Book Reviews
Mankind Has Turned Its Back on Their Mother
4/5
Rise of Gaia
by Kristin Ward
You’re human, somewhat, but my kind is in your blood. That’s what connects you to me and to Gaia. Without it, you would be untouched by the visions and would not hear her calling to you. You are of the Daoine Fíor bloodline.―
Kristin Ward, Rise Of Gaia
About
Beneath rock and soil, trees and oceans, she lies.
Under concrete jungles and poisoned rivers, she slumbers.
She is Mother Earth.
And mankind has turned its back on its mother.
The visions begin on Terran’s seventeenth birthday. Horrifying images pummel her brain, while a voice commands her to see beyond the world she thought she knew and into the heart of it. Gaia has awakened, brought to consciousness by the greed of a species that has tainted every aspect of her being in a tide of indifference. With this awareness, comes rage. Gaia calls upon her children to unleash her fury, wreaking vengeance on humanity.
Terran will emerge in a world on the brink of collapse, to face a being whose wrath is beyond imagining.
Stats
PaperbackPublished August 24th 2019ISBN1732792321 (ISBN13: 9781732792326)Edition LanguageEnglish
My Thoughts
The Rise of Gaia is author Kristin Ward’s third novel, and frankly she just keeps getting better and better. In this outing, Ward touches on a few different topics, but first and foremost is the topic of climate change. Readers have been seeing a lot of books out in the world about this subject. It is on the minds of authors as well as readers because we as humans are seeing the effects of the environmental degradation more and more everyday. Instead of writing a purely dystopian novel, which you find often when dealing with climate change, Kristin wrote a novel exploring friendship, love, and unusual circumstances.
The protagonist of the story is a young woman name Terran. A nod to Kristin about the name choice, the word Terran translates to “of the Earth.” This sets a fun foreshadowing about how Terran develops as a character and the interesting path she takes in the narrative. Terran is an atypical teenage girl, in that instead of playing with social media, worrying about her hair or school drama, Terran feels most at home hiking. I like this as a character attribute. Often teens are written stereotyped. Terran and her best friend Beth are interesting characters because they are realistic in that they seem like real people.
The story progresses as Terran is wracked by visions of a dying Earth. She feels the pain of loss at a natural world that is rapidly disappearing, and sorrow for a broken future. Eventually we come to find out that Gaia (The entity representing the spirit of the natural world) has decided that Terran is a chosen one. What that means for Terran’s future and how she sees the world is the bulk of the story.
Now, I’m not some granola-loving freak or anything. I just like to be outside. When I’m in the woods or somewhere equally nature-ish, I just feel better, like I’m whole. I can’t fully describe it, though I’ve tried to explain it to Beth. She usually rolls her eyes and gives me a look that implies I’ve lost my freakin’ mind. She may claim to be a bit of a hippie chick, but all the outdoorsy stuff is not her thing. And yet, she sticks with me despite it and sometimes even lets me drag her along the trails.. ―
Kristin Ward, Rise of Gaia
The strongest element of the story, and the part that I enjoyed the most was the depth of friendship between Beth and Terran. As I was a teenage girl, so very very long ago, I remember the intense and important relationships that I formed that as a young girl and how they lasted me a lifetime. I loved that Kristin explored some of those aspects.
Again Kristin as written a wonderful and affecting story. I am so happy to have been a part of this blog tour and highly recommend reading any of her books.
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Where to find it?
Procurement
I received a copy of this from TheWriteReads for the tour in exchange for my open and honest review.
About the Author
Kristin Ward has loved writing since middle school but took thirty years to do something serious about it. The result is her Best Indie Book Award-winning novel, After the Green Withered, followed by the sequel, Burden of Truth. She lives in a small town in Connecticut with her husband, three sons, and many furry and feathered friends. A SciFi geek to the core, she is fueled by dark chocolate and coffee and can be heard quoting eighties movies on a regular basis.
Dang, this sounds amazing. I totally know what feeling of freedom when you’re out in nature, although I guess I don’t seek it out too often.
Me too. There is something calming about being immersed in something bigger than yourself.
Great review. 🙂 🙂 And by the way, I love the design of your blog.
Thank you! I am so glad to hear that. It has gone through a lot of redesigns.
Wonderfully expressed! I, too, loved the relationship between Beth and Terran. Their friendship was the aspect I liked most in this book. It’s hard to come by such well developed and pure friendships in books.
Exactly! It is so well done.