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Bousaleh's first novel is a cross-genre work, which successfully combines elements of light science-fiction and pure, distilled essence of fantasy.
The premise is based on reincarnation, yet the novel does not discuss reincarnation at length but rather states the principles and how it is used as part of the world building.
It features Faith, who begins the story as an invisible person, and can only be seen by her friend, Angus. The world setting is an alternate future world where humans are classified at birth by the colour of their soul. If a person has a red soul they have perpetrated an evil deed in the past and, so in order to rid the world of violence, these humans are frozen so that their souls don?t reincarnate, thus aiming to rid the world of violence in the future.
Faith has a red soul, but has no understanding of what evil she had done in a previous life. Inadvertently, she escaped being frozen and ends up in the upheaval zone, our middle-east. Manipulated by the British military because of her invisibility, Faith has to find a British soldier left behind ten years before in order to save her only friend, Angus.
Aptly named, the area has been ripped apart by earthquakes and is a no go zone patrolled by the French. In this place visions of past lives can overtake the present. It is here that Faith experiences a former life as Astarte, a horse breeder in Sidon, which is under the rule of the Assyrians. The use of this region and historical time period is an interesting and unique contrast.
At all times the pace seemed balanced, there is intrigue pushing the plot along. The dual story lines, Astarte's in first person and Faith?s in third person, work well together. I had a preference for Faith's story as the futuristic elements and science fiction back drop are stronger here. The pure fantasy elements that intermingle the lives of Faith and Astarte do cross over from past to present, making the story fun to read.
The character portrayal is good. I liked what Bousaleh did with the character, Rashid, but I won't spoil if for by giving that away.
The novel, Red Soul, Green Soul, discusses some interesting themes on the nature of humankind, in particular, where humans set up systems that appear ideal but will always be thwarted by those who can do so.
In all, a very competent first novel and a good read.
Hunted in a world where she is accountable for her crimes in a former life, Faith has an advantage over her fellow "Risks" - she cannot be seen. Read more about “Red Soul Green Soul”