The Essence of the Aptitude by Esha Bajaj

The Essence of the Aptitude is a science fiction, dystopian novel by Esha Bajaj. Its the first novel in the Corpus Chronicles series. Esha Bajaj is a new author of teens and really loves science fiction novels.

Praise for the Author:

“The Essence of the Aptitude is a compelling science fiction, with so much action and drama. The suspense is never ending and I bet you will totally lose yourself in the story like I did.”

Plot:

“The Great Empire of Corpus thrives by the hand of a system that monitors their citizens from birth. Their inclination towards logic is calculated into a finite number that is branded onto their wrists on their ranking day at the age of sixteen, and they are separated into one of six colored categories.
Juliet and Gwendolyn Fenn spend the beginning of their lives bound back by the Grey status of their parents, residing at the utmost bottom of the hierarchy. On ranking day, agents of a mysterious unranked sect, the Conscience, snatch Juliet from her home. They take her to the Cerebrum, the capitol of the land and the dwelling place of the Metallic ranks, Bronze, Silver, and Gold. Once there, Juliet is informed that she has not only been ranked as a Gold, but as the First, and will be groomed to be the crowned ruler of the nation.
Gwendolyn, ranked into Blue, only one step higher from her origins, soon becomes sick with resentment as the depths of her sister’s arrogance come to light. She decides to take matters into her own hands and joins the Fracture, an insurgent group lead by the notorious Tyus Zraa, who’s true colors Gwendolyn fails to discover until she is in too deep to turn around.”

My Views:

The first thing I loved about this novel is that it was from different perspectives, so you get to know what is happening with all the characters. Second, I loved the uniqueness of this story which is: this whole empire is divided by colors that tells us the ranks of people like grey is the least rank, blue is one step above grey, then red is one step higher, then bronze, silver and gold is the highest rank. The bands of these colors are on every person’s wrists from which they are recognized and they are monitored by the center cerebrum, a place where high authorities(Gold) live.  Third, the characters of two sisters called Gwendolyn and Juliet Fenn are totally opposites of each other. Juliet’s character gave me such a huge shock at every level of the story. Gwendolyn’s fighting skills amazed me, she improves more later on. I loved the action in this story that was there throughout. I really got attached to Skyren Cage who is one of the council members of the Empire of Corpus. Also the concept of the Agent of the Conscience was totally unique. The end left me hanging though but I really got attached to the story and its characters. Waiting for the second part to come out.

My ratings: 4/5