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A Review of "An Unfortunate Dimension"




Introduction

What a wild ride this was! An Unfortunate Dimension by author Dominic Shunker was given to me as a .mobi file in exchange for an honest review, and as I haven't reviewed a race-against-the-clock novel in quite some time, I was pleased with the exciting plot and creative worldbuilding! 

My Rating: ★★★★

Synopsis: "An Unfortunate Dimension is a psychological thriller with a twist you'll never see coming.

Salvador is thrown into battle and intense laser fire. He doesn't know how he got here or why, and that's just one of his problems. He's been experiencing a sort of dimensional schizophrenia, jumping into bizarre scenes past, present, and future. Is the universe messing with him, interfering with his only goal, to bring his wife Jemma out of their coma?

He grows sure Jemma is trying to communicate a solution from her dimension, trying to tell him how to save her, to bring her back round. She tells him to look for signs, find a pattern, and soon he does. His dad's old car, a song, a demon, and Camille, his lost best friend from school.

He learns Jemma was the teacher on going-home-duty when a little girl, Ashlen, vanished a few months ago. Why didn't she tell him about Ashlen? He becomes convinced it's a clue. The school is quizzed, the police are quizzed but still no answers. His mission races on when he learns they'll turn off Jemma's life support in seven days.

What if Jemma's goal is not to save herself, but something else? Eventually he realizes it's to save Ashlen, to ease her guilt, allow her to recover. That's the link, here is the reason for the pattern: save Ashlen and that will bring Jemma round.

Between dimensions and interactions with Jemma and Camille, from a VR game, space travel and a distant planet awaiting its foretold enlightenment, Salvador knows what he must do. Nothing is as it seems, and the invasive truth is coming." (via Goodreads)


Thoughts and Comments

Pros

  • The technological world that the author built is extensive and interesting, and it makes the reader constantly feel the need to explore more of it.
  • The writing is good, and the dialogue between the characters is always natural and convincing.
  • The author does an excellent job at portraying the thoughts and experiences of the main character, Salvador, in his own mind. Everything that happens to him is wonderfully taken through a thought process in narrative that shows the reader a very close, personal view of the main character.
  • The concept of virtual reality is greatly expanded and imagined in this novel, and the author brilliantly experiments with things that may or may not be realistically feasible in the near future.
  • The narration consistently allows unique little quips in the prose concerning Salvador--perhaps something from his past, or an out-of-nowhere thought that resembles the human mind straying even in important situations--and it's a very creative way to build character.
  • The plot twist at the end was something that I definitely didn't see coming, and I'm usually pretty good at figuring out plot twists before they're presented, so I was happy that this one got me!


Cons

  • The beginning starts off in a very confusing way, and I wasn't quite sure where I was as the reader or what all was going on. This was my biggest issue with the novel, and it's the reason that a star was taken off of my rating. It took quite a few chapters to actually get a sense of things, which isn't necessarily inspiring when someone picks up a book and skims the first few pages to see if they'd be a good fit for reading it.
  • If I were a casual reader rather than a reviewer, I might've stopped about thirty pages into reading An Unfortunate Dimension because I just simply had no idea what was happening. The narration was no help. The dialogue was no help. A vague sense of what MIGHT have been the case of the plot started to creep through after about fifteen percent of the novel, but before I made it to that point, I almost certainly would have put the book down and moved on to something else.
  • As a minor point, the book could have used another round of editing--there were some grammatical mistakes and typos, as well as issues with syntax, but it wasn't enough to distract from the story.


Conclusion

Although the start of the novel was a bit rocky, I thought that An Unfortunate Dimension was a very unique, satisfying psychological sci-fi thriller. Fans of the concept of evolved virtual reality, race-against-the-clock situations, and even conspiracy theories such as the Mandela Effect will thoroughly enjoy An Unfortunate Dimension. Mr. Schunker, thank you for the opportunity to review your work. I look forward to seeing more from you in the future!


Amazon Link: See here
Goodreads Link: See here
Riffle Link: See here



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