The Kota (The Kota Series, #1, expanded version)
By Sunshine Somerville
Publisher: Sunshine Somerville
Published: Sept. 8, 2013
ASIN: B00F2M61P4
Amazon Synopsis:
The future is an ugly place, but we are
not left without hope. Still, what is a dystopian world supposed to make of
ancient Kota prophecies, Warrior children, swirling Signals, time-traveling
Bearers, and an inescapable Virus?
For Trok, these Kota prophecies
mean little until the day comes when he is called to be the Marked Warriors'
guardian. With Trok's guidance, these four Warriors with hyper-natural
mutate-genes must answer destiny's call to fight the Dominion, a global tyranny
Watching through time, Trok sees the bigger purpose behind all that happens, but how everything comes together surprises even him.
Book Links
My Thoughts:
Don't
be daunted by the length of this book at 596
pages. The Kota is an engaging look at prophecies of 4 children who will
become the eventual Warrior saviours of the earth. The book begins at a
moderate pace as it explains how the prophecies were fulfilled and the four
came to be together. After that, the action and pace of the book pick right up
as the foursome begin to fulfill the remaining prophecies.
The
Kota begins
as a tale of two brothers - one brother deeply involved in politics and the
other is a leader of the Kota, a race of people of mixed background that share
the same culture and faith. This faith includes several prophecies, one of
which was about a virus which affect men's minds.
The
book covers several centuries of time and the world changes in many ways.
Humans develop many abilities that are not present today. One of the diseases
that develops is called the DRK virus, where "the infected do not die, but
lose their sense of humanity and become a raving conscienceless" being -
in other words, a zombie. This is the virus that the Kota claimed their Virus
Prophecy predicted. I don't read many books with zombies in them, but this one
seems to me to be a logical explanation of how a zombie could actually exist.
Genetic
experimentation accounts for new mutations which give rise to new abilities in
people such as telepathy, teleportation, enhanced hearing and hand-eye
coordination, greater strength and so on. Some of these new abilities are not
so mundane and therefore these individuals were later identified as MOB -
Misfits of Breeding. They were often indoctrinated into the reigning
government, the Dominion, who ruled by fear - they threatened
"factoring" - infection with the DRK virus for crimes. "Good"
citizens were inoculated with the DRK treatment which prevented infection from
the virus.
The
first half of the book explains how the 4 prophecies came to be until the 4
Warriors were identified. There are many plot twists and turns in this book,
and lots of action for those who love fight scenes.
We
learn a lot about each of the four warriors and get to know them pretty well.
Each of them has their flaws that they work to overcome. They are believable
human beings with pasts to overcome, and issues to work out. I like that they
don't have it all together as it makes them more likeable, more realistic. more
relatable.
The
book ends at a good point, though by no means is the story complete. There are
planned release dates for books 2, 3 and 4. While there is a bit of a
cliffhanger at the end of this book, at least it feels as though there is some
closure as to what has been going on. I can't tell you what or that would be a
spoiler!
If
you enjoy Dystopian/Post-apocalyptic literature, science fiction or sagas, give
The Kota a try. I quite enjoyed this novel and gave it 3 stars out of 5.
Thank
you to the author for providing a copy of the book in exchange for a fair and
honest review. A positive opinion was not required. All thoughts are my own.
About the Author:
Sunshine Somerville lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She has
a BA in English Literature and was awarded the 2004 English Award for
Excellence from her alma mater, also self-publishing her first book that year.
Besides writing, her creative outlets include painting and making
feature-length, spoof movies such as "Love Not Really" and "I
Knew What You Did Last Summer, Then I Forgot, But Now I Remember Again."
She also enjoys spending time outdoors on her family's hunting preserve and is
a huge "Arrested Development" and "Lost" fan. She would
like to point out that, yes, this is her real name."I've pretty much always been obsessed with all things science fiction. When I was nine, I began to write 'The Kota Series' and based the story on what I, my brother, and our two best friends played all day out in the woods while our mothers wondered if we might be taking it a little too seriously. Fast-forward 20+ years later, and I still probably spend too much time thinking about time-travel, superpowers, heroes and villains, zombies, alien planets, etc."
Author Links
This review appears on Author Alliance http://www.authoralliance.net/
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