Review: Awakening, Rise of the A.I., Book 2 by Eric Jeffrey Kaufman

Review: Awakening, Rise of the A.I., Book 2 by Eric Jeffrey Kaufman 

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

When I picked up the first volume in Eric Jeffrey Kaufman’s Awakening trilogy a couple months ago, I really enjoyed where the story went and how the narrative subverted several of my expectations. While there were some things that I didn’t enjoy as much as I would have liked, I ultimately walked away open to further exploring this story’s world and seeing how the plot continued to unfold down the line. 

Having picked up the sequel now, I see some new, intriguing elements in this volume and the narrative – again – subverted my expectations when dealing with a few key ideas. Before we go further, however, I should provide a summary for the story. 

Summary

The story opens with two siblings, Molly and Patrick, overhearing their father raging against (and swearing to kill) the Hybrid movement that was established in the prequel. Concerned, the children sneak out and alert the Hybrid movement, telling them that this is not like their father at all. Heeding their warnings, the Hybrids discover that the father has been kidnapped and replaced by a replica of him in the beginning stages of a movement to start a war and wipe out every human and Hybrid left. 

Will the Hybrids be able to band together and stop the war before it begins?

Thoughts

So, unfortunately for me, I think the biggest issue I see with this sequel is the story’s pacing. Pacing can be difficult to pull off in writing a story, especially one planned out over several separate volumes because the narrative needs to tie together over every volume present in the story in some way to keep the reader’s interest. And unfortunately, I don’t think the pacing works exactly as intended. I’ll discuss this further in the structure section. 

That said, I also see some intriguing elements with it that do work well and tie into the previous volume organically. The plot is also expanded to the point where the wider world is starting to be affected by the main conflict driving the series. Before I go into that further, however, let’s discuss some of the characters. 

Characters

Tiffany Wells 

I like Tiffany a lot in this sequel. While I did like her in the prequel, here we get to see her from her perspective. We see someone so driven to resolve the conflict peacefully that I found myself feeling sympathetic toward her plight along with her as a person. Tiffany is open to new ideas and new ways to help save earth and wants as little conflict as possible. It’s hard not to feel sympathy for her cause. 

That said, she is fully aware of the rather dire situation she and her friends are in and does not underestimate the danger of the world she lives in. Seeing her internal struggle, with the main conflict of the story driving major questions for her about whom to trust, shows that she still has desires and values that sometimes conflict with the reality of her situation. She wants things to play out a certain way, but it is easy to see her uncertainty and fear when things don’t go according to plan. For the most part, I like how that aspect of her character is presented. She is still coping with her struggle from the last book, but this time it is in a bit of a different context because it is seen front-and-center this time around. 

Now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, let’s move on to Molly. 

Molly

I feel for Molly. I think it is interesting for someone her age to be so in-tune with what is going on in the world around her that she is open to becoming Hybrid herself before she even gets to know any actual Hybrid individuals. Seeing her jump in immediately to aid Tiffany and her friends – despite the significant danger in doing so – is heartwarming and shows that some humans really do want to help the Hybrid movement. 

The few scenes where she is shown with her family show that she genuinely cares about how her loved ones are impacted by all this. I think her relationship with her brother Patrick is one of the strongest connections she has in the story. Seeing her work to explain the situation to her brother while also refusing to leave him behind shows tremendous courage and willingness to do what is right. 

All that said, let’s move on to the final character in this section. 

Penelope

I’m intrigued by Penelope. I enjoyed that the narrative introduced some internal conflict with her character that helped me feel some sympathy for her, too. This conflict seems to mirror Tiffany’s struggle in the previous volume. Having her ponder questions about where she stands in all this, along with her questioning her core beliefs, is an awesome idea. 

I also like the idea behind Penelope’s character. I had assumed that she would be a flat character, only for the narrative to prove me wrong when it is shown that she is more perceptive than I had originally thought. 

Now that I’ve covered characters, let’s move on to the story’s structure. 

Structure

The structure of this sequel is a lot like the last volume, switching between noteworthy characters and what they go through as the plot unfolds. I like that we are shown how certain characters experience things and how they move forward with the knowledge they gain from those situations. 

As for the pacing, while I understand what is trying to be done, I think certain character arcs take too long to conclude. It is crucial to have the main conflicts confronted during climaxes, but doing so either too quickly or too slowly can disrupt the flow of the narrative. 

Now that I’ve discussed these topics, let’s move on to the writing. 

Writing

I admit, there are certain things about the writing this time around that threw me out of the story. While the prose is good and the world is fully imagined through that prose, the way plot-relevant information is presented to the reader did not entirely work at first. In the beginning, there is too much telling instead of showing. This makes the prose come off as stilted and dry at the start. This improves once we see Tiffany and Penelope’s perspectives, but at first, it was somewhat jarring. 

Speaking of perspectives, I like Tiffany and Penelope’s voices when their viewpoints are being focused on. You can get an idea of who each character is and what they are going through by seeing how they tell the story, making both of their arcs intriguing to follow! Their voices are distinct and memorable, allowing the reader to get wrapped up in their personal conflicts and actions. This is mainly why I like how Penelope is presented – her character is shown in full to the reader through how she talks about the situation she is in. 

With all that said, I think I’ve covered all the bases. Let’s wrap this up. 

Conclusion

I enjoyed coming back to this series again and seeing how the story is continuing to evolve. While I didn’t love everything about this sequel, it was interesting to see how the ideas in the narrative are continuing to be developed and how they are beginning to affect the setting of the story. In the end, while the story isn’t perfect, I think it does a good job at expanding the struggle that began in the prequel and seeing how the characters continue to grow and change is very enjoyable. For this reason, I will be giving the story three stars.