Lindsay Edmunds' "New Sun Rising"

Title: Another “Girl on Fire”

New Sun Rising: Ten Stories by Lindsay Edmunds

Reviewed by S. Davis

October 28, 2015

11:00 p.m.

New Sun Rising: Ten Stories by Lindsay Edmunds is not your typical dystopian novel. The novel follows Kedzie Greer, a sixteen-year-old girl who is sick of living in her hometown and leaves in search of adventure. Along the way, she sparks a movement that causes the people living in this futuristic, dystopian society, to finally think for themselves. However, each of the ten chapters is comprised of different voices telling Kedzie’s story.

The novel is set in a world run entirely by the Networld, which is basically the Internet on speed. People are governed by machines rather than people. However, Kedzie’s hometown of Stillwater is perceived as backward; namely, the inhabitants grow their own food rather than eating the processed food the government puts out, hold town meetings democracy-style, and appreciate things such as art, music, and beauty. For someone who has never read author Lindsay Edmunds’s previous novels, the concept of this future world was hard to grasp.

Edmunds does something unique in that she uses an extremely different voice in each of her chapters to tell Kedzie’s story, which is an interesting and brave thing to do. Edmunds is able to distinguish one character from the next simply by their voices, which is no easy feat. However, this took away from the meat of Kedzie’s story because the reader never really knows exactly what Kedzie was fighting for and arguing against. Rather, the reader receives how others perceive Kedzie and how they feel about her beliefs. In this area, the novel is lacking because readers thirst to know more about Kedzie as a character and the movement she was involved in.

The first half of the novel was slow compared to the last half, in which events happened rather quickly. And at the conclusion, the reader is left unsatisfied because it is clear that Edmunds has a sequel in mind. It will be interesting to see the next chapter in Kedzie’s life and how Edmunds presents her to the audience next time.

I give New Sun Rising: Ten Stories 4 out of 5 stars!

                                               

Until next time,

S. Davis