The Tales Pensieve

While the title The Trial of 2091 and the book blurb itself sounded interesting, I must confess I found the book quite hard to follow and ultimately finish. In fact, by the time I finished half the book, I was quite tired, primarily because of the fact that the author chose to sequence his chapters in a manner where the narrative kept flitting between the past and the present.

Given that this is strictly a futuristic science fiction book and has more than quite a few unusual elements that readers have to digest at the outset itself; this particular choice of the authors, to keep the narrative shifting between the past and the present was something that didn’t quite work for me. After the first few chapters, I honestly found it somewhat tiring and irksome to figure out what was happening and when.

Having said that, the overall story arc is quite interesting in terms of the fact that one overarching UN Resolution UN2311W seems to be controlling all of human life on the planet in the future. And in the fifteenth year after it was passed, an upcoming review of the same seems to trigger off the events narrated in the book. The protagonist Ather, his clandestine online love affair (if I can call it that) with the main reviewer Jasmine/Annie, her subsequent death and the events thereafter form the crux of the book.

The author has taken great pains to describe the world, the way it works, human life in general, technology of the day and the various other settings in great detail while keeping the story moving at a decent pace. Does he paint a vivid picture of the future for the readers? He sure does, no two ways about it. Does the picture look good, rosy and hunky-dory? Not quite. But then, that is precisely what the book and its theme is about.

I would strictly recommend this book only for regular readers of the Science Fiction genre, as my suspicion is that non-regular readers of this particular genre, like myself, will find it quite hard to actually understand and finish the book.

Title: The Trial of 2091
Author: Sarang Gupta
Publisher/ Imprint: Leadstart Publishing
Pages: 251
Genre/ Sub-Genre: Fiction/ Sci-Fi Thriller
Rating: 2.50 of 5
Reviewed for: Author

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