It’s happening again. The greed. The evil, but this time it’s worse.

People’s nightmares are following them into their days. The Source, part human frailty, part Artificial Intelligence, part sass, isn’t the only one haunted by her past and trapped by her future.

Suicides, death matches, horrific, dark visions – the incomprehensible malevolence she uncovers will not only risk her very existence but threaten to tear their fledgling new society apart.

With quirky characters and killer twists, Planet 54: The Source takes you on a weird, gory, erotic, action packed thrill ride that will shock, amuse and terrify you in equal measure.

My Review

I chose to read this book after receiving a free e-copy from the Reedsy.com. All opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased.

I read The Ticket by Zaph Stone about a year ago and liked it, so I was happy read this book. It’s the second book in a trilogy, and although I didn’t read the first book, there was enough backstory that I wasn’t lost. I do wish I’d read the first book, though, because I’m pretty sure it’s a good one.

After the end of the world, a new civilization rose up from the ashes, but it became clear to Claire and Andrew that something was wrong. Eventually, there was a revolution and a new government. They hoped that the Sanctum, the ones who ran the evil government, were gone. Unfortunately, some of them
escaped and they’re back.

The main characters are Claire, Andrew, and John. Claire is the Source, and she is able to plug into a machine and find data, etc., to help find out what is going on and try to find members of the Sanctum. It’s not easy to be the Source, but she’ll do it as long as she can. I admired her strength but wanted to scream at her to open up to John and Andrew.

There is a lot going on in this book! There are a lot of characters, and the story goes back and forth between them. I was able to keep up with most of them, but a list of the characters at the beginning of the book would be helpful.

The group realizes that things are getting bad again. They uncover a high number of suicides. Somehow, there are people making a lot more money than anyone else, which is not supposed to be happening. People are also having horrible visions. I like that the author can use humor even when someone is having a horrible vision. A character thought he was going crazy, and here I was giggling! There’s so much more happening, but I don’t want to give anything away.

A couple of things mentioned in The Source confused me a little, and they were probably explained more in the first book. An example of that is the glitch. I think it’s VR but there’s more to it than that.

Even though The Source needs to be proofread, it’s a good read. I hope to find the time to read the first book in the trilogy, and I absolutely have to read the third book.

About the Author

Zaph started writing in 2019, and in 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, he had a near 150,000 word dystopian sci-fi thriller in manuscript form. It wasn’t long after that that he started a second and third project, and he has no intention of slowing down any time soon – or speeding up for that matter. Zaph hopes you will be one of those that join him on the journey. It promises to be a wild ride.