"The Song of the Jubilee" by Raeden Zen (The Phantom of the Earth No. 1)

The Song of the Jubilee is the first book in a five-part series and is unlike anything I have read before. The story is set far in the future (we are talking thousands of years) and the earth by that point has become completely uninhabitable as a result of biological warfare, contamination and other disasters. Human race itself no longer exists in the way we know it. The earth is inhabited by "transhumans" or the way I picture it, they are technologically/artificially enhanced humans. They physically look like people but have chips in their brains and have many abilities normal humans do not. For example, they are able to monitor each other's thoughts or even influence what the other person sees/perceives as reality. These transhumans have to live deep inside the earth because the surface is infected by a deadly virus they refer to as "reassortment".

The world in this book is extremely well-developed and complicated. It took intense concentration on my part while reading to make sense of all the various bio/technological advancements described in the book. I would therefore only recommend this novel to those who like sci-fi. We follow several different characters. One is the lead scientist of the Great Commonwealth searching for a cure that will allow transhumans to come out and live on the surface of the earth. The other main character is the head of a rebel group whose members live in hiding and plot to overthrow the existing regime.

I had my doubts going into this book. I got the bind-up of all five novels from Netgalley for review and then discovered that the e-book is also available on amazon for free. I had also never heard of the author and none of my friends read the book. However, I found myself quickly drawn into the story and this turned out to be an enjoyable read. Despite the complex world, I thought the author did a good job introducing it to the reader. The world-building is subtle without information dumping sessions and the story moves along at a very nice pace. I am looking forward to reading the rest of the books and see where the plot goes.