Book Review: The Lightning Stenography Device by M. F. Sullivan

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Genre: Literary, Sci Fi & Fantasy

Publisher: Painted Blind Publishing

Publication Date: March 19, 2018

Disclaimer: I received a free eARC copy of this from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Filled with surrealism and philosophy, The Lightning Stenography Device forces the reader to question what they think they know about life and existence and is likely to appeal to fans of The Picture of Dorian Gray.

The Lightning Stenography Device, or LSD for short, boasts the ability to aid in writing by translating someone’s conscious thoughts into text on a computer screen. What it wasn’t supposed to do was work when the user was unconscious. Yet, when one of the creators wakes after falling asleep with the device on his head, it’s to find that he’s written a story in his sleep. Not just any story, but a prophetic one. One that ends, ultimately, with his suicide.

Fast-forward to 2032, and the LSD has hit the mass market. Katherine and her husband Cassius, both writers, pick some up with the idea of making their writing easier. Cassius, especially, who has been struggling to finish a novel he’s been working on. But then he falls asleep at his desk, and when he wakes, it’s to a manuscript that predicts his future, right up until he has a seizure. Determined that the story is not a self-fulfilling prophecy, and desperate to prove he’s not losing his mind, Cassius seeks out the remaining inventor of the device, a man who calls himself Enoch.

What they conclude is that Katherine is the key at the center of all of this, and what she isn’t telling them is that she’s produced her own prophetic manuscript. One that ends with her holding a skull, and she’s terrified of what that might mean for her own future. Together, they must uncover the mystery behind the manuscripts, and if they’re not writing the books themselves, who is? Something other than the conscious mind? God, perhaps?

But in the beginning, there was the Word, and after that, there came Consciousness and Matter. Together, they created Earth and her inhabitants. All Matter wanted was to stay forever with Consciousness, and all Consciousness wanted was to create humans and watch them grow. But humans have a way of ruining things. For them to evolve, they must consume Consciousness, and now Matter has no choice but to look for him again. She believes she might find the answers she seeks through a young human named Felicity, who, cursed by a witch though she is, wants only to find her Man, the King.

☙ The prose itself is quite lovely. I think this is more of an acquired taste, though. Like wine or stinky cheeses. There were some places where the sentences got a bit convoluted, especially in the first section, but overall, I really enjoyed the actual writing. It had a very archaic, literary lilt to it, but not so much that I couldn’t follow it.

☙ The fourth part, Felicity, is pretty much everything I’ve ever wanted in a book. There’s a tragic love story between deities and a whole mythological backstory that hooked me right from the beginning, and I was invested in it, darn it. I loved every bit of it. There’s a kickass protagonist who is as confused about the world as the rest of us, a mouthy sword, a talking snake, magic, illusions, sacrifice. If the first 60% of the book disappeared and this last 40% had been the entire book, this would have gotten 5 stars. I would have bought several dozens copies and just started chucking them at strangers on the street while shouting, “READ THIS.” I want a whole book focusing around those characters. Hell, I want a whole series of books written in that style.

☙ I want more characters like the Sword. A.k.a. the Silver Flower and Silver Snake. Because, you know, Felicity doesn’t have language, but she does what she can. Give the girl a break. This was by far my favorite character, and every book should have one. His voice was wonderful, and he basically came to life for me. Have I mentioned that I loved the character? I couldn’t get enough of him. There was something about him that reminded me of C-3PO, but less robotic and so much better. I could go on, but probably, it would devolve into a bunch of fangirl gibberish but, gah, this character was perfect!

☙ I legit need an LSD. The device, not the drug, thanks. I actually loved the premise here, especially the idea of what happens with the unconscious versus the conscious. I found the general basis of the philosophy to be interesting, and there were plenty of moments that made me pause and think (which is what a book like this is meant to do, so that’s good). I mean, just the ethical issues alone of a thought-to-text device and all the possible implications of unconscious vs. conscious writing. What would you do if you wrote something prophetic in your sleep and had to decide whether or not to read it? Would you want to know the future, even if you couldn’t change it?

☙ The philosophy was hard to follow. I mean, I like philosophical things. If it gets me thinking, great. If it causes me a full-on existential crisis, even better. The philosophy here, especially in Cassius’ part, and sometimes in Katherine’s, was just hard for me to follow. It was dull and seemed repetitive and circular, where I felt like I was being beaten over the head with the same thing which I wasn’t understanding, and that was fine because it wasn’t actually moving forward towards anything anyway. I mean, maybe that’s just me and I was too stupid to get it (and hey, that’s a definite possibility), but it’s not like I went into this blind. I’ve been reading philosophy since I was a single-digit age, and now I’m … considerably older. There were some great concepts there, but I felt like sometimes it pushed too hard instead of just letting the ideas stand on their own.

☙ I may have skipped some parts. Okay, I definitely did. There were parts where the internal monologues became too much and I just couldn’t anymore. But mostly, it was the philosophy. There came a point where I stopped following all together and my eyes glazed over. I do confess, though, that I definitely did just skim past some parts where I would have otherwise been tempted to just put the book down and leave it at that. I’m glad I did, because the last part was worth it, but this was dangerously close to being a DNF for me.

☙ I’m sure there’s a connection between the parts, but … I don’t know what it is. The first three all involve the LSD and they comprise 60% of the book. Then, that whole storyline disappears entirely to introduce Consciousness, Matter, and Felicity. Well, it doesn’t disappear completely. There are certainly parallels between the characters, the storyline, and the themes. However, the connections just felt far too subtle to me. At first, when I started reading part four, I was entirely confused and wasn’t sure I was even reading the same book. Totally different world, totally different feel. There is a connection at the end, but like I said, it left me feeling disappointed and, frankly, confused. Which brings me to my next point.

☙ I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS. I didn’t understand the ending. There was a tenuous attempt to tie the fourth part into the first three, and I just … I didn’t get it. I don’t know, maybe I’m just dumb. I feel like I need a SparkNotes version of this book to understand parts of what the author was going for. I’m also not sure there was really a satisfactory ending to the first three parts, and there were things in that I expected to be resolved that weren’t, questions that were raised and seemingly left unanswered.

This one was REALLY HARD to review. I almost feel like I need to separate the book into entirely different stories, because there’s that much a distinction between them, and it was extremely jarring. Each one had different reasons I found them interesting, but the second was far more interesting to me than the first. I just didn’t see how they connected or fit together to form one cohesive story. The first three parts, I would give a two, and the last part, I would give a five, so together, I’d give this a three? THIS IS SO HARD. *flails*

In the end, it was a good read. There were definitely sections of the first three parts that kept me interested, and there was a lot of mystery and intrigue, but Felicity’s part was the best part of the book, in my opinion. That, at the very least, deserves to be read.

If someone were to invent a thought-to-text device, would you use it? For, like, school or creative writing or, you know, taking over the world?