Phoenix Rising - Against the Odds: Chronicles of Resilience (Book 3): Rebuilding Lives Amid A Nation In Turmoil by Jordan B Smith (2024) focuses on fictional individuals and communities who are putting their lives back together after a national upheaval. Set in a politically and socially fractured country, the narrative follows multiple perspectives: grassroots activists, displaced families, and reluctant leaders. Themes include loss, adaptation, and the question of what a rebuilt future should look like.
The novel begins in a school where a faction of the community is lobbying for teachers to use artificial intelligence as an aid to their teaching instruction - pointing out that students learn in different ways and AI would add to the varied methods of teaching. Teacher Benjamin Diamonds has developed an innovative AI program aimed to revolutionise the way students learn. Tensions and opposition from teachers and parents who prefer "human-centred education" are authentically described and well-written in what Ben calls "a deathless debate."
The book has multiple narratives, urban and rural settings, political and personal spaces, time sequences and flashbacks, and chapters grouped by thematic clusters, e.g., seeds of trust, broken bridges, ash and light etc.
Its strength is the wide panorama of resilience, but some readers may find this approach disorienting. I liked the portrayals of communities reconstructing physical spaces but also rebuilding trust with their neighbours: “We are not just building walls; we are building the hands that will one day lift someone else up.” The recurring image of fire is interesting and the dialogue feels real.
This is a thought-provoking book, bound to initiate as much heated debate as the book describes. It shows the hardships as well as hope of communities as they recover. Although some characters are not well-developed, the book has strong themes, authentic dialogue, and rich symbolic language.
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MARTINA NICOLLS is an Australian author and international human rights-based consultant in foreign aid evaluations and audits, education, psychosocial support, resilience, peace and stabilization, and communication, including script writing. She lives in Paris. Her latest books are: If Paris Were My Lover (2025), Tranquility Mapping (2025), Moon, Mood, and Mind Mapping Tracker (2025), and Innovations within Constraints Handbook (2025). She is the author of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).
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