Review: Preserving Hope (The Aliomenti Saga - Book 2
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 11, 2014
After reading and enjoying Book I in the series quite a while back, I immediately read the sample of Book II.  It seemed so different than Book I, I didn't want to read it at all.  Earlier this week, I was drawn to read Book II, and am I ever glad I did!  This book is excellent.  The plot involves Will, a billionaire, going back into the far-distant past to save his current wife from being murdered so that she can be born in present times. (I know this sounds like a mind-twister, but hold on.)When Will returns to the past, he finds the community where his current wife is living as a teenage girl.  Of course, Will is far more advanced than this tight-knit and secretive group of people, whose common goal is to gain what would be considered super powers in their time, such as telepathy, self healing, mental superiority, etc.The book takes the reader through the process of this group as the various members use this teenage girl as their guinea pig to perform experiments on, subjecting her to all sorts of toxic substances.  By using her as their surrogate, they don't have to do any of the work or experience any of the horror of the experiments to gain their "powers."Not only are they abusing the girl, they are doing so at the behest of her father, to whom they pay money for the privilege of making this young woman's life a hell on earth. The father, the group leader, dupes the group over and over, and the author inserts Will into this paradigm as the catalyst for change--or not.For me, the book is a moral treatise and a look at our humanness as to how we can be manipulated due to self absorption and greed.  The book is a fascinating study of the human character and group dynamics.  Don't get the impression, however, that this is some dry, boring moralistic tome.  The story is  gripping as it shifts back and forth between good and evil.When I was 60% done with the book, I had to go to work, and all I could think about at work was what the community was going to do next.  I don't know if the nanos that Will possessed are believable in all that he used them for, but the story line itself is so compelling that the nanos are forgivable.  Recommend.