An Enjoyable Audiobook

I never read these books separately while they were being released, so this review is going to be about all three novels that make up this collection. As a whole, I really liked the characters and I found the story intriguing and kept me hooked. The story is heart-wrenching and makes you feel like you want to wrap these characters in a soft blanket and give them hot chocolate.

However, I wasn’t a big fan of the ending. It seemed more like an afterthought cobbled together to give a resolution. It’s pretty disjointed from the rest of the story and feels incredibly rushed. Does the ending ruin the books for me? I would say, no. But, it does leave a lot to be desired.

I probably missed a few things since I listened to this on audio as opposed to reading this as text, but trigger warnings for this book include ableism, fat-shaming, homomisa, and harassment.

The first story, The Persistence of Memory, is told from Daniel Schroeder’s POV. Daniel is 45, owns and works at a store he opened with his father, works nights at a rival corporation, and lives with his father. Daniel’s store – AdventureTech is a small company that specializes in providing fabricated memories to buyers. The customers are put into a sort of dream state for a few hours doing whatever their heart desires (within the limits of these mnems) and while they won’t be able to remember the exact details of their dream, it’ll leave the customer feeling happy and satisfied. Like dreams, these fabricated dreams, too, should fade. Otherwise, it would be a havoc among society for people believing the things they’ve dreamed up were real.

Daniel is smart. He has the ability and the talent to construct the mnems, the program for which these dreams run. However, when one of his programs – Life is Awesome – winds up accidentally altering his father’s memories into a “persisted” memory, Daniel keeps his head down and no longer builds his own mnems.

Daniel’s father, Big Dan, believes that his wife never left him and that they’re still together. And this leaves Daniel breaking the news to his dad every single day that the reality his father thinks he knows is not real. It’s absolutely heart-breaking to see the anguish Daniel has to go through every day, breaking both his father’s heart and his.

While Daniel struggles to keep his store open, he happens across a man dressed in black who keeps appearing in his mnems. It shouldn’t be possible, and yet, this man manages to follow him anywhere in his mnems. We eventually learn that this man’s name is Elijah Crowe, and he actually winds up being my favorite character from this series.

The novels were originally published in 2012, 2014, and 2015, so while I understand that there might be some…problematic things in them, I would have expected some editing in the bind-up and re-released audiobook edition and for the more offensive things said in this book to be removed? And I suppose that’s really my main issue with JCP’s books – super interesting characters and story, but there’s also some really unnecessary problematic content that tends to drag the book down. One especially is that there is ONE POC character in this book (that I can tell, at least) and it’s your stereotypical sassy-black-woman-who-works-as-an-assistant-to-the-white-male-main-character. Daniel treats her well, but it would be nice to have a non-white character in JCP’s books who isn’t a stereotype? Is that too much to ask?

The first and third books are told from Daniel’s perspective, and the second book is told from Elijah’s perspective. Daniel is flawed. His point-of-view is blunt and he comes across as being a judgmental person. Elijah is autistic. It’s constantly mentioned that Elijah isn’t “normal” and that Elijah is “weird”. And that’s coming from Daniel and that doesn’t sit well with me at all. There are instances towards other characters that make me uncomfortable as well. There’s fat-shaming other characters, making fun of a perfectly harmless character (Larry), and calling some characters the “r” word. These are particularly uncomfortable to read from Daniel’s POV when it shows that he has the hots for Elijah while they’re in mnem, but not so much in the real world after he meets Elijah.

Elijah is a precious cinnamon roll who is highly intelligent and does his best, even when the world tries beating him down for being autistic. He’s an expert when it comes to memories and teaches about mnems at the mall. However, there are people in his life who treat him like he’s not smart or harass him for being himself. Elijah is blunt and says what he means, and takes everything at face value. His book is probably one of the most difficult to read, because the world keeps trying to demean him and he just wants live his life. Even his therapist is awful and refuses to believe him when he wants to make a complaint against one of his co-workers. It just breaks my heart. ELIJAH IS SO PRECIOUS AND AN ABSOLUTE SWEETHEART. ❤

The sex scenes in this series are a little…different than your usual m/m romance book? Elijah has never been with a man before Daniel, so they take things slow. BUT. That doesn't mean their scenes together in bed aren't scorching hot. I think I prefer reading sex scenes like what happened in this series. It seems more grounded in reality this way.

Seth Clayton’s narration is fantastic and I liked the voices used for all the characters. There’s special effects added for the book transitions that scared me half to death while listening to the audiobook in the middle of the night with my headphones in. They’re brilliant, but they will never NOT scare me on re-listens.

My one issue with the narration is that it seems really slowed down compared to other audiobooks I’ve listened to? The easy fix is to speed it up on the audiobook app, but the narration is oddly slow. With new books with more complex storylines, I tend to listen at about 1.5x speed. But, for this book I winded up listening to the book at 2x. It’s no big deal, really, and I look forward to seeing what other books he’s narrated!

This audiobook is a long one and absolutely worth a credit. I feel like this story felt like the movie Inception. This story is pretty trippy and sometimes you don’t know if you’re in a dream or settled back in reality. This is an enjoyable series, overall, and I would recommend this book to m/m romance readers who like a slice of sci-fi in your books.

My rating for each separate book in the series:

Book #1, The Persistence of Memory: 4 stars
Book #2, Forget Me Not: 5 stars
Book #3, Life is Awesome: 3 stars

9 people found this helpful

Simply Brilliant!

I’m not often moved to leave written reviews, but I thoroughly enjoyed this trilogy. The character-building was masterfully done and their interactions were artfully crafted. I was quickly pulled into this story by both the narrators delivery and the authors attention to detail. Quite frankly, this is one of the best MM romance books I’ve ever read (and I’ve read a LOT)!Definitely recommended for sci-fi fans that appreciate mind-bending, near-future technology, witty, articulate dialogue and internal thoughts, and some steamy-yet-not-overdone MM action.

1 person found this helpful

Believable

The author wrote so convincingly about needing, I wanted to try it. Elijah was a well written character, I felt I knew him as a person and wanted to stand up for to all his bullies. And Daniel, he was the perfect flawed hero. He took care of his dad, Big Dan, and other family and friends. He didn't think he deserved to have any joy for himself. We, the readers saw the bigger picture. Loved the book and I think the narrator brought the story to life.

1 person found this helpful

compelling story

The plot was interesting, the characters were well developed, the narration added nuance to the book. I am glad the trilogy is offered as a single audio book since there is single plot that really does arc across the three books. Elija's portrayal is fantastic. Strikes a good balance between romance and the well thought out sci fi elements.

1 person found this helpful

Full series

This is all three books in the series and it kept me entertained the entire time! I was drawn in from the moment I hit play and didn’t want to put it down or pause the story. The characters were so compelling and made me fall in love with them. Daniel and Elijah had so many flaws and realistic things but damn they were great. The story was a lot of fun and I would love even more of these characters.

rare gem: very unique setting/world, great writing

Ah. This is one of those rare gems that have such a unique setting ("memory forging" or the business with fake memories, that fade after a day), that sets this story apart from so many others. Loved it! Also Elijahs autism was described/shown very well.
Also: the audiobook is very well narrated. Enjoyed the days I listened to it!

I kinda wished for more stories inside the fake-memory "world", even though there were many already in the book series. Haha. And I hoped for Elijah to stay a mystery for a bit longer. The reveal came a bit too soon for me (just my opinion). I loved how mysterious he was, just showing up in the "mnemes" (fake memories) that Daniel went through with his clients.

And the fakt that Elijah dresses like his exwife made him dress, is kinda sad, IMHO. :-/ (also just a personal thing that made me think: "the poor guy"..)

Trilogy review

This series tool me a while to get through. Usually if I put a book down a couple times, it’s not just a mood, and it stays put down. But I kept giving this one more chances and I’m glad I did.

The series is not action packed like the psycop series but that’s fine. It’s a group of (mostly) guys trying to run a business providing daydreams, detailing their stumbles and triumphs and friends, doing everyday (scifi) work.

The POVs switch off by book, with Daniel opening & closing. I liked getting Elijah’s POV in book 2 (though I am mad when bullies don’t get fired). I found Elijah more relatable than an affable 40yo guy who managed to have no close friends, although his dad’s “inverse of 50 First Dates” complication did make navigating his days tricky so maybe he’s fine. All in all, it’s a low key “day in the life” look at a couple of suburban guys who meet in a pretend world & make it real.

Steam: Low. There are some naked details but a lot of lower key sexytimes. Good consent & boundaries.

Narration: I liked the slightly stilted cadence for Elijah and the dumb puppy voice for Larry. Like the series, it was pleasantly low key.

Addicting series that I had to see to the end

Book 1-
What an intense, well realized world on a new series. I really enjoyed the slow pacing of introducing characters and the world that helped with understanding how everything works. This amazing pacing allowed me to follow along without missing any detail to what this world was all about.

The drama and mystery surrounding the romantic interest was incredibly well done and respectful. I've never read a book before that tried this approach at a romantic interest. It was inventive and very clever at having a differently abled person star as a romantic interest but with a twist of his capabilities being enhanced with the use of the technology. This really intrigued me and kept me wanting to learn more about him to see where this goes.

I found the plot to be just as interesting as the romantic interest. The plot surrounding the characters building up of their business and the horrific tension over the situation with the dad was captivating. Thanks to the world building, everything about this book easily kept my attention and obsessed with knowing more.

I bought this as a trilogy pack on Audible. I can see why though it was sold as a trilogy. The story is good but i didn't get the feeling that it was complete and not fully realized yet. This first book just barely starts introducing the conflicts and romance and doesn't progress it enough for this to be considered a good stand alone book. It definitely feels required to get this as a trilogy do get the feeling of a full book.

The narrator on Audible though is incredible.
Every single character had a unique voices and personality making it very easy to follow along. I really enjoyed the passion the narrator had to really paint a good picture of what is going on to the listener. I could feel the emotions in his voice exactly where it needed to be that really made this book feel like a TV drama in your mind. Amazing work =)

Book 2 -

The point of view difference on this book was incredibly refreshing. It was really interesting to see a differently abled person's perceptive, opinions and struggles on the ongoing story line.

I adore the MC of this book and what he adds to the series. His character is well thought out, detailed and feels alive. Like someone you would know thanks to all the amazing details about his quirks and internal dialog. The author definitely flexes that the autism spectrum was well researched to make him feel authentic and without exploiting the situation. Bravo.

This time around, other then the last chapter, the entire book is all about the relationship plot building. The main plot regarding the drama of the technology from the prior book takes a back seat to make room for the new focus of primarily building up the romance. I don't mind this at all, the world is already built up and adds flavor to the world and what these guys are navigating through while trying to get to know eachother. The romantic tension keeps consistently interesting and plays out very well.

There are some uncomfortable moments of bullying of a person with a mental disability and a extremely frustrating scene with the therapist. My feelings were hurt a few times seeing some of the struggles that happen just because of the misunderstanding of people with autism. It wasn't enough to cause my to want to stop reading, I guess it just added some additional tension to better understand character.

A very good listen on Audible as well. The voice actor chosen couldn't have been more perfect.

Book 3 -

This was a good book, the world felt alive, the conflicts were tense and gave me anxiety, the romance continued in a satisfactory way. Everything felt extremely raw and realistic. I was oh most uncomfortable at certain points with some of the very real life complications portrayed that happen to real life people that are often not talked about to even your closest friends.

But... What was up with that ending. Not to ruin it for anyone but all that build up felt wasted with such a downer of an ending. I was not satisfied that the book ended the way it did, i was hoping for more.

I felt like the entire series was a story about building up a small business and us getting to watch the struggles of it slowly succeeding. Until the ending happens and the entire small business story we have been following just comes to a sudden stop. It was very raw, realistic and a sad fact of life. I do like how in a universe like this it can be portrayed in a believable way that we can empathize with. I think the details behind it were stellar.

The writing was amazing, the series ended in a way that i wish was different but sometimes unplanned, realism of running a small business will throw a wrench into things just like this. So, bravo for a good unsatisfactory ending for the main plot. At least the romance was HEA.

good sci-fi m/m romance

the narrator was very good: clear voice, lively narration. the story was more romance than science (surprised me since most reviews say otherwise), with a neuroatypical main character that is quite endearing and authentic.

Very Entertaining

Seth Clayton has a warm sexy voice. Seth does not just narrate the book. He tells the story. He is animated and expresses the emotions of his characters. He make a good book even better.