Tabula Rasa (The Amber group Book 1)

by Filip Forsberg

Amazon Prices:

Paperback: $14.00

Hardcover: N/A

Kindle: $2.99 (Available on Kindle Unlimited)

Audible: N/A

Before Reading Facts:

Tabula Rasa by Filip Forsberg was published in 2018 by Filip Forsberg.

Page Count: 424 pages (paperback) 426 (Kindle)

Audiobook length: N/A

Chapters: N/A (Book is not divided into numbered chapters)

Languages: English and Swedish

Summary of Book:

“In a dystopian future, earth is under strain due to natural disasters and accelerating pollution of the environment. On the coast of Madagascar, a ruthless corporate leader creates his own vision of the future in the shape of Tabula Rasa, a mega complex inhabited by over a million people. Jonathan Jarl, a rookie agent for the Amber group, is on his first assignment and is assigned to retrieve the famous Nebra Sky disc that has been stolen. During the mission, he is faced with some of Tabula Rasas darkest secrets. Meanwhile, in orbit around the moon, a discovery is made that has potential implications for the entire human race but Tabula Rasa is doing everything in its powers to keep the discovery secret. In a lab within Tabula Rasa, an idealistic scientist decides to share the discovery with the world. She takes a fateful decision that puts her life on the line. Jonathan is thrown into a breakneck race for time and Tabula Rasa is the first thrilling installment about Jonathan Jarl and the Amber group.” -Amazon

Author Biography:

“Filip Forsberg is the author of the science-fiction thriller series about Jonathan Jarl and Amber Group.” –Author Website

Book Review:

Overall Book Rating: ★★★★★ / ★★★★★

I won a Kindle copy of Tabular Rasa in a Goodreads giveaway. I was excited to read something new that was not already on my TBR list. I wanted to explore what else was out there and allowed the Goodreads gods to select my new discovery. That lead me to Filip Forsberg’s Tabula Rasa (The Amber group Book 1). I was very interested in reading this book as its cover was very interesting, and it made me wonder what kind of journey this book would take me on.

Now, I know I gave this book a low rating, but I do not intend it to be hurtful or negative. On the contrary, I want to encourage the author to keep it up! I really wanted to enjoy this book, and I am not entirely sure, but I think he translated this book from Swedish to English himself. Like I said, I am not sure. If he did, I am amazed! Some of us cannot even write a book in our native language, much less translate it to a different one. If that is that case, I commend the author for his work. Writing a book is hard enough; I cannot imaging how hard it must be to translate it. Again, I am not fully sure on how factual the translation comment is, but I did visit the author’s website on Goodreads, and it is in a language unfamiliar to me. It appears to be Swedish according to the Google translate I did on the website.

With that being said, I did find a good number of grammar-related mistakes. I would like to remain optimistic and say that this is due to English possibly not being the author’s first language. The mistakes did add up, but they did not keep me from reading more. The phrasing was also a bit confusing at times, so I found myself having to re-read. Taht made me stop more than the simpler grammar mistakes. Most of the grammar mistakes I found were missing commas, so they could easily be overlooked. Nonetheless, continual grammar mistakes cause me to shift from reading mode to editing mode, and I found myself editing the manuscript instead of simply sitting down an enjoy reading it.

The story progresses in an interesting way. There is promise in the story and its characters; they just need to be flushed out more. I found myself confused at some point. Perhaps, that is a result of not having read similar stories as this one. I also found that there is a lot of “telling” throughout and would have loved if the author allowed the reader to “show” more of the world he created. I got through about sixteen percent of the book before having asked, “where is this going?” I wanted more of the plot to move quicker. It seemed that, at times, characters would linger in a scene too long. I also found myself asking which characters I should care about. I wanted to connect with someone in the story but did not find that connection. The lack of connection to the character inevitably led me to giving up on the story and adding this title to my DNF list.

I do hope that in a future time, I find the time to give this story another go and perhaps even get through the whole thing. However, at the moment, other TBR books were calling to me and eventually drew me away from this title. I with the author luck in his future projects and would advise him to find someone who will provide a thorough and excellent proofreading and editing of his future projects.

Audible Review:

Narration Rating: N/A

No Audible Available.

Other works by this Author:

Novels:

• Seek allt som behvs (Swedish Edition)

Amber group Series

• Tabula Rasa
• Genesis