Almeida weaves a provocative story using commentary on economic, social, political, and cultural issues. Okay, I wouldn’t normally call three paragraphs a summary, but trust me, there are so many delicious layers to the story it was hard to drill it down! Now, on to my thoughts:

Together, they have six days to save the worlds, but who will save them from Sibyl, now an omnipresent operating system? Stella needs help as the two worlds are about to collide, so she resurrects Twist, Shadow, and several other key players as digitized versions of their former selves (known as xHumans). Thirty-two years later, there’s a new God in town and this one is a Goddess named Stella. Nowak (Twist) and Thomas (Shadow) are elevated to “God” status but killed on the brink of success. For instance, a person seeking to have an affair can experience the repercussions of adultery and learn from it before actually acting on this urge. The software enables the travelers to experience some of the darker aspects of life without consequence as a proactive behavioral tool of sorts. Up Above (the real world) where humans (also known as Travelers) live, and Down Below (the virtual world) where Underlings (AIs) provide virtual learning experiences for the travelers. To do this, the Earth now exists as two different worlds.

The platform expanded when Nowak teamed up with the budding young screenwriter, Thomas Astley-Byron, to add compassion and touchy-feely elements to Sybil – a heart if you will, with the goal of saving humanity and the world from its inevitable self-destruction. Sibyl started as a social media voice app that predicted the future, created by nineteen-year-old AI genius Henryk Nowak. There are so many amazing elements to the story, it’s hard to know where to begin. Sci-Fi devotees take note: this one is special. The story presents an impeccable foundation in what promises to be an epic literary hard-sci-fi series. “Unanimity” is the first book in the Spiral Worlds series by Alexandra Almeida. Reviewed by Sheri Hoyte for Reader Views (10/2022)

Unanimity by Alexandra Almeida