The Seeker in Forever

Rating All Ages Genre comedy Publisher StoryFocus Communications External Links Official Seeker in Forever Website

Imagine, if you will, a world ruled by the media and corporations. Now imagine two people, a man and a woman, fighting against the establishment for freedom. This is the premise of the book. We follow two young lovers as they set out to change the world and to overthrow the 'evil' empire by attacking the structure during a presidential election. Miles is a strange young man who dreams of being a Sound Chaser. What's a sound chaser? Well, it's someone who tells the stories of opposites and wants to look for the truth of the world. He wants to challenge the society that his rival, Cinjun, is creating. Miles and Daphne go on a dangerous quest to topple Cinjun.

This book is not set up like a normal novel. The sentence structure is more poetry than prose at times and doesn't follow the conventional 'novel' set up. It's almost a burden to begin reading this story because it's structured so differently, but once you get used to it, it makes a lot of sense. After all, the book is about toppling conventions. Funnily enough, there are some lines that are taken from popular songs, most notably 'Splish Splash' by Bobby Darrin. It's not the whole song, but mostly 'Reeling with the feeling, moving and a-groovin'.

The story, like the truth about everything, is about opposites. On the one hand, it's about intangibles. The politics and 'evil' are embodied in Cinjun and the voice of the people in Miles. In a way, these characters are more than a person. On the other hand, the story is about individuals and how much one person can change the course of the masses.

The book is described as a comedy about the insanity of our world. It's not a comedy per se, you won't be laughing when you read it, but it brings to light what is going on around us. It's a 'comedy' because it tries to show us what's going on around us, and in light of all the crazy stuff happening, the only thing you can do is laugh and try to make changes. It's also interesting to note that the author highlights that this book isn't about some big media monopoly enforcing its own rules (although there's plenty of that in the book), but that most people only want to hear and see what they are used to seeing and hearing. Basically, Fox is saying that people are afraid of change and unless a movement gains momentum or someone is willing to speak against the mainstream, things will continue as they always have. It's a powerful message, and I think that for the most part he was able to get what he wanted across.

I just wish that the characters were a bit more interesting -- they're all fairly static. Miles doesn't change much from the beginning to the end and neither do the other main characters. To me they're not believable. Of course, it's probably not the point of the novel to make believable characters, but the author could have at least tried to make us sympathize with the underdogs or hate the bad guy. In this case, you're left feeling indifferent about the situation. And of course besides that, the ending...well I can't give that away, now can I? Not everyone will feel the same. Some people will love these characters. I found them annoying, most notably Daphne. However, I don't think who the characters are to be very important to the author.

Overall, it's an interesting novel. Although it may take awhile to get used to reading the prose, it becomes easier as you start to understand the story a little more. It's an interesting read with a powerful message.