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Elementals: The Seven Spheres
Discovering a sphere was only the beginning. Living with one is something else entirely...
In the near future, much of the globe wages war against the virtaiyu: a high-tech alien race—and humanity’s greatest threat.
Drafted alongside all other seventeen-year-old males, Kaiba Cassidy prepares for the battlefront and struggles with leaving behind everything he has ever known. Simultaneously, Nassira Arujo works desperately in the Brazilian rainforest to keep her family’s refugee camp safe, and Emily Sursten tries to convince herself that the bliss of Australia can last.
Kaiba, Nassira, and Emily have no idea that their fates are intertwined until each discovers an Elemental Sphere: a mysterious orb that fuses to their bodies and bestows the capability to control an element of nature.
But the trio finds that their new powers come with unexpected consequences, and if they are to keep themselves and their loved ones safe, they will have to fight to prevent the elements from falling into the wrong hands while maintaining their humanity in the process…
Elementals: The Seven Spheres is now an Award-Winning Finalist in the "Science Fiction" category of the 2014 International Book Awards.
In the near future, much of the globe wages war against the virtaiyu: a high-tech alien race—and humanity’s greatest threat.
Drafted alongside all other seventeen-year-old males, Kaiba Cassidy prepares for the battlefront and struggles with leaving behind everything he has ever known. Simultaneously, Nassira Arujo works desperately in the Brazilian rainforest to keep her family’s refugee camp safe, and Emily Sursten tries to convince herself that the bliss of Australia can last.
Kaiba, Nassira, and Emily have no idea that their fates are intertwined until each discovers an Elemental Sphere: a mysterious orb that fuses to their bodies and bestows the capability to control an element of nature.
But the trio finds that their new powers come with unexpected consequences, and if they are to keep themselves and their loved ones safe, they will have to fight to prevent the elements from falling into the wrong hands while maintaining their humanity in the process…
Elementals: The Seven Spheres is now an Award-Winning Finalist in the "Science Fiction" category of the 2014 International Book Awards.
356 pages, Paperback
First published April 22, 2014
3 people are currently reading
25 people want to read
About the author
Jared Files
1 book7 followersJared Files is a twenty-one-year-old college student studying the sciences at Washington State University. A longtime fan of science fiction and young-adult fiction, he is fascinated with their ability to give readers a whole new understanding of the world.
After joking about the concept with his friends at the age of fourteen, he was inspired to write a novel about controlling the elements—and the idea of Elementals: The Seven Spheres was born.
Files grew up in Sammamish, Washington, with his role-model parents, a loving sister, and friends who he considers his brothers for life.
After joking about the concept with his friends at the age of fourteen, he was inspired to write a novel about controlling the elements—and the idea of Elementals: The Seven Spheres was born.
Files grew up in Sammamish, Washington, with his role-model parents, a loving sister, and friends who he considers his brothers for life.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 29, 2015
Okay, I feel like I should start this review off with a disclaimer. I chose this book randomly on Amazon after coming out of a series I felt very emotionally invested in, so I was looking for something good, sci-fi, and that wouldn't mess with my emotions so much. This was in a top rated list, so I read it.
It was okay. Not really my kind of story - I guess I should have chosen slightly less randomly. I'm not really into stories about war. I read, "ability to control elements" and I thought, "Sounds great!" but I should have taken note of the "global war vs. aliens" thing.
The story switches view points every few chapters. This would normally be fine to me, but it felt a little weirdly handled? Like it wouldn't be an even, switch every other chapter or every two or something. It would be hold on to one view for a few chapters, then switch back for another number, and switch again, and so on. And then sometimes characters who were view point characters would never be view point characters again, so it's like, why were they view point characters?
[vague spoiler-y musings from here on]
Kind of along with that, I found that none of the characters were particularly likeable. Kaiba was pretty nice, and I feel like we're supposed to like him the best because he had the most view point chapters, and whenever another character who was a view point character meets Kaiba, they cease to have their own view point chapters. I wanted to like Emily as my "I don't want to be in this war but here I am" character, but she felt overly whiny and stand-offish. Nassira was pretty cool, but then got really swept into the background. Jordan seemed like he could have been cool, but for some reason, while he always happened to be near a view point character, was never actually a view point character, which made me feel oddly suspicious of him. Bennett was obnoxious. We hardly get to know Ian, but he doesn't seem like a great guy. Taniel is obviously not a good guy, and also is another character from whom we get a couple view point chapters and then is pretty much dropped.
The end feels very rushed to me. Like we culminate in this big battle between the Virts and the Elementals and suddenly all the families are there and lots of unnamed soldiers are slaughtered and then it's over and then the book is over. It doesn't feel like anything was really resolved and it kind of made me wonder what we were leading up to. There wasn't really a climax to the book, I guess. A lot of interesting build involving acquiring the spheres and training and trying to meet all these people and get them to convene and a couple battles and then a big battle and that's it. I'm not sure whether this is the end or just the end of the first book. It felt so abrupt.
So between the view point switches and this, the overall pacing just felt off to me.
There were also a lot of parts that just made me stop and question. It's unclear to me exactly how long this war has been going. It sounds like within the last few years, but it also sounds like all males are now raised in some kind of pseudo-military schooling. So the war is very severe, but they still won't draft women? Really? And why do the spheres cause a human to be able to control an element? The Virts can already control elements, and apparently the spheres are just keys, so there doesn't seem to be any reason that the spheres should cause elemental control. A minor one early on was that a statue of Neptune was later described as a statue of a Greek god. I mean, if you're going to specifically use the Roman name, why would you call it a Greek god? Why do most of the spheres seem to end up with teenagers? A couple don't, and then we just.. don't hear about them. Jordan seems weirdly non-concerned that he actually witnessed his best friend get kidnapped by Fifth Era/Virts. When Kaiba and Bennett are in that prison, Bennett, who's been training with his sphere for a long while, demonstrates that he can barely form a flame while on the power suppressant drugs they're given, but Kaiba is able to teleport himself and others with his very newly acquired ability. Towards the end they make a big deal about how Emily has to get naked to put on the special G-force suit, but then after that Jordan reveals that he survived a nasty hit because he was wearing special armour under his suit.
When we first meet Eskylious, he raises some fair points about human nature and our destructiveness and such. From that, I was looking forward to some morally grey areas. The Virts are looking for a home. Maybe they're actually kind of good people, and could be helpful to the Earth. I though maybe we'd get some bad humans to contrast this, so it could go in some really interesting, ambiguous places. And we do get some bad humans, like Taniel and I really disliked Unden (really? I get we're in desperate times of war, but we're going to treat teenagers like objects?). But I guess Eskylious is also all bad, just murdering people because he gets angry and throwing hissy fits because humans ended up with his property and so on. So that didn't actually go anywhere.
[/spoilery bits]
So anyway, I thought Elementals was an okay read. I enjoyed reading about the spheres and how the Elementals' powers developed and their training. I was intrigued by having so many different characters from so many parts of the world. I thought there were several good ideas. But I felt things were inconsistent, and left me with a lot of questions, but not really a huge amount of desire to answer them. Seeing as this is the first novel of a young author (one my age - weird!), if he writes a second one, I might read it and hope for some improvements. But I also understand it may just not be my kind of book, and other people will enjoy it as is.
It was okay. Not really my kind of story - I guess I should have chosen slightly less randomly. I'm not really into stories about war. I read, "ability to control elements" and I thought, "Sounds great!" but I should have taken note of the "global war vs. aliens" thing.
The story switches view points every few chapters. This would normally be fine to me, but it felt a little weirdly handled? Like it wouldn't be an even, switch every other chapter or every two or something. It would be hold on to one view for a few chapters, then switch back for another number, and switch again, and so on. And then sometimes characters who were view point characters would never be view point characters again, so it's like, why were they view point characters?
[vague spoiler-y musings from here on]
Kind of along with that, I found that none of the characters were particularly likeable. Kaiba was pretty nice, and I feel like we're supposed to like him the best because he had the most view point chapters, and whenever another character who was a view point character meets Kaiba, they cease to have their own view point chapters. I wanted to like Emily as my "I don't want to be in this war but here I am" character, but she felt overly whiny and stand-offish. Nassira was pretty cool, but then got really swept into the background. Jordan seemed like he could have been cool, but for some reason, while he always happened to be near a view point character, was never actually a view point character, which made me feel oddly suspicious of him. Bennett was obnoxious. We hardly get to know Ian, but he doesn't seem like a great guy. Taniel is obviously not a good guy, and also is another character from whom we get a couple view point chapters and then is pretty much dropped.
The end feels very rushed to me. Like we culminate in this big battle between the Virts and the Elementals and suddenly all the families are there and lots of unnamed soldiers are slaughtered and then it's over and then the book is over. It doesn't feel like anything was really resolved and it kind of made me wonder what we were leading up to. There wasn't really a climax to the book, I guess. A lot of interesting build involving acquiring the spheres and training and trying to meet all these people and get them to convene and a couple battles and then a big battle and that's it. I'm not sure whether this is the end or just the end of the first book. It felt so abrupt.
So between the view point switches and this, the overall pacing just felt off to me.
There were also a lot of parts that just made me stop and question. It's unclear to me exactly how long this war has been going. It sounds like within the last few years, but it also sounds like all males are now raised in some kind of pseudo-military schooling. So the war is very severe, but they still won't draft women? Really? And why do the spheres cause a human to be able to control an element? The Virts can already control elements, and apparently the spheres are just keys, so there doesn't seem to be any reason that the spheres should cause elemental control. A minor one early on was that a statue of Neptune was later described as a statue of a Greek god. I mean, if you're going to specifically use the Roman name, why would you call it a Greek god? Why do most of the spheres seem to end up with teenagers? A couple don't, and then we just.. don't hear about them. Jordan seems weirdly non-concerned that he actually witnessed his best friend get kidnapped by Fifth Era/Virts. When Kaiba and Bennett are in that prison, Bennett, who's been training with his sphere for a long while, demonstrates that he can barely form a flame while on the power suppressant drugs they're given, but Kaiba is able to teleport himself and others with his very newly acquired ability. Towards the end they make a big deal about how Emily has to get naked to put on the special G-force suit, but then after that Jordan reveals that he survived a nasty hit because he was wearing special armour under his suit.
When we first meet Eskylious, he raises some fair points about human nature and our destructiveness and such. From that, I was looking forward to some morally grey areas. The Virts are looking for a home. Maybe they're actually kind of good people, and could be helpful to the Earth. I though maybe we'd get some bad humans to contrast this, so it could go in some really interesting, ambiguous places. And we do get some bad humans, like Taniel and I really disliked Unden (really? I get we're in desperate times of war, but we're going to treat teenagers like objects?). But I guess Eskylious is also all bad, just murdering people because he gets angry and throwing hissy fits because humans ended up with his property and so on. So that didn't actually go anywhere.
[/spoilery bits]
So anyway, I thought Elementals was an okay read. I enjoyed reading about the spheres and how the Elementals' powers developed and their training. I was intrigued by having so many different characters from so many parts of the world. I thought there were several good ideas. But I felt things were inconsistent, and left me with a lot of questions, but not really a huge amount of desire to answer them. Seeing as this is the first novel of a young author (one my age - weird!), if he writes a second one, I might read it and hope for some improvements. But I also understand it may just not be my kind of book, and other people will enjoy it as is.
December 31, 2015
fantasy science fiction, although not much science.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews