Ninth Review? So close to ten already! *sniffles proudly* Today's victim is the Sci-fi/Dystopian story Aetherius by @wendythestoryteller. Is it going to offer us sweet, roasting satisfaction?

The cover shows a woman and an upside-down city. I get the thought behind it, since the women are dominant in this dystopian future. But the pale colours, the sceptical face of the woman and the outline of the futuristic city don't really convey the feeling of the book. I would make much more sense with a black cover, a woman on the upper side, a man on the lower side, and the outline of the city behind them (just a thought ;) ). The blurb puts us right into the mood, with the controversial theme of women being the ultimate dictators and the men forced to live underground enslaved. An amazing idea, one of the best I've seen so far. Let's see if it delivers.

Plot & Characters

The first thing I noticed were the eight chapters of story. So, I logically assumed this is an ongoing story as we speak. Truth is, this story hasn't been updated in 2,5 years!
The plot is the following so far: After a gruesome rape and murder of a young Mexican girl in the near future (2052), a virus is manufactured and released by the victim's aunt. The virus is attacking the Y chromosome, killing almost every male in the course of two years. With the women being the dominant species, the remaining men are enslaved and forced underground.

The current year is 3052, and the women are living in a futuristic city which provides every comfort, while every man over the age of ten is living underground, with his only purpose to serve women any way possible. That includes being called for sex whenever a woman has the need to fuck.

The story focuses on two characters: One is our spoiled female character, Shay, who places a sex call to a sweet looking guy called Armond. Unfortunately, she starts falling for him, but feelings towards men are strictly forbidden. She calls for him a second time, which is also forbidden and gets found out by her boss and one of the main Judges of this society, River Connor. 

Our male character Ryker on the other hand, is malnourished, dirty and frightfully closed to insanity. Forced to live underground, listening to the screams of the men every night and day, he decides to escape this place. A totally mad decision, since the chip implanted at the base of every man's neck is almost impossible to remove. Every single person who has attempted escape before ended up dead, but Ryker is desperate. For revenge on the Judge River Connor and every woman who has forced him to live like this. For the chip extraction, Ryker teams up with a respected, wise man called Bijan. His story ends with his dangerous escape from the underground city.

The idea of this story is a pretty interesting one, and I am not ashamed to say that I was actually engrossed while reading (it even happens to the best of the roasters!). But... when I reached the end and started thinking about it, I realised that the story itself is actually lacking in very basic levels. Let's just say that a Y-chromosome virus is plausible, and let's just say that women somehow managed to stay in charge for a thousand years. (I am a woman myself, but there are not enough words to describe the magnitude of backstabbing that takes place between women.) What bothers me A LOT though is the rage of the women after such a long period of time.

Think about it for a second.... You know that in 1017 A.C, pretty bad things were taking place, since it was the middle ages and all. But does anyone feel actually enraged and spiteful by all those crimes against humanity? Hell, the Salem witch burns were roughly 350 years ago, and they are nowadays described more as a historical fact than a reason for women to stand up to men. There is a fact that will never change in the human brain. People forget. No matter how gruesome the event or no matter how many monuments will be raised for the dead, people tend to repeat the same mistakes, because they don't want to remember. Anger is a fleeting feeling itself. Still, these women torture men in every way possible, even after a thousand years.

Because this is not about equality, or even isolation for the sake of safety. It's just sadistic treatment against men. Let's stay focused here for a second. To the fact of torture. I wouldn't have a problem if the men were forced to stay mostly underground, with occasionally going outside to serve women. But these people are living in hell. Having meals only two times a day, living in dirty conditions, no sun, no air, half of them plagued by insanity. Not to mention allowed to consume alcohol. The sperm of those men is probably nothing less than destroyed, if their bodies are so tormented. How have those pitiful individuals managed to impregnated every woman on the planet?

The pregnancies is also another factor that bothers me. Because of the lightness of the Y chromosome the chances of a woman having a male baby is close to 51%, so after a thousand years, the population of the men would actually be a rather large one again. Along with the torture they are a revolution waiting to happen, even when they are controlled by chips and robotic cops. How come the incredibly clever women of this Dystopia never thought of that? They could have easily brainwashed the men at an early age, having them live underground but in actually viable situations, with food, clean air and clothes and the men would most likely never want to revolt. Especially if they came in contact with their relatives in the man community. Plus getting called for sex often. Who was going to say no to that?

The characters are actually interesting, but the chapters are too few to say if they are really well-written or not. Shay is a bitch, but that's the way she was raised. She doesn't have to work because she already has a shitload of comforts, like all the women in this world (I wonder why though? If almost no-one works, where the hell do they get the money from?). Her reality is torn apart, when she falls hard for naive guy Armond, who wants to use her to help his best friend Ryker escape.  Nothing much to say about her, unfortunately.

Ryker, on the other hand, is full with feelings. But only negative ones. Rage, an impeding need to hurt and kill all women, and so much desperation that death doesn't bother him. On the contrary, most of the times he wishes he was dead. And that's why I can't really connect with Ryker's escape attempt, because his mind is so far gone, he would be cool even if he died. His life is so awful, death would probably be a great liberation at this point.

Grammar & Writing Style

The grammar was very good and I like the different POV's in the writing style. What I didn't like and also didn't though was necessary, was the narrator's interval between Ryker's and Shay's POV. Since the writer already give us huge chunks of backstory through the characters, I don't think this story needs an additional unnecessary voice.

Advice to the Author

1. Change the year. I sincerely believe that lots of things that didn't make sense in this story were due to the fact that a thousand years have gone by. Think about it, how plausible it is for humanity to still stay unchanged after such a long time? How come men never tried to revolt? How come the women are still so actively pissed off, so enraged that they give up their own kids to be slaves about such an old incident? I think if you've made the year f.e 2200,  it would be more plausible that women still felt threatened by men, and forced them underground. 

2. Change the treatment. I would have loved if you have taken a more subconscious approach. For example: The little boys are shown from a very young age how the world was a dangerous, violent place when men were in charge, and how women have made all the pain go away. How it is imperative to be a slave to women, because they are higher beings and men are just a little better than apes. Have them stay underground, but in good conditions, believing they are happy with themselves, believing this is the life men should be having. Imagine the impact of a protagonist suddenly becoming self aware of the invisible hell around him, and the difficulty he has to escape. The journey would be a lot more interesting if the MC actually has something to lose.

3. Ditch the narrator. Keep this a first or third person POV, maybe adding more characters along. Old ones who know this dystopia's hidden history, more preferably.

Final Rating: 6,5/10. I would have rated this higher, if not for the "not-so-well-thought" plot holes, and the fact that it hasn't been updated since forever. I hope the writer will find the inspiration to continue this story again, because the potential is truly enormous.