A very solid dystopian tale with well-written characters, an innovative plot, and good dialog. This is a talented author. Recommended.

I really appreciate the copy for review!

A well written book that I thoroughly enjoyed reading. Set in the not too distant future and following 6 main characters who's paths criss cross in the events unfolding in the book. I feel that the characters were developed well as the story progressed and the way the author interlaced their individual stories was well done. A good book based in the future that doesn't feel unrealistic. Thanks to Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

I am very glad that I read this in this form that I did. The first book ends on a cliffhanger so being able to just continue on and read the next book was wonderful. From the very beginning, I was impressed by how quickly I was sucked into this story and the characters. I was intrigued by the descriptions of the future and learning small bits about what caused the rift in the United States resulting in BlueCores and Redlands. The reason this wasn't a 5 stars book for me is that parts of the story didn't seem to flow smoothly. Overall, I was intrigued by the storyline and characters.

A different kind of tale of darkness that will definitely give you goosebumps at several scenes along the journey of these six inhabitants of a dystopian Chicago. Layers of descriptive fantasy that hits a little too close to home in some ways will have you spending the whole weekend with The Perihelion. These characters work their way through the streets where their one goal is to stay alive. As their paths diverge, their stories intensify and their options narrow. A wonderfully different book than my "normal" reads. Loved it!!!!

I received a free copy of this book from the author. I had the opportunity to review or not.

Enter the world of the future. A world of total control. In There are people with insect DNA, wasps specifically who are great successes and perform above expectations. There are people with leopard DNA that are frightening failures. Some people voluntarily become mutilated in order to have animal capabilities unique to their own special skills and desires. But are humans really ready for this kind of manipulation.

The Perihelion explores the penchant of man to interfere with nature. But in the need to exceed what nature has crafted, man, who is not omniscient, somehow manages to create chaos even in the midst of his quest for order. This is where we find four unique creations and the people who surround them. Completely engrossing, this tale of man’s foibles a lesson in humanity. Do not underestimate the needs of the creatures we make. If we do not learn from failures of the past, we ware doomed to fail again. Or have we come far enough to have learned enough?

If you want a look at some answers, grab this book and be prepared for a fascinating read. The author’s characters are fascinating and very real. The world they live in is familiar and foreign. Their desires are so very human it is hard to remember they are not naturally created.

Great read. Great book. I would love to read other books by this author. The description was great and the characters seemed real.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

I came into this edition having already read the two main pieces of this book. This collection of Perihelion stories features: The Perihelion, An Obliquity, and a bonus novella: The Rue Cler Decommission. The books are set in a alternate version of Chicago that Wozniak has dubbed Bluecore 1c, I mean if that does not get you going what will?!, and set in the not to distant - distant - future. Its a cyberpunk dystopia where daily survival is the main objective of life. Among the many moving parts in these stoires is the utterly fascinating crew of characters. There are six main characters and they are not 100% human our six main people are part animal. The animal parts of our main characters imbue them with amazing abilities as to be expected though this creates other problems. For instance there is Leo who is part leopard and the writing in those scenes is sharp and tense and, I suppose leopard-like, in any-case it works and Wozniak does an effective and thrilling job going at all the angles here with the animal-people abilities.

The concepts that Wozniak weaves are compelling and as the story lines merge and and the characters begin to intertwine this book will be in your hands to the end. UNPUTDOWNABLE. Immensely readable and deep and lyrical and just totally beautiful. This is special science fiction. The sci-fi effects are not all that wholly original per say but what Wozniak does with them is truly special. It is full of bold beautiful writing.

Deep. Immersive science fiction.

** Thank you NetGalley and Publisher for giving me a free electronic ARC in exchange for an honest review. **

It has taken me a while to finish this book, and for that I apologize. I enjoyed the complex lives of the characters and the world, but I had a hard time sticking with the story. I found myself putting it down and not thinking about it for several days. Nevertheless I finally sat down and read through the book and I was not disappointed in the slightest, it’s beautifully crafted and I’m glad that I received the duology so I wasn’t left with a cliff hanger.

My favorite read of the New Year, so far, is The Perihelion: The Complete Duology by D.M Wozniak and, I believe, it will probably be in my top ten reads, if not #1, when the year comes to an end. And, with this year in its infancy, readers must know that this book "is just that good" (part of my “best of the best” category). Furthermore, Wozniak will now be a reader I turn to for a great read and to watch for when new work is released. I can't put my finger on one thing that makes the book a great work of literature because there are so many. The story is a "what if '', for the future of mankind and the U.S., if we go in a certain direction, if society chooses to advance in particular ways and Wozniak opens the eyes of readers to what humanity could become.

Society is different in the future, the U.S. having been split to the Redland and the Bluecore. Society no longer has creative names for regions or areas, just basic labels with no real unique history attached other than the regions once held the majority of a particular United States political party, such as a Democrat (red) or Republican (blue). The new federalism, living in the Bluecore, people must have implanted identification (optional in Redcore), guns are outlawed in the Bluecores, along with the death penalty and abortion is legal. Population density now divides people rather than geography (the “new” federalism, as Wozniak puts it).

As society has advanced, humanity has advanced, at least, scientifically, genetically with the creation of the 99ers. This is a slang title for genetically modified humans. Since now, most pregnancies happen in a lab (which means a baby grows in an artificial womb) and instead of sporting a pregnancy belly, women wear a sort of jewelry around their waist with different additions that tell people what month their child is in (development wise). You actually no longer have to carry your own child! And, while that can be a great boon to prevent injuries to a child, as mothers in the Bluecores believe they do, the natural womb is also a protection, a natural one (and most, if not all natural pregnancies are in the Redlands). Myself, I have always believed natural, really, is always best (in really, everything) and, come to find out at the end of the first book, that mothers in the Bluecores might have wanted to carry their own child as disaster happens because of the 99ers. And, for the simple fact that every person, every “being” with some semblance of humanity, wants a right to life, I believe. A right to live their own life, do the things they want, create their own path, follow their own river. And therein lies the problem for the 99ers (and the humanity of those in the book) as they strive to assert their own views, about their own life, with no one listening or caring.

With our country and its history of discrimination, I would think, before scientists created anything like the 99ers, as they do in the book, that they would have studied other subjects (and the issues in them) other than their own field. (And therein lies the importance of combining fields of study). But, without much thought to what life would be like for what they create, (which comes as no surprise when we look at some of the history of science, in the real world, the here and now) in Wozniak’s tale, scientists take 99% human D.N.A. and combine it with 1% of specific animals like the wasp, the leopard and a type of cephalopod (because of their ability of their minds and memory). In actuality, there was not a perfect one percent but for all intents and purposes this is how the “creatures” (as most people think of them and treat them) are thought to be created.. While there are two schools of thought, in the world, about these 99ers, that no life, even with animal D.N.A. should be usurped for purposes of government use and the other, that, because they have this sliver of animal D.N.A., they were “created” therefore, as one in the book put it, “would have never been alive otherwise” and should owe their life because of this.

And, I can only assume that everyone, hopefully, would think the same as I do with this thought, that nothing with any human genes would want their life taken for any purpose other than their own (at least the whole of their life). And, even though scientists, their creators, think that they have offered 99ers everything under the sun, the 99ers want to be the author of their own story, they want to be free.

While those with WASP and cephalopod D.N.A. have abilities they can be proud of and for all intensive purposes, integrate into society, those with leopard D.N.A. have terrible issues. The one we meet in the story, being named Leo Goodall (and, the first created always carries the animal DNA in their structure in their name, as you see with LEO and leopard) has major problems from the DNA combination. As one would expect, with the good results, there would be some bad, some setbacks. But, a physical setback is created. The poor 99er’s, the leopards, have problems with their hearts, controlling them, especially around attractive women. And, they have “simple minds”, like that of a child. Sadly, many have actually attacked women. And, as the book opens with a 99er’s, a leopard's murder, we see that Leo, like all the other leopards, has danger hunting him, like all the others of his species.

The murder is caught on camera by a hummingbird, another stunning, imaginative creation of Wozniak’s. He really floors me with the different ways in which he takes human civilization in the future, what we could create for ourselves, where our history could go. The hummingbird is the advancement for someone who would be called, now, by me, the “uber” journalist (totally obsessed to do what they do). That is because you only get to be a hummingbird with a surgery, a medical enhancement surgery. After it is done, you are able to control a camera with your hand (the hummingbird is the camera but also, what they label the person as, society does) and the view of the camera is seen in one of your own eyes, split screen. Of course, since it is named the hummingbird, the camera flies. One can only assume that it would be disorienting for a time and then you get used to it, as Gavivi Williams does. The hummingbird use didn’t come as second nature to him, it became a part of him, who he was. Gavivi is one of the few hummingbirds we meet, who is researching the story of all the leopards who are dying, finding that women are inducing heart attacks to kill them.

There are several other characters who the story switches back and forth from. Some interact, some have yet to meet, some never meet at all. But, as the first book ends, in the duology, and the second begins, the 99ers have done something BIG, something that changes the Bluecores for all those who live there, to attain their freedom. And, because of the blood in their veins, a detection system that was bred into their physical form, they have had to do this. And, as I don’t want to tell you what, exactly, they have done so as not to ruin the story, the damage of what they think that they needed to do to get away, change the lives for all involved in the tale. As the second of the duology opens, we see the characters making their way in the world they once knew but, because of the damage the 99ers created, they have some problems they first need to solve, to be able to go on and survive. If they can.

Even though the 99ers have created a dangerous world for all involved, especially themselves as now, they face permanent eradication if caught, those that created the 99ers don’t seem to see the lesson in the story they should learn. That you can’t create something so human and think to cage it. That every human, even themselves, has always pushed limits. Why do they think, something so human like the 99ers, wouldn't do the same? As the first of the book closes and the second opens there is talk of making new 99ers and hopefully, in the end, they will have some compassion, sense, and see what they did is wrong. Even Gavivi, the hummingbird, sees the error of his ways as he chose to look at life through a device's eyes and not live it as his own. He walked away from a relationship, from a fiancee he was to marry, to live his life through the lens of a device, essentially, look at the world through something else, and now, with all that has happened, he sees that all this technology, this advancement, may not be the right way to live.

I could go on forever about this book and still not include everything in it and what I thought as I was unable to include all the characters even, here, in this review. There is so much going on in this book and it all works, almost, like magic. Wozniak has created magic, at least, for me, here. It is one of the best pieces of literature I have ever read, number one without a doubt in creativity and I think, the best writer to even take where we are in the U.S., with some of our issues and combine it to make a future that works out in a cognizant way, a way in which I loved to read and get a glimpse of. The way in which Wozniak twists our world for the future is superb as he creates ones with issues and problems that serve as a warning to us, now. There is no way a reader could pick up this book and be dissatisfied as it will be one that I read again and again, a favorite that I recommend long after it is finished. I love to love a book that I hate has an end!

Happy Reading!
(definite with this book)