Shalilayo: Mirrors of the World

by Justin Lee Mitchell, Marlaine Sarah Mitchell (Editor)

Our world is on the brink of destruction-from ourselves. Between corporate and government greed, peak oil, global warming and countless other inevitable disasters, we don't stand a chance. Enter a band of aliens, ready to teach us a better way, by force if necessary. And it is our destructive ways will not only obliterate us, but all of the other worlds on the various dimensions occupying the same space as us as well, of which these aliens are a part. But they aren't alone. With the help of Terrance, who tried a similar tactic two thousand years ago, and a couple of well-meaning, like-minded Earth humans, they may be able to bring the Earth to heel through awareness, healing and love (preferably) or a swift butt-kicking if not. The shadow government controlling Earth has no intention of releasing their strangle hold on humanity though. Alien visitors would ruin all of their careful manipulations of the science and education fields where the public is duped into believing false information on almost every aspect of how their universe operates. As the first few humans begin interacting with the aliens, it becomes obvious that the public world's last true scientific break-through was discovering the earth was round. While many species wish to exterminate the human threat, the Zerans discovered that the humans had been tampered with by another race during their evolution, resulting in their inability to use their sixth sense to feel the world around them. In the Zeran's opinion, the humans are not completely responsible for their destructive actions and should be given help to fix their world and repair their minds. For those who refuse to live in peace, the Zerans prepared several other dimensions where they would be relocated to. These new dimensions lacked the dense elements necessary to create nuclear technology, which is the most threatening problem since the radiation caused by nuclear devices bleeds through to other dimensions.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

342 pages, Paperback

First published February 20, 2010

Reviews

[Tammie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was one of the best I have ever read. It seemed like there might be some editing issues not so much misspelling or anything like that it just seemed as though there were some confusion in which character was thinking or speaking maybe 2 or 3 times in the book however it may have been my own mind not making sense of "yar". I found this entire Book perfectly paced and one of those impossible to put down. It came across in the way the story was told as plausible. It was also a great social commentary that took me through my complete range of emotions sometimes in the same moment. I would recommend this book to anyone even remotely interested in the scifi genre.

[Shalilayo]

I am certainly biased on this one...

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not exactly what i expected and a bit too sciency for my taste, but overall a good story that i did enjoy reading.

[Kirsten · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellent book! look forward to reading more by this author

[Shelby · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was just really great!! It it is creative, funny, and thrilling, with the perfect mix of science fiction and romance! A definite must-read!

[Deborah · Rating 1 out of 5]

Shalilayo by Justin Mitchell begins as the story of a boy named Celdic who lives in another world. He knows he is different to some degree from those around him - mostly because he can't use his "yar" like everyone else (think "the force" from Star Wars). One day however in an accident of fate he bridges the link to his yar and discovers that it is actually more powerful than most any other person he knows. This results in a bit of confusion about how to teach him to control it etc.

At this point the story shifts from Celdic to an impending destruction of his world that is caused by things happening on Earth. Celdic and his friends are called on to escort a peace-loving Zeran girl named Riah to Earth while she works to teach the people here the way of peace before the Earth humans destroy everything.

I will admit that all in all the story about Celdic starts out with some promise and I found the world intriguing. What killed the story for me was the complete shift of focus in story (could have worked at least a little better if it had been divided into two books) as well as way too many gaps in the logic and reason behind the story and lots of unnecessary scenes and information that didn't help the story or make sense.

I also felt that the entire second half of the book boiled down to the author preaching his personal beliefs - no nukes, no fighting, complete vegan diet, no money, no government, no organized religion, and support for homosexual marriage. (I will say that even when I did agree with what was said, I thought the arguments were way overdone, dramatized to the point of unrealistic, and if the author was trying to make a case for the things he believes in that it could have been done in a much better way.)

Overall there was no real building or conflict - Celdic found his powers (that really didn't change too much/if anything about the book), the "superior" race came in and told the humans what to do or they would be taken away. Some agreed some didn't- those who didn't are taken away into isolation worlds where they would be forced to act in the right way due to lack of resources to do otherwise.

[Alyssa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is currently one of my top ten favorite books. I've read this at least a half dozen times, and still can't get enough of it. While this book seems to be focused on promoting a vegetarian life-style, I think most people misunderstand that it was actually the author's intent to properly portray another species view of life who developed on a world with no carnivores. I've never read a book that was able to take me out of my little earth bubble and show me humanity from a completely alien point of view.

Another of my favorite parts of this book is the way it focuses on the good in people and doesn't soak you in blood before the end. If you enjoy deep thoughts of what the nature of the universe really is, this is definitely a book you want to read. Each time I read it, I discover another fascinating concept I had missed on previous reads. The story also breaks with tradition and shows the good guys with the upper hand for almost the entire story. I get really tired of reading the same old story line where the hero's are always losing every battle until the very end where they miraculously win. Aside from being very depressing, I think such a method programs people to believe that good people, or 'heros', live through miserable adventures they wish would happen to someone else, and that life is rarely pleasant. Shalilayo shows just the opposite; life is wonderful most of the time, with occasional disruptions in the normal way they live. I could definitely see this book being used as a literature guide at some point in the future for people to compare what society was in our day, to what it will become when we reach full sentience.

While this book was wildly different from the author's other book, Gorinthians, I have high hopes that he will write another similar story to Shalilayo to expound on more of the concepts explored in that story. I feel a sense of envy for those who are just picking this story up for the first time;-)

[Bill Johnston · Rating 2 out of 5]

This should be classified as Young Adult -- the scifi concepts are fun, but the story pace tends to simplify a lot of concepts, and there is not a lot of depth to the characters.

[Jim · Rating 2 out of 5]

First chapter, great. Second chapter, interesting. After that, I just lost interest.

[Jaime Cheeka · Rating 2 out of 5]

Free download for Kindle. Thought it was OK- at times it got a little too preachy.