The war between good and evil rages in J.R. Evangelisti’s futuristic thriller, The Stone Thread Second Chronicle. The year is 3000 AD; it has been hundreds of years since the Great War. The survivors of Earth live in a huge smog-filled bubble. Their lives are controlled by the GL. The GL governs you through its life-giving essence and a device, “the cube,” that is attached to your body. “You must have faith in the cube of life.” Propaganda spews from the city’s speakers; it is a constant diatribe, reminding them of their imprisonment. Rules are ingrained in their minds from birth. Following the rules without question is the only way to survive. Secretly, the people of the city hunger for freedom from tyranny. There is a small uprising of resistance, each doing their part to fight the GL. Two of them, Cryton and Marsha, realize that they are having similar dreams. Cryton takes the maxim of “follow your dreams” to a whole new level. His dream is about completing the mission. A war brought mankind to the city; it will take a war to escape.

The Stone Thread Second Chronicle is a baffling sci-fi dystopian tale. The ancient and the future collide. The opening of the story is set in the future, but several times J.R. Evangelisti thrusts the reader into the past. At times, this technique was rather confusing, as the chapters seemed randomly detached from one another. However, over time the mystery and the action gave momentum to the plot, not necessarily moving it forward, but stirring it up. The main characters, although strong and dynamic in personal traits, developed rather slowly. Once again, the author writes with vagueness and ambiguity, leaving the reader pondering, “Who are the protagonist and antagonist?” As The Stone Thread reaches its climax, it rapidly comes to an end. Not all the loose threads are tied up neatly, a few are left dangling. Is it the end or really the beginning? Some questions remain unanswered. But at least one was made vividly clear; the end solves the mysterious meaning of “the sky rained stones.”

The Stone Thread Second Chronicle by J.R. Evangelisti is post-apocalyptic dystopia that takes us to the year 3000 A.D. The city that was formerly known as New York City has been turned into a protected area for those who survived. There are now rules that must be followed without questions. If you want to leave the city you would be making a mistake; the world is no longer a secure habitat for humans.

It is safe to say that the post-apocalyptic/dystopian genre has many books because it has soared in popularity over the last few years. It is also safe to say that this book has a unique story to tell and is not like the others that I have read. This is the second book in the series and, not having read the first, I was lost on some of the concepts. However, J.R. Evangelisti's writing is full of information so I was able to catch up on soon enough on what I was missing. I would not want to live in this version of New York City that J.R. Evangelisti has created, but I enjoyed the mystery and the twists and the turns. There were so many things that I did not see coming at all. I am going to go back and read the first book in the series and then read the second again so I can get the full effect. I would recommend anyone who enjoys the genre to read this book, in fact read the series!