The Big Happy by David Chadwick
| The Big Happy by David Chadwick | |
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| Category: Dystopian Fiction | |
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Reviewer: Jill Murphy
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| Summary: A wonderfully realised dystopian adventure with themes of climate and human fallibility and resilience. Great worldbuilding and engaging characters, with an energetic pace. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 351 | Date: [[:Category:|]] |
| Publisher: | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: | |
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Well! This is a murder mystery unlike any other!
I do love it when I open a book, it's nothing like I expected it to be, and it takes me on a wild ride. And that is just what happened with The Big Happy. I don't want to ruin a similar experience for any of you reading but I'll have to at least set the scene. Once that's done, I think you should simply experience this wonderfully original story for yourself.
It's the year 4050. In April. On Friday the thirteenth. And the Family Guy has murdered yet another married couple and their children. This family annihilator has struck more than twenty times and extreme measures are now required. We arrive at the scene of the latest crime - a room in the Caesar's Palace casino, Las Vegas and in 4050, this is now in England, which is part of the Popular Republic, or PopRep as it likes to call itself. The victims are Kanye and Kiera Sinatra and their children Jay-Z, seven, and Beyoncé, five. The scene is horrific.
Sent in to catch this serial killer is Det Top Boss Miranda (Randy) Miller. Miranda is not happy to find herself forced to speak in IngoLingo, the street slang used in the PopRep but she grits her teeth and gets on with it. I'd recommend readers who are also getting on with it in chapter one refer to the glossary in an appendix at the end of the book if they want to have a clue what's going on. Think Clockwork Orange's Nasdat, but passed through a social media lens and you're about there.
Miranda has been sent in by Scientia, one of the three big federations in the new world of 4050, which developed after the second dark ages caused by climate collapse. Scientia (today's Asia, Australia and Russia) is the most like a liberal democracy we'd recognise today, PopRep (Europe, North America) is shallow, materialistic, capitalistic, and Trumpia (South America, Africa) is a vicious dictatorship. These federations are in constant conflict, particularly PopRep and Trumpia, but Family Guy has struck in all three. And Miranda Miller must find him.
But Miranda, a creation of Scientia, is not a detective like any other. She's a fictional detective who has been "actualised" - made real, if anything's real any more - by Scientia's advanced technology.
Can a fictional detective find a real world serial killer? Are there more levels of reality and unreality to uncover? Can you even guess where this unusual and exciting novel will take you, when I tell you that I've simply summarised the first twenty-or-so pages for you? I'll bet that you can't. And I certainly didn't! All I can tell you is that I enjoyed The Big Happy immensely. I've not read a book quite like it before and I suspect it'll be a long time before a novel surprises and engages me this much again. It's exciting and it's unexpected and it expects a lot from the reader but gives back even more.
Highly recommended!
Other novels that blend crime with dystopian fiction include The Real-Town Murders by Adam Roberts and Communion Town by Sam Thompson.
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You can read more book reviews or buy The Big Happy by David Chadwick at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy The Big Happy by David Chadwick at Amazon.com.
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