Discidium: The Wall: Welcome to a new kind of segregation.

by Megan K. Olsen

This is the separation of men and women as the final solution to the global population crisis that nearly destroyed humankind. To ensure this division, an impenetrable wall was constructed, dividing the two sexes into isolated provinces with little outside contact, ensuring fathers and daughters and mothers and sons would never know one another. Nearly one hundred years after its inception, Braedon Walker, devastated by the mysterious death of his father, defies the laws of Discidium and risks his life to meet a mother he’s never known. At the same time, on the other side of the wall, Dr. Bo Granger, the daughter of ambitious and ruthless Governess Leda McCready, crosses a prohibited border into the integrated province of Conexus to investigate a series of inexplicable deaths in land of impoverished citizens. Aiding the two along the way are a series of eccentric and resourceful characters, including two criminal smugglers who prove to be much more than what they first appear. Braedon and Bo soon learn their individual journeys into the same forbidden territory are on a collision course, either towards complete disaster or profound revelation.

296 pages, Paperback

First published July 11, 2013

About the author

Megan K. Olsen was born in Grants, New Mexico to a metallurgical engineer and a math professor. By the age of eighteen, she had already lived in six different states, and had developed a taste for travel and experiencing a variety of cultures and peoples. In her early twenties, she received a B.A. in English and a Master's degree in Education, and taught as a professor of English literature for fifteen years. She is currently living in the beautiful state of Colorado and is working on her fifth novel and third screenplay.

Reviews

[John Winston · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was not any easy book to review because it’s more than the cliche’d page-turner or must read, but simply one of the best novels I’ve ever read. I found myself a little disappointed I might never see this gem on the big screen, but who knows … stranger things have happened. No matter, I felt like I was watching a film reading Discidium: The Wall. Make no mistake. Megan K. Olsen is a gifted writer and storyteller. Olsen has a way of giving you just enough description within the context of the action and narrative to paint a vivid picture of the scene without bogging the story down.

The characters—and there are many (but not too many)—are extremely well developed and the protagonists and antagonists have a wonderful balance of flaws and positive attributes on a mental, emotional, and yes, even physical level. That’s right, every player wasn’t a perfect specimen. Some of my favorites were, the main characters Bo and Braedon to be sure, but equally compelling were their best friends Caradine and Oslo, both colorful and in perfect contrast to the straight Bo and Braedon. One more stand out for me was the minor character, Hale, who I think would be played perfectly by Joaquim De Almeida in the film I’m trying to manifest. Olsen did a great job of creating contrast between all the characters almost eliminating the need for quotation marks; you knew who was talking by their words.

And for you literary aficionados, Olson’s prose is formidable with passages like, “For the first time in her life, she was viewing Mulierus as if a bird soaring through the skies, watching the green and gold flatlands of the east melt into the dry, undulating mesas of the south central section of the province, then converting into the protruding peaks of red, gray, and green in the southwest, some crowned in the perpetual white of snow.”

At the same time, I found Discidium: The Wall an easy read, an absolute must read, and … a page turner, but be forewarned! You will have to read part II (a good thing, though), which I am onto now.