know from David’s experience, it is possible, but it’s also very difficult. Even if accomplished, it brings a great deal of physical pain. Even though I’m a strong-minded individual, and might have the will power as David did, I’m also an old man. I worry that such a thing would put my body into a state of shock I might not recover from.

What do you value most about being an individual?

Freedom. The freedom to think for oneself, work for one’s own bread, exercise and enrich one’s own mind. The individual mind is an amazing thing, capable of much more than the average person realizes. But we can only explore the limits of our own consciousness if we think and create for ourselves.

And now for a few random questions:

Least favorite part about being the Witness?

Having a duty to witness everything, even the negative things.

Greatest fear?

That’s entirely too complex a question to only contain two words! I suppose it’s failing in this war, though in a way success is also one of my greatest fears.

If you were a Traveler, where would you want to go?

To a simpler time, with less technology and good, simple people.

If you weren’t the Witness, what role from the prophecy would you want to fulfill?

What an interesting question! Probably Joan’s role: that of Protector. I feel like each member of the team was my own flesh and blood. I wish I had a better way to protect them from all the tragedies of war.

Thank you again for taking time out of your busy day to chat with us, Doc. We really appreciate it!

Thank you so much for having me!

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