Andy Giesler

Coolio, we get a book protagonized by a character in their mid 70s! It is highly unusual to have books protagonized by characters over the age of 50, and this book takes zero punches ensuring Harmony (who prefers for everyone to call him Bibi because he hates his birth name so much) has aching knees, a bad back, and constantly has to worry about not breaking his hip when he falls off his bike while being high on some kind of drug. (Yeah, Bibi is pretty wild)

We soon discover Bibi is retired from the army due to mental damage from his field. Certain humans have evolved in such a way that they are born with a sort of emotional telepathy, also known as the ability to ken or kenning. What began as an ability in his youth to win Poker games with absurd ease, Bibi was trained in the military to mentally control killer drones with absolute precision. Naturally, the people with this ability tend to be highly empathetic people and they commonly have to be discharged due to PTSD.

This book is not 100% linear, but rather it goes back and forth in various time periods while every timeline shares the common knowledge about Bibi and his destructive ability. Some chapters are more serious, some teeter on funny (Bibi's cat frequently exudes joy whenever he falls off his bike while high on drugs), other chapters are kind of wacky and let us discover Bibi's 3 moms that raised him in some kind of hippie commune.

Now that I have finished reading the book, I am awarding it a well-deserved 4 stars. I quite enjoyed Bibi's struggles with PTSD (which is the reason why he is so adverse to all sorts of technology, including riding in a plane), his relationship with his spunky cat Eller, and the odd friendship he forms with Demelza and Dread. Dys is quite an interesting contrast as his on again off again ex-lover/business partner/thorn on the side/soulmate. It is perhaps true that opposites attract, and Bibi has always enjoyed the endless mysteries of Dys. If some people can develop psychic abilities reading people's emotions, Dys falls into the polar opposite of the spectrum colloquially known as a PADS. In our modern era, she is described to be a psychopath with zero empathy for causing suffering to other people. But contrary to Hollywood, Dys encompasses the most common traits of this population segment. Most people with antisocial tendencies are not serial killers. On the contrary, Dys is quite against murdering people. Not in the sense she has moral qualms, more like doing so runs the risk of ending up in prison, leaving her without the chance to further her life goals of doing detective work (and pushing Bibi's buttons for the sheer fun of it). Her true loyalties are only to herself, but she offers a very fun relationship with Bibi throughout the entire book.

Another thing I would like to mention is there's dozens of little red herrings sprinkled all over the book that seemingly feel like filler, but are actually cleverly placed hints of the book ending. This is one of those books where you won't fully appreciate every little breadcrumb hidden everywhere unless you read it twice.

I did feel the book meanders a little bit too much on occasion, and it could have been a tighter read. Otherwise, it was an enjoyable and rather original story. I would enjoy seeing more books with older protagonists. It felt very refreshing.… (más)

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90 points, 4 ¾ stars!
Warning: weird almost non-consensual, almost consensual sex?


The Nothing Within is not my usual type of story. I just plain don't typically go for dystopia. It just isn't a genre I typically enjoy too much. However, when I do find one I can like, I tend to love it. This was one such book. I loved The Nothing Within for all the things it did that others won't, or can't, do.

Come to think of it, I don't typically enjoy the storyteller narration style, either. Yet, Root telling all that was and all that is and getting around to what is to come? This time, the way Andy Giesler does it, well just worked for me this time It was just plain well done. Root tells her life, or at least a portion of it, within the pages of The Nothing Within. It isn't a pretty nor glamorous life. The way Root tells it, it is just a normal life and she did a few things that weren't so normal.

I really liked the main character, Root. She is great. Headstrong and asks way too many questions that the adults won't (or can't) answer. She is not willing to back down for anything, even though she knows it makes the others fear and hate her. Even when she knows it would be smart, she doesn't. Root is also blind. Which doesn't stop her in whatever she wants to do. Which is typically things that seeing people are afraid to do.

The Nothing Within isn't a happy story. Nor is it depressing, and it didn't send me into despair. In fact, if we are to believe Root, the story just is. Root does a good job of telling the story so that you aren't overloaded with all of the hell she goes through. She just presents the story as if it's just something everyone would go through. It isn't what anyone else would go through, because Root is quite special and way too stubborn, but she is very humble about it. Perhaps too humble, because giiiirl you have gone through some shit. Own it!

The story shifts between past and present, sometimes in the same sentence. There are also two levels of past: root's childhood and the time of Reckoning, when the world broke itself. The distant past is interesting, as we see how society starts to form itself into what we end up with by the time Root is a child. Then there is the time that is "now" when Root is telling the story about her past. Sometimes, Root will talk about both the then and now in the same paragraph, which was a bit confusing when it first started happening. There are also little bits of songs or tales told in between the rest of the narration. The storyteller narration was used well, even if I didn't like it in the beginning it grew on me by the end.

There is one scene about a third of the way through that I just can't get over, and I need to talk about. It involves sex and it is....bizarre. I don't even know how to categorise it. I nearly quit the book over it, even. Fortunately for the book, and for me, the scene ends "well", even if it left a lasting impression on me. From that scene onwards, nothing else like it comes up again (thankfully), and the book got even better from that point onwards. Just, getting through that scene...yikes!

I just really loved the story in The Nothing Within. I loved the high technology reasons in a low technology world. I loved the way the knowledge has shifted over the millenia. I loved the fact that Root is blind, and she is getting by in a world that is quite hostile to her. I just really liked the book, and I'm glad I read it. Even if I don't typically care for dystopia, I cared for this.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Andy Giesler, Humble Quill LLC, and Netgalley for providing the opportunity to review this copy!… (más)

Fans of Lois Lowry's The Giver quartet, Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games trilogy, and Pat Frank's Alas, Babylon will not be able to put down Andy Giesler's debut offering The Nothing Within.

Americans have feared the idea of a nuclear apocalypse dating back to Hiroshima. The popularity of the video game series Fallout (1997-) is proof that a fear of an apocalypse destroying our way of life is still present and not a faded memory from episodes of The Twilight Zone (1959) or news stories depicting Y2K Doomsday preppers. A fear of zombies and the technology we have come to rely upon no longer working permeates pop culture.

The difference between many of books capitalizing on this fear and Giesler's novel is that The Nothing Within is incredibly well written. Giesler has created a history and world that is almost Tolkien. Instead of composing an entirely new alphabet and language, Giesler carefully played with the English language and applied nuanced changes that would occur with the loss of print and technology while relying on mainly passing down stories and history verbally. The changes are subtle, but enough to show how drastically the world has changed and how compartmentalized the existing world has become.

The novel takes place after the Reckoning during a period called "The Time That Is" in an area that was once north-central Ohio. Next to this section is a canyon known as The Void and it is unknown what if anything lies beyond. Chimera, creatures that are bizarre combinations of humans and animals, and Outcasts, criminals who have escaped punishment, haunt the woods. We meet Root and follow her life as she struggles against a society in which she does not quite fit, the Nothing inside her, Outcasts, chimera, and the past.

Root's story is complimented throughout the book by chapters that are excerpts from Ruth Troyer's journal chronicling life directly after the Reckoning. Troyer lives in an Amish community during presumably our future. Even though Troyer seems to be traditional Amish as we know the lifestyle to be, the Reckoning has caused life changing and life threatening challenges for her community. Her journal provides invaluable information crucial to understanding Root's world.

The interludes of Troyer's journal entries have been seamlessly added by Giesler who writes as a master weaver never removing the reader from the world and history he has created. His book, advertised as "a rural-dystopian novel exploring post-apocalyptic Amish country" has the makings of a true classic work if it can get enough exposure. I can critical of book series, but I think the world he created is rich enough that a prequel or sequel would be appropriate instead of the cash grab it sometimes seems to be with other authors. As a reader, I craved more by the end of the book.… (más)