Incarnate, Jodi Meadows
There are a million people in the Range. There have always been a million people, because not only is reincarnation scientifically proven in the Range, people remember their past incarnations. Not always in terrible detail, especially the farther you get from a particular incarnation, but this is also why keeping journals is a part of everyone's lives. (There's a line in the book about how most people go and finish their previous life's journal off with how they died once they're old enough to write again.)
The night Ciana died, the temple went dark and she didn't return. Instead, Ana incarnated. Ana is completely new, which freaks out a large number of people. They worry if she's a prelude of other people disappearing and never returning. Also, I think there's a fair amount of people not able to deal with a real child after five thousand years of constant reincarnation.
At eighteen, Ana leaves the small home where she's grown up and travels to the city of Heart. For the first time in her life, she's seriously exposed to her people's culture and other people are seriously exposed to her. Some people react as you'd imagine to the scary new thing, while others are all "you're new? rad. Want to learn to bake?"
The world's very interesting. The more we learn about the history, Heart, and the temple, the more I think the people of the Range are someone's lost colony. I really don't think they're a native life-form to the planet, based on what we're told. Also, I'm deeply curious as to what the dragons have against the temple.
I also wonder what would happen if the people of the Range tried to have more than a million people. Would new souls fill in then? Or is it something like DMFA's fae, where if you create more bodies than the exact amount of souls, the bodies just sit and stare at the walls and it's all very depressing? They have the concept of a 'nosoul', so there must be some idea as to what happens, but we don't really get anything in the book on the subject.
Trigger warnings: child abuse. Ana's mother loathes her, and she's nasty about it. There's also some mild eugenics going on in the background.
Also, the romance may squick some people. Ana is the only person who is mentally eighteen in their civilization. Her beau is physically eighteen, but he's mentally thousands of years old.
Also, also, when we finally find out why Ana happened, it's like, "wow, your people are more effed up than previously suspected. and I thought you were pretty effed up when I found out people are supposed to keep graveyards of themselves."
I really enjoyed the book, and I'm hoping for a sequel. Definitely appreciated that Incarnate can stand alone, though. Its story has been told, the ending just leaves openings for new stories.
The night Ciana died, the temple went dark and she didn't return. Instead, Ana incarnated. Ana is completely new, which freaks out a large number of people. They worry if she's a prelude of other people disappearing and never returning. Also, I think there's a fair amount of people not able to deal with a real child after five thousand years of constant reincarnation.
At eighteen, Ana leaves the small home where she's grown up and travels to the city of Heart. For the first time in her life, she's seriously exposed to her people's culture and other people are seriously exposed to her. Some people react as you'd imagine to the scary new thing, while others are all "you're new? rad. Want to learn to bake?"
The world's very interesting. The more we learn about the history, Heart, and the temple, the more I think the people of the Range are someone's lost colony. I really don't think they're a native life-form to the planet, based on what we're told. Also, I'm deeply curious as to what the dragons have against the temple.
I also wonder what would happen if the people of the Range tried to have more than a million people. Would new souls fill in then? Or is it something like DMFA's fae, where if you create more bodies than the exact amount of souls, the bodies just sit and stare at the walls and it's all very depressing? They have the concept of a 'nosoul', so there must be some idea as to what happens, but we don't really get anything in the book on the subject.
Trigger warnings: child abuse. Ana's mother loathes her, and she's nasty about it. There's also some mild eugenics going on in the background.
Also, the romance may squick some people. Ana is the only person who is mentally eighteen in their civilization. Her beau is physically eighteen, but he's mentally thousands of years old.
Also, also, when we finally find out why Ana happened, it's like, "wow, your people are more effed up than previously suspected. and I thought you were pretty effed up when I found out people are supposed to keep graveyards of themselves."
I really enjoyed the book, and I'm hoping for a sequel. Definitely appreciated that Incarnate can stand alone, though. Its story has been told, the ending just leaves openings for new stories.