Becoming Human by Eliza Green | Review, giveaway, guest post AND MORE!

I have recently been given the most amazing opportunity, to work alongside a fabulous author of a new sci-fi book. This book is called Becoming Human and was an incredible read. (But we will get more into that later...) 

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LINK TO ELIZA GREEN GUEST POST, JUST CLICK HERE!

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Win a FREE copy of Becoming Human by Eliza Green below!

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Personal opinion on the book:

Okay… WOW! This book was a really stimulating read and seriously got me thinking about world issues and what we can do to prevent such issues.
A few of the questions that ran through my head while I was reading this book were: If this happened what would I do? How would I act in situations like this? How do I become such a fabulous writer?

In all seriousness, the creative detail and well thought out objectives were amazing. The way Eliza described in the greatest detail how the complex technologies worked was truly amazing and must be highly commended.
I keep on coming back being completely amazed with just how much thought and planning would have gone into the creation of this book! It truly is jaw-dropping.

I have only just started to dip my toe into the world of sci-fi novels and have to say that this book is an outstanding introduction to the topic. At first I was a bit confused by all of the different POV’s – but as I continued to read I found that it was extraordinarily well thought out. All of the story lines were intertwined in some way. Through having the multiple POV’s the story was able to be described in much greater detail, and as my Ancient History teacher says – multiple primary sources put together, to form a collective secondary source, results in the best information.

As a primarily YA-focused reader, I personally feel like sometimes the cliché of a dystopian world can be overused. But in this book, the dystopian world was completely and utterly unique. The book just amazed me and was fantastic.

By the time I reached the end of the book, all the characters had won me over, resulting in me being really impressed with the detail that was put into each character’s personal story – usually in a multiple POV book there is nowhere need enough detail and personal information, in this book that was not the case.
By the end of the book I was just so amazed by the way that Eliza managed to link up each story line and all events had an important meaning.

Overall, I can into this book not really knowing what to expect and left knowing: this book redefined the term science fiction. 

Becoming Human by Eliza Green, book 1 in the Exilon 5 series.

Interview with Eliza Green - author of Becoming Human:

1: How do you plan such a complex storyline?

I wish I had planned better at the start! Becoming Human was my first published book I ended up reworking everything several times. But the main story was in my head from the very beginning. With a little experience under my belt, my planning is definitely improving! It helps to keep everything in order so I like to outline my story on an excel spreadsheet. That’s before I even write the first draft. Then when the first draft is written, I rework the outline to detail the chapters a little more. I try not to be too prescriptive about sticking to the script as new characters will often emerge while others get cut because they’re not doing anything. When I’ve got a decent draft done, I add in more detail and get out the scissors to cut the deadwood.

2: In your book, the 'new Earth' had a dystopian feel to it, how was it to write this? 

Quite fun, actually! I love dystopian stories but it was important for me that the story was relatable for readers and not too far into the future. I also wanted to link it to issues that are happening now—air pollution and overcrowding. The ‘new Earth’ is depressing, soulless and humans are the last living thing to face a possible extinction. Then there’s the alternative Earth, an exoplanet located thirty light years away called Exilon 5. Exilon 5 is modelled after twentieth-century Earth when air was cleaner and technology had not yet invaded our lives. But people living on the new planet are slipping back into the old trappings of society. Their habits are so ingrained in them, they don’t even realise they are the cause of the problems.

3: As you had so many different characters and wrote in so many different point of views, do you wish you could have developed some of the characters better? 

Yes and no. Becoming Human is really about three people: Laura O’Halloran, Stephen (oone of the Indigenes living on Exilon 5) and Bill Taggart. Everyone else is supporting their stories in some way, be it directly or indirectly. There just wouldn’t have been enough time to explore everyone’s story in Becoming Human but that’s what shorter books supporting the series are for!

Altered Reality and Crimson Dawn, books 2 and 3 in the series develop certain characters further and introduce new characters, while book four in the series, yet to be released, turns a minor character from Becoming Human into a major one.

4: You wrote in such great detail about the technologies, what helped you with this? Or was it all pure imagination? 

I had to do a lot of research! Some ideas were imagined, like the Light Box and the Buzz Guns or the termination clinics. But then you try to give them substance by backing up your ideas with cold, hard facts. What you invent doesn’t have to exist. It just has to be plausible, science-wise.

5: You finished this book on quite a cliff hanger, did you complete this book knowing you were going to write a second one? 

Not early on, but when I finished writing Becoming Human, I realised I had barely scratched the surface of who the Indigenes were and what was really going on with the humans trying to occupy Exilon 5. Some called the ending a cliff hanger, but I’m satisfied that the questions raised in Becoming Human were answered by the end of the book. Inevitably, new questions arose that readers wanted answered straight away. But they were for another story!

6: A cliched question, but what gave you the idea to write this book? 

That’s easy, from watching too many sci-fi movies that depict the aliens as aggressors. I wanted to turn that on its head and make my aliens walk and talk.

The idea for Becoming Human started with Chapter 4 where the boy and the alien meet at a bus stop in New London, a city on Exilon 5. Before I wrote a single word, I imagined how a human/alien conversation might go if you stripped away the gun-toting military and revengeful aliens. In Becoming Human, the boy thinks the alien is human because of his disguise. The alien is there to find out everything about the boy. What would they say to each other? What would they be most curious to ask about? Their second meeting is a poignant moment in the book because it’s a key turning point for Stephen, the main Indigene character.  

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Working with Eliza to get this post and her guest post ready for you all, was such an amazing experience. Not only did I get to read an amazing book, I also got to meet and work with the author of a book that I know will go far.

So, I would like to say thank you to Eliza for this amazing opportunity and also thank you to Kate Tilton for organizing for Eliza and I to work together on this project. 

Until next time, keep reading!

-Shelbi (Book Ambrosia)