Mana Ray and Author Interview

My review

4.5 Here is a futuristic sci-fi utopian that is a real dystopian. Have you ever thought that an ideal society with a rewarding point system and rules can be as horrifying as the darkest, goriest horror book? Author Julia Maslova created the perfect planet with an ideal society rewarded with points. We will live among these dogmas that are not completely unrelatable (on the contrary) for at least 40% of the book until the rupture sends Mana Ray from the top point of her life to her lowest. It made me so mad that a brilliant scientist in this world could gain only 5 points for advancing science or healing cancer, but lose 40 points because her husband decided to divorce her. This utopia will make you so mad... and this will turn Mana's journey into a satisfying future.

Love has no home in the high society where a God and points rule. But in the lower levels, among tribes and cultures, there is magic. One middle girl (Mana Ray) who never quite belonged lives her life trying to reach perfection and higher status, only to discover that her path is very different. Like Angel Michael, she too will understand that no human should serve other humans, that beauty starts inside with kindness and inner strength and believing in herself; among her found family, she will reach higher than any social status, healing more than her doubts.

Short chapters, easy to read. It has a lot of color AI illustrations, but at least the author maintained consistency of style with the characters' design and world-building.

The author ends the book with the promise of a new journey and exciting reunions with friends.

My favorite lesson from book one (this is a series of 4 books) is (in my own words):

Let go of old beliefs and don't use new tools to repeat the same mistakes. If we are changing our lives, we must change our perspective on things and be open-minded. 

Excerpt:

"I was silent. It made sense. Everything he said felt… true. But could Society really have lied to us this much? Was everything I had ever believed nothing more than a fabrication? 

   “The universe was not created from three matters. In fact, it wasn’t created by anyone at all. In the beginning, there was only Mother Nature, alone in the void. Then, she manifested herself in all things—both great and small. In reality, there is no such thing as a ‘better’ or ‘worse’ resource. Everything has its purpose, equally vital in the cycle of nature. It was class society that invented a hierarchy of value, distributing everything according to its own flawed scale. As a result, a collective consciousness emerged—a belief that some resources are superior, while others are lesser or even ‘bad.’ This perception limits people, preventing them from achieving their full potential. They live their lives in a constant state of restriction, convinced that the quality of their resources dictates their worth. But the truth is, resources are diverse. Mother Nature never created classes—humans did.”

Book here link

Goodreads