Book Review: ReMade Episode Thirteen: Memories of Arcadia by Andrea Phillips
advance reader copy 2:18:00 AM
Title: ReMade Episode Thirteen: Memories of Arcadia
Author: Andrea Phillips
Pages: 32
Genre: YA Science Fiction
Release Date: 07 December 2016
Author: Andrea Phillips
Pages: 32
Genre: YA Science Fiction
Release Date: 07 December 2016
From Goodreads: "You live. You love. You Die. Now RUN. ReMade is a thrilling sci-fi adventure that will take readers past the boundaries of time, space, and even death.
This is the 13th episode of ReMade, a 15-episode serial from Serial Box Publishing. This episode was written by Andrea Phillips.
Arcadia knows what it means to be lonely; she’s had no visitors for an awfully long time. So when a group of haggard teens tumble unto her streets, she welcomes then with open arms and plays host the best she can remember. Of course, they have no idea she’s there watching, listening, helping. But she doesn’t mind – after all, hers is half lost anyway.
ReMade Season One: In one moment the lives of twenty-three teenagers are forever changed, and it’s not just because they all happen to die. “ReMade” in a world they barely recognize – one with robots, space elevators, and unchecked jungle – they must work together to survive. They came from different places, backgrounds, and families, and now they might be the last people on earth. Lost meets The Maze Runner in this exciting serial adventure."
Thank you to NetGalley and Serial Box for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for review!
What even was this installment?! I was so worried that things had kind of flat lined where nothing was going to happen, good or bad, and I had somewhat accepted that the final episodes would just be "alright." But then Memories of Arcadia came along, turned all of that upside down and had me wondering just where this episode had been all of this time!
Arcadia has been alone for an awfully long time, having had no visitors since she was left by her creators. It's been approximately 800 years since anyone wandered into her city, until a ragtag group of teenagers and one other show up out of nowhere. She welcomes them with open arms, so to speak, and tries to take care of them the best she can. Of course, they have no idea she's watching them, listening to their conversations, and helping them whenever and however she's able. Arcadia doesn't mind, however, especially because hers is practically non-existent anyway.
This was such a refreshing episode to read, and it came at the perfect time. With only two episodes to go now, I was hoping for a great pick-me-up to get the story line going again and this definitely did that. I loved that we finally got to learn just what the city that the group stumbled upon is, and who's running it. While the group doesn't have a clue, readers got a look into who/what is keeping the town going, and she's not just anyone. Actually, she's a computer, designed to monitor and take care of the city. Her name is Arcadia, and she's been alone for eight hundred years. Arcadia is in charge of the caretakers, the killer robots that the group has been running from all series long. The caretakers are in charge of upkeep around the city, but they've slowly begun to lose their minds and have stopped following their programming. Because of this, Arcadia has been forced to banish all caretakers to outside of the city, which explains the crazy killer robots that the group encountered. It was nice to finally discover the origin story, so to speak, of the caretakers and see where they came from and why they were created. Along with the caretakers, Arcadia is also slowly losing her mind. My favorite part about this episode was the parts where Arcadia tried to recall information and you get this:
Arcadia has been alone for an awfully long time, having had no visitors since she was left by her creators. It's been approximately 800 years since anyone wandered into her city, until a ragtag group of teenagers and one other show up out of nowhere. She welcomes them with open arms, so to speak, and tries to take care of them the best she can. Of course, they have no idea she's watching them, listening to their conversations, and helping them whenever and however she's able. Arcadia doesn't mind, however, especially because hers is practically non-existent anyway.
This was such a refreshing episode to read, and it came at the perfect time. With only two episodes to go now, I was hoping for a great pick-me-up to get the story line going again and this definitely did that. I loved that we finally got to learn just what the city that the group stumbled upon is, and who's running it. While the group doesn't have a clue, readers got a look into who/what is keeping the town going, and she's not just anyone. Actually, she's a computer, designed to monitor and take care of the city. Her name is Arcadia, and she's been alone for eight hundred years. Arcadia is in charge of the caretakers, the killer robots that the group has been running from all series long. The caretakers are in charge of upkeep around the city, but they've slowly begun to lose their minds and have stopped following their programming. Because of this, Arcadia has been forced to banish all caretakers to outside of the city, which explains the crazy killer robots that the group encountered. It was nice to finally discover the origin story, so to speak, of the caretakers and see where they came from and why they were created. Along with the caretakers, Arcadia is also slowly losing her mind. My favorite part about this episode was the parts where Arcadia tried to recall information and you get this:
Record search: null. Data corrupt. This memory has been reconstructed from recovered fragments, but may be inaccurate or incomplete.
This was something that you encountered very frequently throughout the episode, and it happened when Arcadia tried to recall old information, but was unable to. It starts out small, but you can pretty much watch Arcadia continue to lose her mind and get frustrated that she can't remember and that she's losing her ability to watch over the city. It's kind of sad to watch her deteriorate, but I liked that she still tried her best to take care of the kids and adapt to the kind of things they liked. I'm really interested to see if Arcadia makes an appearance in the final two episodes, and how her mental state will be. I'm almost hoping for a complete breakdown, as terrible as that sounds!
Once again, Andrea Phillips has written an incredible episode with a fantastic cover. While episode nine, Whiteout, still holds my number one spot for best cover, I think this one has snagged the spot as my second favorite. I just couldn't get enough of the writing in this episode. It was beautiful and captivating and even scary at times, simply because you're watching (reading?) a machine slowly go crazy. I found myself wondering the entire time when/if she was going to finally lose it and what would happen to the kids. It was just so easy to get lost in the story with how descriptive the writing was, and I found myself finishing this episode much faster than I wanted to. Reading about Arcadia was such a refreshing change from the previous episodes, and the ending had me flailing about, excited for all of the things that could happen in the final two installments!
Memories of Arcadia is the installment you don't want to miss. Be sure to pick it up when it releases on 07 December 2016 and take one step closer to finishing out the incredible ReMade series!
Once again, Andrea Phillips has written an incredible episode with a fantastic cover. While episode nine, Whiteout, still holds my number one spot for best cover, I think this one has snagged the spot as my second favorite. I just couldn't get enough of the writing in this episode. It was beautiful and captivating and even scary at times, simply because you're watching (reading?) a machine slowly go crazy. I found myself wondering the entire time when/if she was going to finally lose it and what would happen to the kids. It was just so easy to get lost in the story with how descriptive the writing was, and I found myself finishing this episode much faster than I wanted to. Reading about Arcadia was such a refreshing change from the previous episodes, and the ending had me flailing about, excited for all of the things that could happen in the final two installments!
Memories of Arcadia is the installment you don't want to miss. Be sure to pick it up when it releases on 07 December 2016 and take one step closer to finishing out the incredible ReMade series!
