What do we give away when we click “I AGREE” to the terms of service on
our phones? Why are the billionaires squirrelling away all that money?
Why do old photographs and songs hint at a history we can’t remember?
Why do professional sports teams need new stadiums so often? And why is
everyone so depressed?These are just a few mysteries that Ms. Never – a
new novel by Colin Dodds – takes on (and possibly answers) in startling
fashion.Farya Navurian seems like an ordinary young woman trying to get
ahead in the city while struggling with depression. But her depression
is anything but ordinary – it has the power to destroy time and space.
Growing up the moody daughter of a space-faring hero of The Greater
Anointed Imperial Ohioan Commonwealth, Farya annihilated most of that
world and its history, leaving behind the husk-like Buckeye State.One
day at a record swap, she meets Bryan, a divorced telecom CEO. More than
record collecting, what they share is that they each carry a howling
secret. Bryan’s business is a cover for a bigger operation that buys
human souls and sells luxury afterlives using shady terms of service in
mobile-phone contracts. The two of them fall in love, and as they start a
life together, their secrets back them into a corner where they have to
come clean – and take drastic steps – to save themselves, and possibly
reality itself.Ms. Never is a distinctly 21st-century vision of consent,
memory, and the ways we create and destroy the world every day.
REVIEWS!“(A) transfixing, fantastic narrative… The author executes the
story with exacting, direct prose and characters who live and breathe in
the mind… an exceptional work. Existential dread takes on new meaning
in a fantastical tale…” – Kirkus Reviews“Ms. Never is a big-picture
novel, which encompasses the nature of reality, the universe, and life
after death… a crazy world, but even the craziest parts of it have a
ring of truth to them… Dodds’ prose is exquisite… Farya’s battle is the
battle we all face: to impose a meaning on a world we only partially
understand by fighting to retain what is worthwhile and battling against
those people and events that cheapen everything around us… Ms. Never is
a soaring novel, an imaginative, creative triumph and one that has some
power to change the reader” – Lost Coast Review“Smart and mysterious…
With themes uniquely developed and a musicality to the prose… this is a
great story with a powerful theme and just about enough mystery to keep
you asking questions. It introduces a really unique concept on
understanding depression and its impact… this one is sure to satisfy” –
Independent Book Review“MS. NEVER is a vast, multifaceted undertaking…
adjectives like ‘riveting, complex, detailed, skillfully crafted’ come
immediately to mind… delves into comparisons between worlds imagined and
worlds that were… manipulating spiritual infrastructures, making a fast
buck from knock-off universes… chock full of intriguing ideas” –
IndieReader Reviews
