Between The Lines

The Truesight Trilogy

     Author: David Stahler Jr

   Performed by MacLeod Andrews

   Released: August 2013 by Audible Inc

   Category: Young Adult

Book 1 - Truesight

In the first of this futuristic trilogy we're introduced to 12 year old Jacob. He lives with his family on a space colony, Harmony, where everyone is born blind.  The thought of sight is almost an abomination and the belief is 'true sight' leads to crime and dishonesty. Little do they know! Jacob finds out a lot about the people in his community when inexplicably he begins to see.

Shocked and horrified Jacob hides the fact of his sight and tries to carry on as he would normally, which becomes increasingly more difficult. He is hit by another bombshell when he is told his best friend, Delaney, has committed suicide.  

Eventually Jacob is found out and the leader of the community's 'solution' to Jacob's newly acquired sight is a terrible one. Jacob has some serious decisions to make about which life he wants, the one he's always known and been comfortable with or the one he now sees is the real one.

Book 2 - The Seer

Now Jacob is a seer he is trying to get to grips with the new, unknown and incredible world he finds himself in. He has left Harmony to save his sight and is befriended on his travels by Xander, a great character who has his own troubled and sad past.

Jacob misses his family and Delaney, who he found out hadn't committed suicide but was banished from Harmony by her father and Jacob wants desperately to find her.

Jacob needs to find his place in this new world and deal with what's happened to him.

The pace and tension are upped in this book, especially with Jacob's visionary dreams giving him a fore warning of things to come.

Book 3 - Otherspace

A very good ending to this trilogy with lots of engaging characters.  Jacob learns more about himself and finds the place he's been drawn to in his visions after a long and arduous journey. He finally arrives at a colony on a distant planet for people like him who have gained sight.

This isn't the end of Jacob's adventures as he is instrumental in bringing more people to the safety of the new colony. He has finally discovered who he is and what he needs to do.  And Jacob's visions of himself as a man returning to Delaney and Xander comfort him with the knowledge he will see them again.

Performance

Once again MacLeod Andrews' considerable talent and ability with young adult fiction come to the fore in a superb narration.  

Thoughts

An extremely creative storyline with a distinctive protagonist emerging and growing as he turns 13 and his world changes irrevocably.

As a young adult series I think it would raise questions for the reader, the issues of extremists and friendships, good and evil are not glossed over.

The descriptions of space travel are fantastic.