Difference between revisions of "Newest Dystopian Fiction Reviews"

A small hand in hers. 'Is it our fault?' Abi said nothing. These tender words show the situation. Ant (a teenaged girl) and Mattie (her younger brother) are innocent and in a prison – HMP London, no less. Since the death of the EU and a huge, all-conquering recession, people are being imprisoned left, right and centre for the crimes of their parents and their parents in turn, meaning anyone with any slightly dodgy firm or habit in their family that might have taken money away from the common good is having their children imprisoned. And even though Ant and Mattie are legitimately in there, due to their parents' activities, they've since been adopted by people who have themselves been accused and imprisoned, thus making them real tabloid-fodder as the worst criminal family in Britain. Surely, then, there's no hope? Full review...

Concentr8 by William Sutcliffe

In a speculative near-future London, there's a new wonder drug to treat ADHD. Concentr8 is cheap and effective. So effective that the mayor has instituted a programme to identify children for early, preventative treatment. Almost every troublesome teen in London is taking it, often before they've actually become troublesome. But then an austerity drive sees the program cut abruptly. Riots break out, led by the unmedicated teens. Full review...

The Hunt by Paul Bird

This is Britain after the Very Big Crash. Life is very different, especially if you live in one of the lower suburbs under the Local Government's authority. Cush lives in one such suburb. He works as a detective in the floating Krawczyk building and, though he thinks it himself, is pretty good at his job. His wife Samir doesn't work, even though she'd like to, and spends her days at home reading those most antiquated of things: books. Their son Nim is sixteen and is obsessed with a video game called The Hunt. Cush and Samir fall out constantly over their differing approaches to Nim's obsession. Full review...

Doctor Who: Vengeance on Varos by Philip Martin

If only those critiquing Doctor Who had access to a time machine, they would be able to temper all their responses. When Mary Whitehouse found the likes of Genesis of the Daleks to be too violent, she and her coterie had no idea the series would soon turn to a prison world, where soon-to-be victims of snuff movies are trapped in a reality-show styled existence, and a hard-done-by populous are sat at home doing nothing other than watching the feeds from the executions, the morgues and worse. If those watching Doctor Who had the benefit of foresight they might have responded to Vengeance on Varos differently. They were quite vocal in complaining about a horrific character being a trade delegate who is half-man, half-slug and wholly stupid evil laugh, and such an artificial premise. Little did they know the series would soon lumber people with Bonnie Langford, and aliens looking like liquorice bleeding allsorts… Full review...

The Four Books by Yan Lianke

Literary Fiction

The Four Books is a difficult, challenging novel and not for the feint hearted, or for someone looking for a page-turner. It really challenges the reader's perceptions and opens up a gateway to an era that is difficult to imagine for anyone brought up in a western culture. Set in Maoist China it tells the story of four protagonists and a memorable antagonist. The four, found guilty of anti-revolutionary crimes are undergoing re-education in a work camp governed by the child. With an Orwellian feel, The Four Books will come to be regarded as an undoubted masterpiece. Full review...

Maladapted by Richard Kurti

Cillian isn't an average teenager. He knows he's a mathematical genius, he's already at university studying advanced theory, but Cillian doesn't realise quite how above average he is until he's the sole survivor of a train explosion. With his father is dead and his last words to Cillian a riddle, Cillian's existence is thrown in a whole new light. Full review...

Nod by Adrian Barnes

For anyone who has suffered from insomnia, the idea of a world with no sleep is an unsettling place as it feels so real. The thought of having to drag yourself to work after a night with no sleep is bad enough, but what about two nights, or three, or four? Society will crumble if everyone missed five meals in a row, but what would happen if we all missed five nights of sleep? If you end up in the land of Nod, we are all in trouble. Full review...

The Philosopher Kings by Jo Walton

Twenty years have passed since the Goddess Athene founded the Just City. The god Apollo is still living there, albeit in human form. Now married, and the father of several children, the man/god struggles to cope when tragedy befalls his family. Beset by grief and a need for revenge, Apollo sets sail to find the man who caused him such pain, but discovers something that may change everything… Full review...

Boy 23 by Jim Carrington

Boy 23 isn't in My Place any more. He can't see The Screen, he can't hear The Voice. Boy 23 is alone.

Before being dumped alone in the forest by The Voice, Boy 23 - or Jesper, as we shall call him - has lived in a room entirely by himself. He has never met another human being or been outside. His only experience of the world has been through a few short video clips, shown to him on his Screen by The Voice in My Place. Now, he finds himself alone with only a bag full of survival equipment and some brief words from The Voice: his life is in danger, people have been sent to kill him, he must head north west to the Low Countries, The Voice will meet him there and explain everything. Full review...

Black Moon by Kenneth Calhoun

Do you ever have those nights when you hear every chime of the clock, when you watch the shadows move round the room painfully slowly as the moon crosses the sky? Thankfully I have very few of those. I know that the thing most likely to keep you awake is the worrying about the fact that you're not asleep, and I have distraction mechanisms for when I need them. Full review...

After Many A Summer by Aldous Huxley

Like many of us, I suspect, I knew nothing of Huxley other than the "required reading" of Brave New World. Naturally, on that basis alone, he was pigeon-holed in my head under the heading Sci-fi - must check out further. Full review...

Confluence by Paul McAuley

Yama is a foundling orphan adopted as a baby by the Aedile (chief civil servant) of a small city downriver of the mighty, ancient city of Ys, capital of the man-made world of Confluence. Longing to become a soldier and take his late brother's place in the long-running war against the heretics, the restless seventeen year old is about to be taken as an apprentice clerk despite his young age, to keep him out of trouble. Destiny, however, has other plans for him. Full review...

The Walled City by Ryan Graudin

In the walled city of Hak Nam, there are three rules; run fast, trust no one, and always carry your knife. In streets controlled by vicious and sadistic drug lords, three individuals all seek something. Dai seeks information on the criminal brotherhood which employs him, lest he be imprisoned. Jin Ling seeks her sister in the Walled City's brothels, evading the roaming street-gangs as she goes. Mei Yee, trapped in a brothel in the city and forced into sexual relations with the two-faced Ambassador Osamu, desperately seeks freedom. The three have just eighteen days to accomplish this, as the officials of Seng Ngoi plan to evict all residents of Hak Nam in preparation for its demolition… Full review...

The Just City by Jo Walton

Urged on by her brother Apollo, goddess Pallas Athene founds the Just City of Atlantis – a city based on Plato’s republic. Filling it with an assortments of adults collected from throughout time, as well as ten thousand ten year olds, (one of whom is a disguised Apollo). Whilst the city flourishes, the arrival of Socrates may prove to be a fly in the ointment… Full review...

System: With his face in the sun by Jon A Davidson

Wallace Blair, like everyone else, is used to the benefits of a life guided by The System. After all, The System knows best. However he is somewhat dismayed when he wakes to a System message on his Commcuff informing him that his happy marriage is about to be dissolved and that's not his only concern. After being sent to retrieve papers from his grandfather's house, Wallace reflects on how long it's been since he's seen the old man. Wallace decides to drop in on him but what should be a trip to an elderly care facility takes him down an unexpected path. Full review...

We All Looked Up by Tommy Wallach

Peter, Eliza, Andy and Anita are all about to graduate high school. They all have plans and expectations, even slacker Andy. But those expectations are about to be thrown into disarray. An asteroid is approaching Earth and there's a 66% chance of a collision and an extinction level event. There are just a few weeks before a possible, no a likely, end of the world. What will happen? How will they react? What will they do? Full review...

The Well by Catherine Chanter

The subject and title of Catherine Chanter's debut novel is a country idyll of which dreams are made: charmingly ramshackle, disarmingly verdant and heaving with fertile acreage. Ruth and Mark can barely believe their luck at finding this perfect retreat, an oasis from their tired and overwrought City existence. Several months down the road and with the entire nation brought to its knees by an almost apocalyptic drought, Ruth and Mark are beginning to question their good fortune in their ownership of The Well. Full review...

Mind Games by Teri Terry

Luna is a Refuser. In her world, a Refuser is a kind of cross between a conscientious objector and a Luddite. In this post WW3 Britain, almost everyone has a brain implant which they use to spend most of their lives in a virtual environment. People don't just play in the vast array of games: they work, they learn, they date. Even hacking is encouraged. And those who opt out, like Luna, are shut out of the best careers and viewed with suspicion. Full review...

The Ship by Antonia Honeywell

Sixteen year old Lalla has spent her life in London – mostly inside her family home. Because this is not the London of today, or any other day. When Lalla was seven, the apocalypse arrived; banks crashed, flood defences failed, power failed – and the world could only focus on survival. Now the Nazareth Act is in force and without your identity card, you don’t exist – literally, as you will be shot if you don't produce it. Full review...

Influx by Daniel Suarez

We are told to never judge a book by its cover and that certainly includes any quotes that should adorn the front. Since his debut novel, all the Daniel Suarez books I have read had a quote suggesting that he was the legitimate heir to Michael Crichton. To compare your work with one of the best techno thriller writers of all time is never going to be easy and time after time, Suarez fell short. That is until Influx, a book that finally puts Suarez in the same illustrious company as Crichton. Full review...

The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker

The Age of Miracles was one of those much-talked about books that I never got the time to read on its first go around. I'm not sure how I managed that, but I did. Anyway, it got debut author Thompson Walker a seven figure deal after a bidding war and it has dystopian themes, so it is right up my alley and not the sort of thing I'd usually miss. And so, I was happy that Simon & Schuster decided to reissue it for a YA market and even happier that they decided to send me a copy. Full review...

Goodhouse by Peyton Marshall

There have been times in history when governments have thought they knew who the criminal underclass was. This did not lead to anything good under the Nazis and the same can be said of the Goodhouse regime. If we knew that certain genetics led to an increased chance of criminality, wouldn’t educating these people when they were young be a good thing? Prevention is better than cure, but I am not sure if fascism is. Full review...

This is Shyness by Leanne Hall

This is Shyness is an unusual and brilliant story about Wolfboy and Wildgirl, two strangers who meet in a pub in the town of Shyness. The teenagers are drawn together, each adopting a different identity so for the night they can be anyone but themselves. Full review...

The Remaining: Aftermath by D J Molles

A week is a long time in politics, but it feels infinitely longer in a zombie apocalypse. The Remaining started a new series of books that followed trained military expert Captain Lee Harden and his mission to rebuild America should the undead hit the fan. As an introduction, The Remaining did a great job in creating the world and exploring Harden’s tenacity to stick to the mission, but it ended so abruptly. The Remaining: Aftermath picks up moments later and continues the tale, but does it still deliver a week into his mission? Full review...

Decay: 2 (Tesla) by Mark Lingane

The city has been rebuilt for war. The waves of cyborg attacks are just the beginning – what follows is more devastating. Not only that but also the flood of refugees surging in daily is as much of a problem as a resource. Actually in one or two cases the word 'problem' is a bit of an understatement. In the middle of this hell Seb and Melanie are doing their best to fight and survive, although survival doesn't look like an option once they realise they have to go into the enemy's hive and bring the battle to the cyborgs. Full review...

Sand by Hugh Howey

World building in science fiction is easier said than done. How can you design a completely foreign place and explain it all to your reader, whilst still writing a compelling narrative? If you are an author such as Hugh Howey, the answer is with consummate ease. Howey has already got the fabulous ‘Wool’ trilogy under his belt and following this up was always going to be the difficult second album syndrome. Well, be prepared to be sucked quickly into ‘Sand’, his new novel. Full review...

Seven Second Delay by Tom Easton

In the future, the difference between West and East are greater than ever. Europe has evolved into the (British) Isles and the (E)U, linked by a bridge, and immigrants risk everything to pass from the third world of the latter to the first world of the former. Mila has made it across, but the danger is not over, and as she falls into the hands of the Agents, she realises the real price of freedom. Full review...

Mutant City by Steve Feasey

After a devastating chemical war, the world is slowly rebuilding itself. A select group had hidden away in underground bunkers and, when they re-emerged, built six cities in which the genetically pure live in luxury and comfort. But outside the city walls, everything is very different. The survivors there are mutants, fighting for survival in degrading, impoverished circumstances. Full review...

Riot by Sarah Mussi

It is 2018 and Britain is still in recession. Years of austerity have devastated the country. Banks are going under. Unemployment is rising. The cost of welfare is soaring. Prisons are overflowing. And the population is still rising. Something has to give. The solution? Forced sterilisation of all school-leavers without a secured place in higher education or a guarantee of employment. The programme has started with prisoners but the legislation to roll it out across the population is about to go through parliament. Unsurprisingly, there is a growing popular protest against it. Full review...

The Giver by Lois Lowry

Jonas lives in a world were sameness has prevailed over individuality. There are rules, so many rules, which are adhered to, and which allow society to live without pain, suffering or conflict. These rules are rarely questioned, merely accepted. When they turn twelve, children in this world are assigned their future role in society by the Elders, and start training for it. These assignments are based on years of observation of their characters and aptitudes, and whether they are assigned to be a nurturer of the young or a caregiver of the elderly, a labourer who keeps the streets clean or someone who prepares and provides food, they are usually a good match for the person. At the assignment ceremony, Jonas is not given a typical role, however. He is selected to be the Receiver of Memory, a position given out only once every few generations. He will receive and store all the memories of the past which the rest of society are no longer burdened with, but which may be needed from time to time to aid in decision making and law enforcement. Full review...

Goddess by Laura Powell