Transient, by Zachry Wheeler, follows the story of Jonas, a human spy embedded in the eternal-held city of Seattle. Eternals, blood-drinkers who in another age might have called themselves vampires, have taken control of the world and pushed humans to the brink of extinction. After years of war, the eternals have created a stable, nearly utopian society, subsisting on the blood of animals and sparking an age of egalitarian social and technological advancement. An age that the few humans who have survived will do anything to bring to an end. The humans have embedded spies, transients, among the eternals who use drugs to hide themselves and slow their aging. These transients study the eternals they hide among and search for a weakness to destroy them all. A weakness they may have found.
I enjoyed Transient very much. The story is told largely through journal entries from the main character as well as deep inside Jonas’s own conflicted mind. Jonas was three-dimensional and complicated, struggling with the anti-eternal programming of his youth and the reality of living and loving within the eternal society. Wheeler’s journal entries cover various parts of the history between the eternals and the humans they have replaced – everything from the war between them and the lawless years after the war began to the dating and social habits of the modern eternal. These journal “recons” were a delight to read and gave a great deal of depth to the setting in Transient.
I am very excited to see what comes next for Zachry Wheeler and recommend Transient to all lovers of urban fantasy, YA dystopias, and preternatural suspense.
You can find Transient at Amazon at: https://www.amazon.com/Transient-Zachry-Wheeler-ebook/dp/B01MTKX8U9/