Oblivion'sWake

by Jonathan Sean Lyster

DAVID'S CHILDHOOD IS MISSING When David Glass was fifteen, ERIN struck nearly a million people worldwide. The virus gradually destroyed all memories formed before infection. Eight journals written when he was diagnosed are all the orphaned David has of his youth. They shaped him as he started a new life. Twenty years later, he has turned the side effects of his memory loss into a career in perceptual engineering. He built a loving family but still has a burning need to remember the idyllic childhood his younger self wrote about. When a treatment is developed that can restore his memories, he leaps at the chance. He doesn't know his journals are fiction. He doesn't know his younger self was a psychopath.

494 pages, Paperback

First published June 18, 2014

Reviews

[Nicole Luiken · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intense near-future SF psychological thriller--the kind of story with loads of tension and nary a car chase. As a teen David had Shimmerman's disease which wiped out his memories. All he has are a few notebooks written while the disease was in progress. Since then he's gone on to marry, have kids and live a relatively normal life until a cure for Shimmerman's is discovered. But when David takes the cure his wife is warned that David's notebooks are lies, a past he invented for himself, and he soon develops fractures in his psyche as he integrates the disturbing new memories.

Nigh-unbearable tension in spots. I had to set the book aside and pick up a lighter one at times. I really enjoyed the backstory of how David and Ariel met and was heavily invested in both characters.

[Krista Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Oblivion's Wake" - Jonathan Sean Lyster
This book is funny, frightening, horrifying, disturbing, intriguing, thought-provoking... Well-written and difficult to put down. The story premise is extraordinary, with characterization that is richly detailed. David and Ariel are complex and fascinating, with a realistic relationship that is not overblown. The moment of revelation is jaw-dropping. There is some overuse by the author of certain words and turns of phrase, but it didn't get in the way of this compelling story. (Warning: Not for the faint of heart!)