Aaru: Halls of Hel by David Meredith – Book Review

You all might remember not so long ago, I review David Meredith’s book, Aaru. Aaru: Halls of Hel is the second book in the series and I was really looking forward to seeing what happened next.

Aaru: Halls of Hel by David Meredith

Blurb from The Back Cover

Rose is a Veda. In Elysian Industries’ virtual paradise of Aaru, that means she’s practically a goddess. She is immortal. A limitless world is hers to command.

She should be ecstatic, but the gilded utopia has lost its lustre. In a reality where anything can be hers with a thought, to what can Rose still aspire? She has all of eternity to fill, but what her purpose be? Also, Rose is dogged by deep concern for her little sister, Koren, Elysian Industries’ spokes model and reality star back in the before world, who increasingly finds her celebrity, relationships and persistent nightmares onerus to bare.

However, Rose has more to fear than she knows. The stranger stalker’s, Magic Man, obsession with Koren has not lessened, and he is far from defeated.

With vital aid from an unexpected source, his nefarious schemes to make Koren his own and hack the Aaru mainframe are secretly moving forward. Unless the sisters can thwart his sinister designs, everyone and everything the girls hold dear could be destroyed.

My Thoughts on The Book

I still find the concept of Aaru, a computerised system that allows a person’s consciousness to be uploaded and effectively make them immortal, a good one. I love the Black Mirror feel to the book as it shows how fantastic technological advances could be, without shying away from showing the darker side; the things that can go wrong and how one person can bring a system such as this to its knees.

Unlike the first book where I found both Rose and Koren to be likeable and relatable, this time, they both got more and more on my nerves as the book progressed. Rose is acting like an entitled brat for much of the book, and although Koren has a lot going on and I get why she would react in a negative way, she comes off as kind of whiny and a bit too “woe is me” for my liking.

The last quarter of the book is excellent, but I felt like the first three quarters of it had rather a lot of filler chapters, and I think the book would have been much better at half of the length of it.

Conclusion and Rating

Overall, I quite enjoyed the book, but it felt a lot slower than the first one. 3/5.

Aaru: Halls of Hel is available here.

Have you read Aaru: Halls of Hel? Did you enjoy it? Let me know in the comments

You can find me herJe: Twitter Facebook Bloglovin Pinterest and Instagram Please do stop by and say hi!

Disclaimer: I was gifted a free copy of Aaru: Halls of Hel in exchange for a review. All thoughts and opinions are my own – as an avid reader, I would never recommend a book I didn’t truly enjoy.