Difference between revisions of "Newest Dystopian Fiction Reviews"

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[[Category:New Reviews|Dystopian Fiction]]
 
[[Category:New Reviews|Dystopian Fiction]]
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[[Category:Dystopian Fiction|*]]__NOTOC__  
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Philip Martin
+
|isbn=B0DB64PYV5
|title=Doctor Who: Vengeance on Varos
+
|title=The White Rose
 +
|author=Dave Baines
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Science Fiction
+
|genre=Dystopian Fiction
|summary=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 [[Doctor Who and the Genesis of the Daleks by Terrance Dicks|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…
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|summary=In 2033, a superstorm known as the White Rose devastates the Northern Hemisphere. And it's not a storm that gathers, wreaks havoc, then dissipates. Instead, it hovers across half the Earth with its octopus-like tentacles, not giving up and never going away.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785940406</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Yan Lianke
+
|author= Kay Chronister
|title=The Four Books
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|title= Desert Creatures
|rating=5
+
|rating= 4
|genre=Literary Fiction
+
|genre= Dystopian Fiction
|summary=''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.
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|summary= With a world that is becoming increasingly inhospitable for humanity, post-apocalyptic fiction can become an almost masochistic thrill. Whether it is a robotic takeover, a world devoid of water or a nuclear holocaust, this genre is a way for humans to cathartically experience their most existential fears. ''Desert Creatures'' by Kay Chronister is a new work of post-apocalyptic fiction that aligns many of the fears that exist for humanity today. It is a shocking novel that still manages to find hope.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099569493</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1803364998
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Richard Kurti
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|author=Thomas D Lee
|title= Maladapted
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|title=Perilous Times
|rating= 3
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|rating=3
|genre=Teens
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|genre= Fantasy
|summary=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.  
+
|summary= ''Hate is the path of least resistance''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406346292</amazonuk>
+
 
 +
Set in the near-distant future, in a world on the verge of climate collapse, Britain is in great peril. The British Isles desperately needs a hero (or several) to save the day and rescue what little remains. What no-one expected was that one of the Knights of the Round Table would answer the call.
 +
|isbn=0356518523
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Adrian Barnes
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|isbn=B0BQXSYYTF
|title=Nod
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|title=Just Looking
 +
|author=Matthew Tree
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Dystopian Fiction
 
|genre=Dystopian Fiction
|summary=For anyone who has suffered from insomnia, the idea of a world with no sleep is an unsettling place as it feels so realThe 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.
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|summary=It was the summer of 2035 and on a cruise ship in Marseilles, Jim was celebrating his new-found wealth and the end of his marriage - not two celebrations generally found in the same sentence by a man!  He's watching the tornado - they're more common in Europe these days - that's keeping the cruise ship in port and falls into conversation with Jean-Pierre, a French journalist in his thirtiesHe writes for a relatively new paper, the right-wing ''La Tribune Gauloise'' and he's interesting if a little wordy on subjects such as the difference between 'France' and 'the French'.  His partner, Helen, who's English and Jewish, keeps him in check to some extent.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783298227</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Jo Walton
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|author= Susi Holliday
|title= The Philosopher Kings
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|title= The Last Resort
 +
|rating= 3.5
 +
|genre= Thrillers
 +
|summary=A group of strangers gather on a private island. They have been invited to an all-expenses paid retreat to test a brand-new product from the mysterious Timeo Technology company. The group includes a games designer, social media influencer, gossip columnist and hedge fund manager. Everyone seems to have an area of expertise that makes their attendance necessary. All except Amelia whose presence is a mystery. We follow the group as they explore the island, and each other's histories and it becomes clear that they all have a dark secret they would rather keep hidden. As the clock ticks down, these well-kept secrets are revealed, and it soon becomes clear that this luxury retreat is really a gilded cage. In a race against time, Amelia must struggle to uncover the reason for her attendance and protect the rest of the guests from the increasingly sinister accidents that befall them. 
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|isbn=1542020018
 +
}}
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{{Frontpage
 +
|author= Ben Oliver
 +
|title= The Loop
 
|rating= 3.5
 
|rating= 3.5
|genre= Science Fiction
 
|summary= 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…
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472150791</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Jim Carrington
 
|title=Boy 23
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=''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.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408822776</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author= Kenneth Calhoun
 
|title= Black Moon
 
|rating= 5
 
|genre= Dystopian Fiction
 
|summary= 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.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099587343</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author= Aldous Huxley
 
|title= After Many A Summer
 
|rating= 4
 
|genre= Dystopian Fiction
 
|summary= 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''.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784870358</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author= Paul McAuley
 
|title= Confluence
 
|rating= 5
 
|genre= Dystopian Fiction
 
|summary=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.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>057511942X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author= Ryan Graudin
 
|title=The Walled City
 
|rating= 4
 
 
|genre= Teens
 
|genre= Teens
|summary= 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…
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|summary= Set during the aftermath of a Third World War where methods of punishment for criminal activities have been amped up to a horrific level by machines, The Loop follows the precarious existence of adolescent Luka Kane. In a world of Have and Have Nots where Alts [cyborgs] have power over Regulars, he is trapped inside a living hell with no chance of escape. A detonator has been sewn inside his heart connecting him to a trigger held by the guards who can end his life with one squeeze. Luka is taunted by limited access to his memories and relentlessly drained of energy through a gruelling daily torture ritual. Doomed to Delay [a risky medical trial where he is a guinea pig for Alts in place of execution] after Delay he is in despair. His prison is based on the model of an infinity loop designed to make its inmates suffer. With the only glimmers of hope being the rumours of rebellion outside and the visits of sympathetic Alt guard Wren, can Luka ever be free? Why has he been imprisoned? What waits for him if he can break the loop?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0316405051</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1912626551
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author= Jo Walton
 
|title= The Just City
 
|rating= 3.5
 
|genre= Dystopian Fiction
 
|summary=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…
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472150767</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Jon A Davidson
 
|title=System: With his face in the sun
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Science Fiction
 
|summary=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.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1511491094</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Tommy Wallach
+
|author=Margaret Atwood
|title=We All Looked Up
+
|title=The Testaments
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=
 
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''?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>147112455X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Catherine Chanter
 
|title=The Well
 
|rating=3.5
 
 
|genre=Dystopian Fiction
 
|genre=Dystopian Fiction
|summary=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.
+
|summary= Finally! Almost forty years on, we have a sequel to  [[The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood|The Handmaid's Tale]]. I don't want to tell you too much about the plot because it's a novel that is entirely plot driven. Suffice it to say that ''The Testaments'' takes place fifteen years later, fifteen years after Offred gets into a van, not knowing what will happen next. It's told by three narrators: Aunt Lydia, who is secretly writing her memoirs in Ardua Hall; Agnes, a girl brought up in Gilead with the expectation she will marry a commander; Daisy, a rebellious teenage girl in Canada who knows of Gilead only from school lessons and its Pearl Girl missionaries who occasionally call into the store owned by her parents...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782113606</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1784742325
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Teri Terry
+
|isbn=1789018870
|title=Mind Games
+
|title=Something to Tell You
 +
|author=David Edwards
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Teens
+
|genre=Dystopian Fiction
|summary=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.
+
|summary=Sam Murray and Bert Leinster had been friends for a long time.  Bert was Sam's boss at CERN, but this never seemed to affect the way that the families got on. Bert's wife, Natalia, was Russian and seriously rich. Their twins, fifteen-year-olds Allie and Josh, went to a private boarding school, but at weekends they were great friends with Sam's two children, Liam and Hannah.  Sam's wife, Briony, was head of product research at Nestlé.  Life was good for all eight of them, until Sam - a particle physicist - spotted that the rate at which Higgs Boson particles were hitting the earth had risen exponentially. It's enough of a problem for Sam and Bert to drag the head of CERN, Prof Ralph Moyeur, out of a family lunch.  Then Bert started having conversations with a plant called Lily.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408334259</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Antonia Honeywell
+
|isbn=1789550149
|title=The Ship
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|title=Poster Boy
|rating=4
+
|author=N J Crosskey
|genre=Dystopian Fiction
+
|rating=5
|summary=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.
+
|genre=Dystopian Fiction  
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0297871498</amazonuk>
+
|summary=I first read 1984 in school, in the late seventies when 1984 still seemed like a long time in the future.  It came and went quickly enough. Some of us may have breathed a sigh of relief that Orwell's nightmare had not (quite) come to pass. Others, I think, were out there already working on making sure that all he got wrong was the date.  Crosskey hasn't put a date on the nightmare. If she had, I suspect it would not be as far in the future are 1984 was when I first read Orwell.  If she had, I suspect it might hardly be in the future at all.  A lot of what happens in ''Poster Boy'' is already happening.  Sadly. Frighteningly. In the blurb, Christina Racher says "…but keep it far from anyone who might be tempted to turn its fiction into reality".   My only response to that is:  too late!
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Daniel Suarez
+
|isbn=0241349176
|title=Influx
+
|title=The Last
 +
|author=Hanna Jameson
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Science Fiction
+
|genre=Dystopian Fiction  
|summary=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.
+
|summary=Jon Keller is in a hotel in Switzerland in the remote countryside when the world ends. He has no idea if his family is alive, he has no idea what's going on in the nearest city, or if the nearest city has been obliterated. Shocked, amid the mass hysteria and exodus, Jon decides to stay at the hotel rather than attempt to get to the airport and home. He's not alone, twenty other people also stay and gradually form a small community. One day, when helping the hotel manager, Jon finds the body of a girl deemed to have been killed before the world ended. The community descends into a deep mistrust as Jon becomes fixated on finding this girl's killer and finding the truth about what is possibly the last community on earth.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0751557951</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Karen Thompson Walker
+
|isbn=1473203287
|title=The Age of Miracles
+
|title=Summerland
 +
|author=Hannu Rajaniemi
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Dystopian Fiction
+
|genre=Dystopian Fiction  
|summary=
+
|summary=Imagine a world in which death was no longer something to fear but something to aspire to. After the discovery of the afterlife, the British Empire has extended its reach into Summerland, the Big Smoke for the recently deceased. In 1938 the British Empire is caught up in a race against Soviet spies and dealing with a mole buried deep in the heart of Summerland. When Rachel White, an ambitious SIS agent, becomes suspicious about the potential rogue agent, she must decide how far she is willing to go and how much she is willing to risk to uncover the truth.
''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.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471124851</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Peyton Marshall
 
|title=Goodhouse
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Dystopian Fiction
 
|summary=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.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>085752190X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Leanne Hall
+
|isbn=1683690613
|title=This is Shyness
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|title=Garrison Girl (Attack on Titan)
 +
|author=Rachel Aaron
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Teens
+
|genre=Dystopian Fiction
|summary=''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.
+
|summary=''You want me to be like everyone else and spend my life hiding inside the walls where it's safe, but that's an illusion. So long as there are titans out there… no one is safe''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1921656522</amazonuk>
+
 
}}
+
In the dystopian world of Attack on Titan, humanity hides behind the safety of high impenetrable walls to keep out the enemies outside. Known as titans, these enemies are impossibly tall human-like creatures, with sharp hungry teeth and regenerative powers. Difficult to kill and innumerable they roam the Earth looking for prey, and whilst the walls have always kept them out, that has begun to change…
{{newreview
 
|title=The Remaining: Aftermath
 
|author=D J Molles
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Dystopian Fiction
 
|summary=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 by D J Molles|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?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>035650347X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Mark Lingane
+
|isbn=1444944525
|title=Decay: 2 (Tesla)
+
|title=The Survival Game
 +
|author=Nicky Singer
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Teens
+
|genre=Dystopian Fiction
|summary=The city has been rebuilt for war.  The waves of cyborg attacks are just the beginning – what follows is more devastatingNot 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.
+
|summary=Mhairi Anne Bain is fourteen years old and is on her way home to the Isle of Arran. But Mhairi's world has been ravaged by climate change and the mass movement of people and it is one defined by borders, checkpoints and soldiers with guns. Mhairi has made it across Africa and onto a plane to Heathrow - which is more than can be said for Muma and Papa. She's even made it out of the detention centre at the airport. And during this journey, Mhairi has learned that you can't rely on anyone else and you can't allow anyone else to rely on you...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0992377986</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|title=Sand
+
|isbn=North_84K
|author=Hugh Howey
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|title=84K
 +
|author=Claire North
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Dystopian Fiction
+
|genre=Dystopian Fiction  
|summary=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.
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|summary=Theo can, he calculates the worth of each person to the penny. ''The Company'' own everything and everyone, including handing out punishments for crime. Theo sleepwalks through life keeping his head down whilst working for the Criminal Audit Office. Doing just enough work to avoid anyone noticing him, he calculates, without emotion, the cost of the crimes filling his inbox. They are variables on a spreadsheet, a simple mathematical equation, the expense of solving the crime added to how much the victim would have contributed to their community. Prisons are uneconomical so criminals in this world pay their debt to society in cold hard cash.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780893183</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|title=Seven Second Delay
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|isbn=0356510700
|author=Tom Easton
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|title=Everything About You
|rating=3.5
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|author=Heather Child
|genre=Teens
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|rating=4
|summary=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.
+
|genre=Dystopian Fiction
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783440341</amazonuk>
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|summary=In the future, your social feed is your entire existence. A.I. is here and it is all around you. It fills your fridge, it keeps up to date with your friends and fulfils your wishes. It is also stealing your jobs and, possibly, loosening your grip on reality. Freya is unexpectedly given a beta testing version of the latest smart specs, glasses which give her all the information she'll ever need, right in front of her eyes by barely thinking about it, complete with a personality to guide her. The problem is that the personality on the glasses is that of her missing and presumed dead sister. Freya is thrown and unsettled by this. Her mum tells her to stop using them or at the very least to reset them to a different personality. But Freya just can't do this. Hearing her sister's voice again is like she's right there, and although she knows this is just Ruby's data, part of Freya can't believe that it can be this accurate, it can't be this Ruby. Is it just possible that something more is feeding this personality than Ruby's data?
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|title=Mutant City
+
|isbn=Wilson_Extinction
|author=Steve Feasey
+
|title=The Extinction Trials
 +
|author=SM Wilson
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Teens
+
|genre=Dystopian Fiction
|summary=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.
+
|summary=Storm and Lincoln live on Earthasia, a continent ruined by overpopulation. Space is scarce and energy and food are rationed. Education is minimal and mostly focused around searching for new, efficient food sources. Storm's mother has died and she never knew her father, so she lives in one of Earthasia's overcrowded ''shelters'', goes to school for one day per week and wrestles hay bales for a job. Lincoln's sister is dying from the blistering disease and he has no access to the healthcare that could save her. It's a mean, desperate existence for them both and so they are first to volunteer for the Stipulators' trials for a new mission to the neighbouring continent of Piloria. The aim is to retrieve dinosaur eggs so that a virus to kill them can be engineered and the citizens of Earthasia will have access to the space and abundant food sources Piloria offers...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140884303X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|title=Riot
+
|isbn=Curtis_Water
|author=Sarah Mussi
+
|title=Water & Glass
|rating=4.5
+
|author=Abi Curtis
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=
 
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.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444910108</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|title=The Giver
 
|author=Lois Lowry
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Teens
+
|genre=Dystopian Fiction
|summary=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.
+
|summary=Something has happened, something very nasty and on a submarine a pregnant elephant is one of only a handful of animals living below the waves. We follow Nerissa Crane, a vet, as she remembers recent events, looks after the animals and falls into a world of intrigue.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007263511</amazonuk>
+
 
 +
It is difficult to properly review this book without giving too much away. There will be mild spoilers throughout this right from the start but I will try to avoid the main ones.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|title=Goddess
+
|isbn=Beckett_America
|author=Laura Powell
+
|title=America City
 +
|author=Chris Beckett
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Teens
+
|genre=Dystopian Fiction
|summary=After an economic collapse, Britain is close to breaking point. Citizens are going hungry and there are riots. But Aura is shielded from it all by her position as a handmaiden in the Cult of Artemis. In this Britain, the beliefs of the Ancient Greeks persevere and are followed by millions - the cult sits side by side with Christianity as a mainstream religion. Aura's thoughts aren't taken up by the suffering outside the sanctuary though - they're taken up by beating fellow handmaiden Callisto as favourite to take over the position of head priestess when Opis retires. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408815265</amazonuk>
+
|summary=''America City'' tells the story of Holly, an ambitious publicist who sets aside her own political beliefs in order to help the ambitious Senator Slaymaker with his Presidential campaign. Set in the 22nd century, the novel tells of an incredibly disunited United States, where the effects of climate change have created deep divisions between the affluent Northern States, and the South, which is frequently ravaged by extreme weather. Holly and Slaymaker hope to change this, working together on the plan they believe to be the solution to the problem of where to place the thousands of Americans who have been made homeless by devastating storms.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|title=ZOM-B Mission
+
|isbn=Featherstone_Paradise
|author=Darren Shan
+
|title=Paradise Girl
|rating=4
+
|author=Phill Featherstone
|genre=Teens
+
|rating=3.5
|summary=Ok. Have an obligatory warning about possible spoilers for the series so far. If you don't want any, then run along and read our review of the [[Zom-B by Darren Shan|first book]]. Otherwise, read this review at your own risk.
+
|genre=Dystopian Fiction
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857077767</amazonuk>
+
|summary=Kerryl lives far away from the urban twenty-first century on a remote Yorkshire farm. The farm is high up on a hill and it's a family endeavour - grandparents, mother, Kerryl. There's a market town below but Kerryl's family is concentrated on the farm and the hard but beautiful living associated with it. Kerryl, though, is a fiercely bright girl - she's won a place at Cambridge University and is looking forward to going. She loves poetry.
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|title=Snowpiercer Vol.2 - The Explorers
 
|author=Benjamin Legrand and Jean-Marc Rochette
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|summary=All of humankind is living on a single train.  Oh sorry, as this is the sequel, make that two trains.  Launched on the same tracks as the original Snowpiercer, but clearly at a slight remove, was a second mile-long behemoth of a train, designed with the latest high tech to be completely self-sustaining as it travelled ceaselessly on the tracks encircling a frozen Earth, waiting for the time the world was inhabitable once more. But the high tech on board, complete with lemon farms, and differing qualities of virtual holidays depending on cost and class of customer, has not put paid to one aspect of society – and in fact the sole aspect of society not featured in [[Snowpiercer Vol.1 - The Escape by Jacques Lob and Jean-Marc Rochette|the first book]] – religion.  Some people are fearing the end time, when the Icebreaker crashes into the original Snowpiercer.  Some believe they're duped into the whole train idea, and are in fact on a spacecraft.  Some people know something else – the rare few explorers who get to go outside the train into the world beyond, and see glimpses of what came before…
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782761365</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|title=Shattered (Slated Trilogy)
 
|author=Teri Terry
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Dystopian Fiction
 
|summary=Kyla - or is she Lucy? or Rain? or Riley? - was ''slated'' as a teen criminal in Lorder-run Britain. All memory of her past life was erased and she was sent to live with a new foster family, controlled by a wrist bracelet that could kill her if she stepped out of line. But that was some time ago. Since then, some of Kyla's memories have resurfaced and she has discovered that she isn't a run-of-the-mill Slated. Used as a weapon by an anti-Lorder terrorist group, Kyla's brain has been messed with in more than one way.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408319500</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|title=Snowpiercer Vol.1 - The Escape
 
|author=Jacques Lob and Jean-Marc Rochette
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|summary=All of humankind is living on a single train. I know British commuters feel that way at times, but this is a much different circumstance – it is a train miles long, running non-stop as a self-contained unit across tracks circling a desolately frozen Earth, moving on endlessly until, perhaps some time in the distant future, the planet can recover from the cataclysm that froze it.  It's certainly been going on long enough for it to have a culture – a hierarchical society from the rich and leisured classes near the front, through the orgiasts, past the useful carriages set aside for producing food, to the underclass at the end. It's all set in its routine, set in motion. But there are two fishes out of water – a man from the rear who escaped, and a middle-class woman working with civil rights campaigners.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782761330</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|title=The One Safe Place
+
|isbn=Sutcliffe_See
|author=Tania Unsworth
+
|title=We See Everything
 +
|author=William Sutcliffe
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Teens
+
|genre=Dystopian Fiction
|summary=Devin lives on a farm with his grandfather, away from the rest of the world. He knows a little about it – how the gap between rich and poor is far wider than the world we live in, and how many children now live on the street, scavenging for scraps to say alive. But, he’s never been that concerned. On the farm the life is a simple one, but they can grow enough food to get by, and they’re happy. When tragedy strikes, Devin is forced to leave his home and venture into the city for the first time.
+
|summary=Lex lives in what used to be London. Today, it is a closed-off, bombed-out area known as ''The Strip''. Nobody comes in and nobody can go out. Drones are a constant presence overhead, food is short and life is hard. But there's a girl he likes and she can make him forget almost anything. Alan spends all his time watching The Strip. His talent as a gamer got him the job of drone pilot. He hasn't bombed anyone yet but he's hyped up to do it, whatever his mother thinks. It's fighting terrorism, after all. Alan's observation target is a high-profile target - a man high up in the resistance organisation known as ''The Corps''. Alan calls him #K622. But Lex calls him Dad.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444010239</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|title=Warm Bodies
+
|isbn=Roberts_Real
|author=Isaac Marion
+
|title=The Real-Town Murders
|rating=5
+
|author=Adam Roberts
|genre=Dystopian Fiction
+
|rating=3
|summary=Warm Bodies is told in an alternating first person point of view, switching back and forth between ''R'' a zombie who has retained a bit more of the power of thought than most, and Julie, a feisty and courageous heroine, who has been through horrible hardships, but retained an ability to truly care about others. In short, R has far more humanity than the average zombie, but Julie also held on to more of the traits that I  feel truly make us human in a world where kindness and unselfish love have become even more endangered than the human race itself. Two other characters are important to this storyline, ''M'', R's best friend and Nora, Julie's closest friend and confidant. I especially liked Nora, who has suffered far more than Julie, and yet still is willing to put aside past hurt, but M has his redeeming points as well.
+
|genre=Dystopian Fiction  
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099583828</amazonuk>
+
|summary=If you had the choice would you live your life online? In the future, this may be possible, with the development of fully realised virtual reality you may feel that the online world is more real than your own. Even today we spend hours each day looking at phones or checking statuses. The only thing is that with most people online, some of us will have to stay in the real world to deal with unexpected events – such as a real town murder.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|title=The New Hunger: The Prequel to Warm Bodies
+
|isbn=Merbeth_Raid
|author=Isaac Marion
+
|title=Raid
|rating=5
+
|author=K S Merbeth
|genre=Dystopian Fiction
+
|rating=4.5
|summary=I normally review a book within a day or two of finishing it. I couldn't with this one. I loved this book, but I did feel dissatisfied with the ending, and I thought perhaps I was missing something - and I was. This book was written as a prequel, and most of the readers will have already read ''Warm Bodies''. I found something so unique in Isaac Marion's writing style, and something about this book so compelling that I couldn't quite bear to rate it down, but neither was I happy with a 5 star rating with such as lacklustre ending. It felt like half a book to me. So - in order to review this fairly - I felt  I had to read the author's first book. After reading it I am no longer disappointed in the ending. It isn't after all the end - it is just the beginning of one of the best books I have ever read.
+
|genre=Dystopian Fiction  
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099587726</amazonuk>
+
|summary=A brutal road trip in a blighted landscape that pulls no punches. We travel with Clementine, a bounty hunter, in a world without heroes or hope.
 
}}
 
}}
 +
 +
Move on the [[Newest Emerging Readers Reviews]]

Latest revision as of 13:12, 3 September 2024

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Review of

The White Rose by Dave Baines

4star.jpg Dystopian Fiction

In 2033, a superstorm known as the White Rose devastates the Northern Hemisphere. And it's not a storm that gathers, wreaks havoc, then dissipates. Instead, it hovers across half the Earth with its octopus-like tentacles, not giving up and never going away. Full Review

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Review of

Desert Creatures by Kay Chronister

4star.jpg Dystopian Fiction

With a world that is becoming increasingly inhospitable for humanity, post-apocalyptic fiction can become an almost masochistic thrill. Whether it is a robotic takeover, a world devoid of water or a nuclear holocaust, this genre is a way for humans to cathartically experience their most existential fears. Desert Creatures by Kay Chronister is a new work of post-apocalyptic fiction that aligns many of the fears that exist for humanity today. It is a shocking novel that still manages to find hope. Full Review

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Review of

Perilous Times by Thomas D Lee

3star.jpg Fantasy

Hate is the path of least resistance

Set in the near-distant future, in a world on the verge of climate collapse, Britain is in great peril. The British Isles desperately needs a hero (or several) to save the day and rescue what little remains. What no-one expected was that one of the Knights of the Round Table would answer the call. Full Review

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Review of

Just Looking by Matthew Tree

4.5star.jpg Dystopian Fiction

It was the summer of 2035 and on a cruise ship in Marseilles, Jim was celebrating his new-found wealth and the end of his marriage - not two celebrations generally found in the same sentence by a man! He's watching the tornado - they're more common in Europe these days - that's keeping the cruise ship in port and falls into conversation with Jean-Pierre, a French journalist in his thirties. He writes for a relatively new paper, the right-wing La Tribune Gauloise and he's interesting if a little wordy on subjects such as the difference between 'France' and 'the French'. His partner, Helen, who's English and Jewish, keeps him in check to some extent. Full Review

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Review of

The Last Resort by Susi Holliday

3.5star.jpg Thrillers

A group of strangers gather on a private island. They have been invited to an all-expenses paid retreat to test a brand-new product from the mysterious Timeo Technology company. The group includes a games designer, social media influencer, gossip columnist and hedge fund manager. Everyone seems to have an area of expertise that makes their attendance necessary. All except Amelia whose presence is a mystery. We follow the group as they explore the island, and each other's histories and it becomes clear that they all have a dark secret they would rather keep hidden. As the clock ticks down, these well-kept secrets are revealed, and it soon becomes clear that this luxury retreat is really a gilded cage. In a race against time, Amelia must struggle to uncover the reason for her attendance and protect the rest of the guests from the increasingly sinister accidents that befall them. Full Review

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Review of

The Loop by Ben Oliver

3.5star.jpg Teens

Set during the aftermath of a Third World War where methods of punishment for criminal activities have been amped up to a horrific level by machines, The Loop follows the precarious existence of adolescent Luka Kane. In a world of Have and Have Nots where Alts [cyborgs] have power over Regulars, he is trapped inside a living hell with no chance of escape. A detonator has been sewn inside his heart connecting him to a trigger held by the guards who can end his life with one squeeze. Luka is taunted by limited access to his memories and relentlessly drained of energy through a gruelling daily torture ritual. Doomed to Delay [a risky medical trial where he is a guinea pig for Alts in place of execution] after Delay he is in despair. His prison is based on the model of an infinity loop designed to make its inmates suffer. With the only glimmers of hope being the rumours of rebellion outside and the visits of sympathetic Alt guard Wren, can Luka ever be free? Why has he been imprisoned? What waits for him if he can break the loop? Full Review

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Review of

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

4.5star.jpg Dystopian Fiction

Finally! Almost forty years on, we have a sequel to The Handmaid's Tale. I don't want to tell you too much about the plot because it's a novel that is entirely plot driven. Suffice it to say that The Testaments takes place fifteen years later, fifteen years after Offred gets into a van, not knowing what will happen next. It's told by three narrators: Aunt Lydia, who is secretly writing her memoirs in Ardua Hall; Agnes, a girl brought up in Gilead with the expectation she will marry a commander; Daisy, a rebellious teenage girl in Canada who knows of Gilead only from school lessons and its Pearl Girl missionaries who occasionally call into the store owned by her parents... Full Review

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Review of

Something to Tell You by David Edwards

4star.jpg Dystopian Fiction

Sam Murray and Bert Leinster had been friends for a long time. Bert was Sam's boss at CERN, but this never seemed to affect the way that the families got on. Bert's wife, Natalia, was Russian and seriously rich. Their twins, fifteen-year-olds Allie and Josh, went to a private boarding school, but at weekends they were great friends with Sam's two children, Liam and Hannah. Sam's wife, Briony, was head of product research at Nestlé. Life was good for all eight of them, until Sam - a particle physicist - spotted that the rate at which Higgs Boson particles were hitting the earth had risen exponentially. It's enough of a problem for Sam and Bert to drag the head of CERN, Prof Ralph Moyeur, out of a family lunch. Then Bert started having conversations with a plant called Lily. Full Review

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Review of

Poster Boy by N J Crosskey

5star.jpg Dystopian Fiction

I first read 1984 in school, in the late seventies when 1984 still seemed like a long time in the future. It came and went quickly enough. Some of us may have breathed a sigh of relief that Orwell's nightmare had not (quite) come to pass. Others, I think, were out there already working on making sure that all he got wrong was the date. Crosskey hasn't put a date on the nightmare. If she had, I suspect it would not be as far in the future are 1984 was when I first read Orwell. If she had, I suspect it might hardly be in the future at all. A lot of what happens in Poster Boy is already happening. Sadly. Frighteningly. In the blurb, Christina Racher says "…but keep it far from anyone who might be tempted to turn its fiction into reality". My only response to that is: too late! Full Review

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Review of

The Last by Hanna Jameson

5star.jpg Dystopian Fiction

Jon Keller is in a hotel in Switzerland in the remote countryside when the world ends. He has no idea if his family is alive, he has no idea what's going on in the nearest city, or if the nearest city has been obliterated. Shocked, amid the mass hysteria and exodus, Jon decides to stay at the hotel rather than attempt to get to the airport and home. He's not alone, twenty other people also stay and gradually form a small community. One day, when helping the hotel manager, Jon finds the body of a girl deemed to have been killed before the world ended. The community descends into a deep mistrust as Jon becomes fixated on finding this girl's killer and finding the truth about what is possibly the last community on earth. Full Review

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Review of

Summerland by Hannu Rajaniemi

4star.jpg Dystopian Fiction

Imagine a world in which death was no longer something to fear but something to aspire to. After the discovery of the afterlife, the British Empire has extended its reach into Summerland, the Big Smoke for the recently deceased. In 1938 the British Empire is caught up in a race against Soviet spies and dealing with a mole buried deep in the heart of Summerland. When Rachel White, an ambitious SIS agent, becomes suspicious about the potential rogue agent, she must decide how far she is willing to go and how much she is willing to risk to uncover the truth. Full Review

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Review of

Garrison Girl (Attack on Titan) by Rachel Aaron

4.5star.jpg Dystopian Fiction

You want me to be like everyone else and spend my life hiding inside the walls where it's safe, but that's an illusion. So long as there are titans out there… no one is safe

In the dystopian world of Attack on Titan, humanity hides behind the safety of high impenetrable walls to keep out the enemies outside. Known as titans, these enemies are impossibly tall human-like creatures, with sharp hungry teeth and regenerative powers. Difficult to kill and innumerable they roam the Earth looking for prey, and whilst the walls have always kept them out, that has begun to change… Full Review

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Review of

The Survival Game by Nicky Singer

5star.jpg Dystopian Fiction

Mhairi Anne Bain is fourteen years old and is on her way home to the Isle of Arran. But Mhairi's world has been ravaged by climate change and the mass movement of people and it is one defined by borders, checkpoints and soldiers with guns. Mhairi has made it across Africa and onto a plane to Heathrow - which is more than can be said for Muma and Papa. She's even made it out of the detention centre at the airport. And during this journey, Mhairi has learned that you can't rely on anyone else and you can't allow anyone else to rely on you... Full Review

North 84K.jpg

Review of

84K by Claire North

5star.jpg Dystopian Fiction

Theo can, he calculates the worth of each person to the penny. The Company own everything and everyone, including handing out punishments for crime. Theo sleepwalks through life keeping his head down whilst working for the Criminal Audit Office. Doing just enough work to avoid anyone noticing him, he calculates, without emotion, the cost of the crimes filling his inbox. They are variables on a spreadsheet, a simple mathematical equation, the expense of solving the crime added to how much the victim would have contributed to their community. Prisons are uneconomical so criminals in this world pay their debt to society in cold hard cash. Full Review

0356510700.jpg

Review of

Everything About You by Heather Child

4star.jpg Dystopian Fiction

In the future, your social feed is your entire existence. A.I. is here and it is all around you. It fills your fridge, it keeps up to date with your friends and fulfils your wishes. It is also stealing your jobs and, possibly, loosening your grip on reality. Freya is unexpectedly given a beta testing version of the latest smart specs, glasses which give her all the information she'll ever need, right in front of her eyes by barely thinking about it, complete with a personality to guide her. The problem is that the personality on the glasses is that of her missing and presumed dead sister. Freya is thrown and unsettled by this. Her mum tells her to stop using them or at the very least to reset them to a different personality. But Freya just can't do this. Hearing her sister's voice again is like she's right there, and although she knows this is just Ruby's data, part of Freya can't believe that it can be this accurate, it can't be this Ruby. Is it just possible that something more is feeding this personality than Ruby's data? Full Review

Wilson Extinction.jpg

Review of

The Extinction Trials by SM Wilson

4star.jpg Dystopian Fiction

Storm and Lincoln live on Earthasia, a continent ruined by overpopulation. Space is scarce and energy and food are rationed. Education is minimal and mostly focused around searching for new, efficient food sources. Storm's mother has died and she never knew her father, so she lives in one of Earthasia's overcrowded shelters, goes to school for one day per week and wrestles hay bales for a job. Lincoln's sister is dying from the blistering disease and he has no access to the healthcare that could save her. It's a mean, desperate existence for them both and so they are first to volunteer for the Stipulators' trials for a new mission to the neighbouring continent of Piloria. The aim is to retrieve dinosaur eggs so that a virus to kill them can be engineered and the citizens of Earthasia will have access to the space and abundant food sources Piloria offers... Full Review

Curtis Water.jpg

Review of

Water & Glass by Abi Curtis

5star.jpg Dystopian Fiction

Something has happened, something very nasty and on a submarine a pregnant elephant is one of only a handful of animals living below the waves. We follow Nerissa Crane, a vet, as she remembers recent events, looks after the animals and falls into a world of intrigue.

It is difficult to properly review this book without giving too much away. There will be mild spoilers throughout this right from the start but I will try to avoid the main ones. Full Review

Beckett America.jpg

Review of

America City by Chris Beckett

4star.jpg Dystopian Fiction

America City tells the story of Holly, an ambitious publicist who sets aside her own political beliefs in order to help the ambitious Senator Slaymaker with his Presidential campaign. Set in the 22nd century, the novel tells of an incredibly disunited United States, where the effects of climate change have created deep divisions between the affluent Northern States, and the South, which is frequently ravaged by extreme weather. Holly and Slaymaker hope to change this, working together on the plan they believe to be the solution to the problem of where to place the thousands of Americans who have been made homeless by devastating storms. Full Review

Featherstone Paradise.jpg

Review of

Paradise Girl by Phill Featherstone

3.5star.jpg Dystopian Fiction

Kerryl lives far away from the urban twenty-first century on a remote Yorkshire farm. The farm is high up on a hill and it's a family endeavour - grandparents, mother, Kerryl. There's a market town below but Kerryl's family is concentrated on the farm and the hard but beautiful living associated with it. Kerryl, though, is a fiercely bright girl - she's won a place at Cambridge University and is looking forward to going. She loves poetry. Full Review

Sutcliffe See.jpg

Review of

We See Everything by William Sutcliffe

5star.jpg Dystopian Fiction

Lex lives in what used to be London. Today, it is a closed-off, bombed-out area known as The Strip. Nobody comes in and nobody can go out. Drones are a constant presence overhead, food is short and life is hard. But there's a girl he likes and she can make him forget almost anything. Alan spends all his time watching The Strip. His talent as a gamer got him the job of drone pilot. He hasn't bombed anyone yet but he's hyped up to do it, whatever his mother thinks. It's fighting terrorism, after all. Alan's observation target is a high-profile target - a man high up in the resistance organisation known as The Corps. Alan calls him #K622. But Lex calls him Dad. Full Review

Roberts Real.jpg

Review of

The Real-Town Murders by Adam Roberts

3star.jpg Dystopian Fiction

If you had the choice would you live your life online? In the future, this may be possible, with the development of fully realised virtual reality you may feel that the online world is more real than your own. Even today we spend hours each day looking at phones or checking statuses. The only thing is that with most people online, some of us will have to stay in the real world to deal with unexpected events – such as a real town murder. Full Review

Merbeth Raid.jpg

Review of

Raid by K S Merbeth

4.5star.jpg Dystopian Fiction

A brutal road trip in a blighted landscape that pulls no punches. We travel with Clementine, a bounty hunter, in a world without heroes or hope. Full Review

Move on the Newest Emerging Readers Reviews