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But it isn't enough. Mud sticks. And soon enough, Stefan is on the run himself...
I loved, loved, loved this book. The narrative races away and you race it away with it. And as poor Stefan is punched down, punched down and punched down again, you feel punched right down with him as all the consequences of an authoritarian state become clearer and clearer. Without free speech, without civil liberties, poor Stefan is utterly defenceless. And of course, without ''real'' books in his life, he's also totally naive. He's never lived vicariously and he has no real bank of knowledge to use to help himself. And so we see him lurch from faithful state stalwart to libertarian rebel to violent terrorist without ever really understanding what's going on.
It's tough stuff, but it's absolutely credible and it doesn't sacrifice narrative to polemic, so the whole thing is pretty much a chase thriller with a wonderfully sympathetic central character and some big ideas to back it up. This combination of future catastrophe and high octane action results in a book that is going to appeal to a wide range of readers from early secondary age right up to young adult. It'll definitely give them pause for thought.