Review: Dissonance: Volume Zero: Revelation by Aaron Ryan

Synopsis:

One day, they silently drifted down through our skies. We thought they were angelic messengers. We were wrong.

They arrived by the hundreds of thousands on June 6th, 2026. The aliens silently drifted down from the sky, hovering fifty feet above us for three long, tense months at a geostationary orbit, taking up positions around the world. No one knew why they came…what they wanted…or why they wouldn’t just go away.

Then, the unthinkable happened. They suddenly came to life…and hunted us down. We ended up calling them gorgons – after the mythical creature Medusa – because if we locked eyes with them, it was all over, and they could telepathically paralyze us with just one look. Once immobilized, they could consume us at their leisure, leaving us to feel every excruciating bite. There was no escape, no hiding from their relentless pursuit. Our only defense was to run.

By the end of 2026, eighty-five percent of mankind had been killed off. The alien invasion turned Planet Earth into a ghost town, with the few survivors eking out an existence in the shadows. Andrew Shipley is one such survivor thrust into an extraordinary nightmare of post-apocalyptic proportions. As chaos erupts, hope dwindles for Andrew and his wife and three small children. Will they make it? Or will the gorgons get them too?

Favorite Lines:

“We love you higher than the tallest tree…I love you faster than a hummingbird can flap his wings.”

“Dad, was that the Pope?”

“I bet him ten  bucks you were so old you wouldn’t be able to remember any more dad jokes.”

My Opinion:

I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest opinion.

I have read and reviewed Volumes I and II of the Dissonance Alien Invasion Saga and was really excited to read this prequel to see how it all began. This story follows Andrew Shipley, the main character we have been reading about in the rest of the series’ father, and details the start of the invasion 16 years prior to the events that we read about in rest of the series. We get to see how the world was before June 6th, 2026 and what kickstarts mankind’s fight for survival in the years to follow.

This book, and the entire series, can be compared to “Alien meets A Quiet Place” and is told in a unique and creative storytelling voice. Ryan does a great job at painting a world that is entirely realistic and full of events that could happen to us at anytime (assuming life exists outside of Earth). This book is the origin story that answers a lot of questions posed in the rest of the sage: What happened in 2026? How did most of mankind get wiped out? How did our protagonist become who we see later in the series? And much more. We get to see Andrew Shipley’s relationship with his family including Cameron (Jet), who we follow along with in the rest of the series . 

This prequel sheds light on quite a lot of this series and brings new meaning to what takes place in the rest of the series. I found myself engrossed in the story and having a lot of “aha” moments throughout. As with the rest of the series, this book explores the ethical dilemmas and moral costs of survival. It illuminates what it is truly like to be a human being and both the relationships and experiences that make us who we are. 

Summary:

Overall, this was arguably my favorite so far in the series perhaps because of the light that it sheds on the events that take place in the rest of the series. I found myself laughing at some parts and with tears in my eyes at others. Ryan does an excellent job at evoking emotion and keeping readers engaged throughout this book. If you are a fan of science fiction, dystopian worlds, aliens, action, adventure, thrills, and reading about what it means to be human, then this book could be for you. Happy reading!

Check out Dissonance: Volume Zero: Revelation here!