Review: The Fire Sermon
Four hundred years after the blast, a strict civilization enforces life.. based on your birth. But not by prestige or nobility, nor by birth-order... but instead by the deformities left over from the blast. For in the After, all human births are twins: one perfect - Alpha - and one imperfect - Omega. Once the twins are split and the Omega child branded, the imperfect child is thrown out, to be cared for by an Omega relative or left at an Omega orphanage. The Omega children are not killed, however, since killing one twin kills the other.
But not all Omegas are obvious. Though most imperfections are visible - a missing limb or an extra eye, for example - there are also the Seers, born just as perfect as their Alpha twins until the visions and dreams begin. Cassandra, a Seer who managed to hide her abilities for thirteen years, is both gifted and burdened with the feeling of being part of a family, since she was able to stay with hers for so long, and a twin who hates her for it.
THE FIRE SERMON isn't perfect, but it's enjoyable and exciting, bringing us into a brand new universe where it's not always easy to know who is good and who is bad. Generally you can start a dystopian book knowing that the downtrodden citizens are going to be the heroes, with the privileged elite the authors of all horrors. While THE FIRE SERMON does contain some of those elements, it isn't always as clear, especially since Seers are set apart and untrusted by Alphas and Omegas alike and Cass fights prejudice from many around her. Fighting a battle that neither Alphas nor Omegas want, Cass gives us a new look into a world where everyone is tied together by life and death, struggling to keep separate while keeping an advantage over the other.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
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