“Dead Forever: Awakening”
Author: William Campbell
I came across a book title that immediately caught my eye: “Dead Forever: Awakening.” Interesting… This of course prompted me to visit Amazon’s website in order to find out a little more about the book. The words “Imagine a world where death is merely an inconvenience” jumped off the proverbial page at me and I found myself immediately intrigued by the concept. Who wouldn’t want to live forever? Even if “living forever” ultimately meant living a full life, experiencing a real death and then finding oneself inhabiting a new body. Hmmm…
The premise of “Dead Forever: Awakening” is that once you die you will resume living while still retaining all of your memories, all of your likes and dislikes and all of your various skills and talents. How’s that for having your cake and eating it too? Well, therein lies the catch because immortality comes with a very high price. People now answer to a “master” and things like individuality, creativity and freedom to think for yourself are no longer allowed. Of course there are those who find themselves unable to conform to these rigid rules and they refuse to accept this life. Since no one can really “die forever” the masters devise a clever solution. Permanent amnesia. How can a person fight if they can’t remember what they are fighting for? Yup, I decided I definitely needed to read the book so I could find out what happens.
For the most part I was pretty happy with “Dead Forever: Awakening.” The author, William Campbell, has an easy to follow writing style. His words flow well; his story is descriptive but not boring; each character has a unique personality and Campbell does a great job of bringing them to life. However, there were times when a scene from the book would remind me of a scene from “The Matrix.” Consequently I became distracted by these similarities which unfortunately took some of the enjoyment out of the read for me.
In summary I give “Dead Forever: Awakening” a solid four star rating and I would recommend it for readers of all ages. I hope Campbell keeps up the great writing and I look forward to reading more of his works in the future.