REVIEW: The Parallels – Keyla Damaer

Genre: Sci-Fi

Reviewer: H.L.

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About The Book

A militia officer on the hunt for a murderer.
A scientist with the key to humanity’s future.
A girl locked in a glass tank.

One seeking justice. One seeking fame. One seeking answers. With the galaxy on the brink of war, time is not on their side.

Join them in their battle for survival.

The Review

The Parallels by Keyla Damaer follows intertwining character and story arcs set against a sprawling and incredibly complex sci-fi universe. Aliens, different political and social factions, new and dangerous science, a murder mystery, betrayal, clones – this book has it all.

Normally I would write up a recap of the plot and characters – but so much happens in the first couple of chapters alone, that I don’t think I could do the full book justice in a mere summary. The plot follows three main characters: Halazar, an alien military officer, who is searching for the person who killed a fellow officer; Lanees, a human scientist; and Eleanor, who has woken up with no memories, and only has a voice in her head to trust.

The action starts from the very first page and rarely relents. You’re thrown head-first into the setting, which is sprawling and vast in its worldbuilding. There were times I felt overwhelmed with the sheer amount of information and names and characters being thrown at me, however the detail and depth of the universe is incredible and the setting was vibrant in every page.

The universe is extraordinarily grimdark, but that isn’t a bad thing. This book is perfect for people who like their protagonists morally grey and the universe brutal where bad things happen to semi-decent people, and everyone has their own agenda and motives.

The Parallels is the first in a series, and a lot is set up in the book that is no doubt sure to pay off in the subsequent installments. I recommended this for people looking for sci-fi-flavoured Game Of Thrones-esque books.

The Reviewer

H. L. is a Jewish Australian writer of LGBT+ fiction. She holds a Master of Arts in International Relations (2015) and a Bachelor of Media in Communications and Journalism (2012), both from the University of New South Wales.

She has been writing stories since she was old enough to hold a pen. She is the author of M/M fantasy romance novels Heart Of Dust and Soul Of Ash, Books 1 & 2 of the Death’s Embrace series.

She has had two speculative short stories published: “The Collector” in the 2014 Future Times Award Collection A Tick Tock Heart, and “Entente” in the 2020 Twisted Stories Award Collection Just Alice.