Category Dystopian

Infinity Gate by M.R. Carey @ michaelcarey191 @OrbitBooks @Tr4cyF3nt0n #Pandominion #dystopia #scifi #bookreview

yvonnembee

I am delighted to share my review today for Infinity Gate by M.R. Carey. This is the first book in the Pandominion trilogy and it is fabulous.

I have to say a huge thanks to Tracey at Compulsive Readers for my spot on the Blog Tour and for arranging my paperback copy of this brilliant book from Orbit Books.

The Pandominion: a political and trading alliance of a million worlds – except that they’re really just the one world, Earth, in many different realities. And when an AI threat arises that could destroy everything the Pandominion has built, they’ll eradicate it by whatever means necessary, no matter the cost to human life.

Scientist Hadiz Tambuwal is looking for a solution to her own Earth’s environmental collapse when she stumbles across the secret of inter-dimensional travel. It could save everyone on her dying planet, but now she’s walked into the middle of a war on a scale she never dreamed of.

And she needs to choose a side before it kills her.

INFINITY IS ONLY THE BEGINNING.

MY REVIEW

What a brilliant first book in the Pandominion series Infinity Gate is. The Pandominion is a series of worlds, well actually millions upon millions of worlds. They are all a variation of Earth and The Pandominion is the alliance that runs them, well most of them, some are not deemed acceptable. Our version of Earth is dying, there is nothing worth saving so the Pandominion has ignored it. However, a scientist by the name of Hadiz Tembuwal discovers that there are multiverses and this could mean a way of saving our Earth.

It can be a little difficult to review the first book in a series that you know is going to be huge, I mean in the way the book is laid out and how far into the galaxy, multiverse or time it goes. This author does know how to deal with large areas, dimensions and spaces and he also knows how to fill them. He has some main characters such as Paz, Essien, Moon, Dulcie and Rupshe. There are obviously many others, but not too many to get confusing.

Mixing in travel through different dimensions of universes would make you think that this was very science-based, it isn’t, well it is, but not over-the-top tech speak. The terms used are part of the story and kind of make sense. Tactical soldiers with enhanced armour known as the Cielo were interesting to come across, as were the various other inhabitants of the different verses. YOu will soon discover how the author manages to mingle and mix machines with beings and gradually work towards a more AI form. There are those that are alive and then there is the machinery.

This first book lays out the foundations and gives great detail about how things are seen from a viewpoint of someone who has never heard of the Pandominion. This makes it more accessible to different readers. There are also different perspectives from the different beings and they have worked together to start to form a great image of this alternative verse.

Having great characters and a storyline that is building momentum makes for a really great read. I have read this over a few days or so and even when I had put it down due to work I could remember what was going on. I found that the characters are very memorable and I am already starting to have favourites.

The author obviously has a lot more up his sleeve for this series and it will be interesting to how or where he lets his imagination run.

It is a mix of sci-fi, fantasy and dystopian and with some fabulously explained characters. I have already started to build up a picture in my head of how some of these appear, I just couldn’t help it.

A brilliant first book and one I would definitely recommend.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mike Carey is the acclaimed writer of Lucifer and Hellblazer (now filmed as Constantine). He has recently completed a comics adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere, and is the current writer on Marvel’s X-Men and Ultimate Fantastic Four. He has also written the screenplay for a movie, Frost Flowers, which is soon to be produced by Hadaly Films and Bluestar Pictures.

The End of Men by Christina Sweeney-Baird @ChristinaRoseSB @BoroughPress #NetGalley #pandemic #scifi #dystopian #bookreview

yvonnembee 5 Comments

I am delighted to share my review today for The End of Men by Christina Sweeney-Baird. This was published initially in 2021, at the time I had seen it out and being reviewed, but at the time I didn’t want to read it as Covid was still too prominent. However, a year on and it was obviously the right time because I really enjoyed it and thought it was a great book to read.

My huge thanks to Borough Press, a branch of Harper Collins, for granting my request to read this title via NetGalley.

This was a really great book to read and I do like the way the author approached the story and then went further with it. Not just the lead-up and during, but the after-effects of living in a world that had undergone huge changes.

When a mysterious disease starts in Scotland, Dr Amanda Maclean is ignored. She is just a female doctor and does not know enough to be making such a rash call that this is something to be worried about. It is brushed under the carpet. It then starts to spread. It affects only men and they are dying by the millions as it spreads around the globe.

This story was written before the start of the Covid pandemic in 2018/19, it was then published in 2021. A lot of what is discussed in this story did happen when Covid struck. Initially, it was seen as a problem on the other side of the world, governments were slow to react and as we know the pandemic was to kill millions around the world. The End of Men is a similar story and one that the author imagined prior to the pandemic.

This story is told from the perspective of different characters around the world. They are female characters as they now are prominent, not every man has died, and there are some that are immune. The race is on to discover where the virus started, what makes it spread, who are carriers and why only certain people live.

As much as I really enjoyed the beginning of the story, and this was really good, it was the recovery and adapting to the virus that really turned this story around for me. The author imagines so many scenarios that I had not even considered. There are the obvious ones about having a depleted workforce, of women retraining and having a prominent role in how countries are run and how they have new freedom, especially in countries where women were definitely not seen as equal. Yes, in some ways this story is about empowerment and also feminism but it is also about how people adapt to change.

A story like this is easy to relate to as we are still living with Covid. As we are adapting to the world after this pandemic it is nothing compared to how the author sees a world with a significantly reduced male population. Without men, it becomes a matter of how the human race will recover with a limited supply of males to help repopulate.

I liked this book a huge amount. Set in a future that is all too real to imagine and the way the author uses her story to envision a future that has changed drastically. This is one for those who like dystopian, futuristic and feminist viewpoints, it is a mystery and a thriller as the race is also on to find and develop a cure. It is one I would definitely recommend.

The really alarming thing about this book is that the author did imagine this prior to the Covid Pandemic. I have a copy of a letter sent via NetGalley detailing this…

Here’s a letter from Christina Sweeney-Baird: 

I first heard about corona virus as most people likely did; through snippets of news and emails from friends saying, ‘Have you seen this? So weird!’ For a number of weeks, it felt distant in that way so many foreign news stories do. Something awful and scary but ultimately a disease I would remain personally unaffected by.

 Only a few months on from those emails and news reports, I’m sitting in my flat in central London in lockdown. I leave the house once a day for exercise, and shop for food and other essentials once a week. I don’t know when I’ll next see my family in Scotland, my boyfriend who is living in Dubai at the moment for work or my friends and colleagues. Billions of people around the world are in the same position. I feel immeasurably fortunate to still be employed and to have recovered from suspected corona virus (I have not been tested but experienced the virus’s tell-tale cough, breathlessness and extreme fatigue after returning to London from a trip to Northern Italy). I know you’re meant to ‘live your truth’ through art and everything, but contracting corona virus was a step towards authenticity I could have done without.

 It’s an understatement to say it feels surreal that I wrote a book about a pandemic disproportionately affecting men just before a pandemic disproportionately affecting men swept the world. More than one person has half-jokingly called me Cassandra. When I started writing The End of Men in September 2018 it felt like the ultimate thought experiment. How far could I take my imagination? How would a global pandemic with an enormous death rate change the world? What would the world look like without men, or the majority of them? I wrote the first draft of the book in nine months, finishing with a burst of intense writing in June 2019. Now, as I edit the book for my editors wondering what this summer will bring, I find myself testing my imaginary world against the real one. I gauge the distance between what I have written and what is happening. As a writer of speculative fiction, this is not something I ever expected.

 I’m relieved that corona virus doesn’t have a death rate as high as the virus I have imagined in my novel, and that it will not kill nine in ten of the world’s men. The imaginary world I have written belongs safely in fiction, within the pages of a novel. Nonetheless, we are experiencing in real life the greatest pandemic of our lifetimes, which is more than I ever could have imagined in my wildest nightmares. I hope that by the time you’re reading this, there is a vaccine. I hope our healthcare systems survive and economies recover. I hope your loved ones are safe and that the world has returned to that wonderful, boring, nostalgic state I now crave: normality.

Christina Sweeney-Baird

Many thanks for reading my post, a like or share would be amazing 🙂 xx

After the Burning by N. S. Ford @nsfordwriter #dystopian #thriller #shortstories #bookreview

yvonnembee 2 Comments

I am delighted to share my review for a collection of short stories. After the Burning by N.S. Ford is a wonderful selection of dystopian fiction.

“Things did not vanish. They were cleansed away.”

Five spine-chillingly plausible tales for our times. In a society without books, a labourer makes a shocking discovery. An artist starts an underground club for art made by humans instead of artificial intelligence. Parents who refuse to have their baby implanted with a communications chip must fight for their rights. A child goes on a school trip to the extinct natural world. Just before a general election, everyone becomes addicted to a new superfood.

A must-read collection of dystopian stories. They are works of fiction but, unless we act now, will soon be a reality.

MY REVIEW

This is a fabulous book of short stories that have a dystopian theme. I do like this genre and to have a story that gives a glimpse into a possible future is always scary and it also makes for very addictive reading.

The five short stories are a great mix and each one is a different topic but within the umbrella of dystopian fiction.

A story about school trips in a futuristic world is an eye-opener and also rather sad when I sat and thought about it. This is one that I do think is a possibility if things don’t change.

The story of the artists really caught my attention and this is one that again I can see happening as AI becomes more and more prevalent in our society.

Technology is something that is always developing so the story of having a computer chip implanted is another one that I really enjoyed. I didn’t expect the twist in that one!

Books are a big part of my life and are something that I cannot imagine not having. So reading about the discovery of a box and its contents was interesting as well.

The one I really enjoyed was the superfood story. This is something that did for a small part remind me of the book Soylent Green (if you know, you know!) but wasn’t quite as macabre but still shocking.

Overall these are well-written and really imaginative. They are short but detailed with nice twists to them. With collections of short stories it is difficult to rate as some I like more than others but all of these were good. This is a book I would happily recommend if you are looking for some entertaining and eerie dystopian stories.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

N S Ford is a book fanatic, blogger and cat lover who lives in the UK. She is the author of two cross-genre psychological thrillers, ‘We Watch You’ and ‘They Lie Here,’ plus a new collection of dystopian short stories, ‘After the Burning’.

Many thanks for reading my review, a like or share would be amazing 🙂 xx

End of Story by Louise Swanson @Hodderbooks #dystopian #fiction #thriller #bookreview

yvonnembee

I am delighted to share my review today for End of Story by Louise Swanson. This is an amazing book that had me stunned, in a good way. Louise Swanson is also known as Louise Beech and her books are amazing so I was interested to see what she had in store for us when she stepped into dystopian fiction.

My huge thanks to Hodder & Stoughton Publishers for granting my request to read this title via NetGalley.

Too much imagination can be a dangerous thing

It’s the year 2035 and fiction has been banned by the government for five years. Writing novels is a crime. Reading fairytales to children is punishable by law.

Fern Dostoy is a criminal. Officially, she has retrained in a new job outside of the arts but she still scrawls in a secret notepad in an effort to capture what her life has become: her work on a banned phone line, reading bedtime stories to sleep-starved children; Hunter, the young boy who calls her and has captured her heart; and the dreaded visits from government officials.

But as Fern begins to learn more about Hunter, doubts begin to surface. What are they both hiding? And who can be trusted?

MY REVIEW

What a remarkable story this one was. It is a dystopian set in the future that has banned fiction. No bookshops, publishers, bedtime stories, authors or readers. I cannot imagine a world without literature but the author did and she has created such an addictive story.

This is a story of two parts, the first being that of an author, Fern Dostoy. She was an author and now lives in a grotty flat as a cleaner, long gone are the days of being a best-selling author with a nice house and busy schedule. The second part of the story is something that gradually creeps up on you, well it did me, and that is all I am going to say about it.

Fern is a woman who is trying to keep to the rules, but she does stray a little in this Big Brother-style story. She goes to work, she comes home, doesn’t mix with others and lives a very isolated life. The few people who do cross her path are people at the hospital where she works, her neighbour and a salesman. She has been told to keep a low profile, but those who have read her books know who she is.

Set in the near future this is a chilling tale of a woman trying to work out how to keep going. She tries to keep within the rules but little things seem to tempt her. One of these is Hunter, a boy who she talks to on the phone. Her every move or thought she feels is watched, she has gotten used to the government visits enough to know their routines but still fears them.

The author does a brilliant job of creating a depressing and dark era in her story. Written during the Covid pandemic, it is easy to imagine the solitude from when we could only go out for essentials. I think the author has used this experience to great effect as she nails that feeling of loss and adds the loss of fiction to that as well it feels like such a sad world. For many of us though, books helped to get us through.

The story that emerges is one that really captured my attention, I was convinced I was going to read a story by this author (aka Louise Beech) and not cry given the futuristic setting. How wrong I was, and to be fair I should have known better! What starts with a woman just surviving turns into a woman trying to learn how to live.

This is a wonderful story and it was one that took me by surprise, a chilling read at times but one that I adored. I do like the darker dystopian style and this for me was well done and created a wonderful backdrop to the next part of Fern’s story. This is a book I would definitely recommend.

Oh and one final thing… that ending!!! 😲🤯… genius.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Also publishes under Louise Beech.

Louise Swanson’s debut End of Story arrives in March 2023. She wrote the book during the final lockdown of 2020, following a family tragedy, finding refuge in the fiction she created. The themes of the book – grief, isolation, love of the arts, the power of storytelling – came from a very real place. Swanson, a mother of two who lives in East Yorkshire with her husband, regularly blogs, talks at events, and is a huge advocate of openly discussing mental health and suicide.

She also writes as Louise Beech. Beech’s eight books have won the Best magazine Book of the Year 2019, shortlisted for the Romantic Novel of the Year, longlisted for the Polari Prize, and been a Clare Mackintosh Book Club Pick. Her memoir, Daffodils, was released in audiobook in 2022.

Louise is on Twitter @LouiseWriter

Many thanks for reading my post, a like or share would be amazing 🙂 xx

Cold People by Tom Rob Smith @simonschusterUK #NetGalley #apocalypse #thriller #dystopian #bookreview

yvonnembee 2 Comments

I am delighted to share my review today for Cold People by Tom Rob Smith. This is a brilliant book and one for those who like post-apocalyptic stories.

My huge thanks to the publishers Simon & Schuster for granting my request to read this title via NetGalley.

The world has fallen. Without warning, a mysterious and omnipotent force has claimed the planet for their own. There are no negotiations, no demands, no reasons given for their actions. All they have is a message: humanity has thirty days to reach the one place on Earth where they will be allowed to exist… Antarctica.

Cold People follows the perilous journeys of a handful of those who endure the frantic exodus to the most extreme environment on the planet. But their goal is not merely to survive the present. Because as they cling to life on the ice, the remnants of their past swept away, they must also confront the urgent challenge: can they change and evolve rapidly enough to ensure humanity’s future? Can they build a new society in the sub-zero cold?

Original and imaginative, as profoundly intimate as it is grand in scope, is a masterful and unforgettable epic.

MY REVIEW

This is a fabulous book and it was one that I found so addictive. This is a mix of post-apocalypse, dystopian, sci-fi and thriller and I adored it. Earth has been visited by alien crafts, and they have sent a message saying that the only place humans can live is the Antarctic, they have 30 days to get there.

This book follows the journey that the human race makes as it tries to work out who gets to go, each country has their own criteria and priorities. There are also individuals who make their own way as well. It is a group of individuals that are the main focus as they make their journey to the frozen south.

With most people not having any experience of living in extreme conditions there are deaths. Billions die as there is only a small percentage of the race that can actually make the journey. While people try to build a life they are starting to worry about what will happen to the human race in the future. This is where the story for me got really interesting and also gripping as science becomes more involved in the fight to keep the human race alive.

I adored this so much about this book and it does lean towards many different genres. The way people organise themselves, govern and also find new ways to manage and exist. Antarctica has research facilities so it is a given that there are going to be scientists and experiments involved, these are so intriguing and they start to add a more sci-fi and thriller edge to an already gripping story.

What starts with a chance meeting ends in a story of survival and the author brings in so many twists and unexpected dilemmas that provide a dilemma. At times this almost felt like the story was verging on a horror story but with the obvious sci-fi leaning. While aliens are mentioned they are not really part of the story. Not much is known about them or why they targeted humans as the threat but left all other creatures alive. You can make your own mind up about that one! This story instead focuses on Antarctica and the residents of this isolated land.

This is a story that really captured my imagination and the author has such a wonderful way with words that I was able to imagine his descriptions. THis is one of those books that I could visualise and see being made into a film or series. Imaginative, full of suspense and a thriller that I would definitely recommend.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tom Rob Smith (born 1979) is an English writer. The son of a Swedish mother and an English father, Smith was raised in London where he lives today. After graduating from Cambridge University in 2001, he completed his studies in Italy, studying creative writing for a year. After these studies, he worked as a scriptwriter.

His first novel, Child 44, about a series of child murders in Stalinist Russia, appeared in early 2008 and was translated into 17 languages. It was awarded the 2008 Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for Best Thriller of the year by the Crime Writer’s Association. It was recently a Barnes & Noble recommended book. On July 29, 2008 the book was named on the long list for the 2008 Man Booker Prize. In November 2008, he was nominated for the 2008 Costa First Novel Award (former Whitbread).

Child 44 followed-up by The Secret Speech (2009)and Agent 6 (2011).

Many thanks for reading my review, a like or share would be amazing 🙂 xx

The Last by Hannah Jameson #dystopian #apocalyptic #bookreview

yvonnembee

I am delighted to share my review today for The Last by Hannah Jameson. I have seen this book around and then was lucky enough to find a copy in our local community book swap.

THE WORLD HAS ENDED IN NUCLEAR WAR.

You and nineteen other survivors hole up in an isolated Swiss hotel.

You wait, you survive.

Then you find the body.

One of your number has blood on their hands.

The race is on to find the killer…

BEFORE THE KILLER FINDS YOU.

MY REVIEW

I enjoy dystopian or near-future novels, and The Last cover definitely caught my eye. A hotel in Switzerland is the setting, news of nuclear bombs exploding over certain parts of the US, and Europe and the decision about what to do next is the main premise for this story.

Oh, I also forgot to mention that a body is discovered under suspicious circumstances!

While this book is set in the aftermath of a nuclear explosion the focus of the story is on those who decided to remain at the hotel rather than risk the unknown. News reports, social media, internet are all gone, all people have to go on is the last things that were sent as bombs landed. Not knowing all the facts make sit very hard to work out what to do next.

With the discovery of the body though, the story focuses on one man’s decision to try and discover who was responsible for the death while at the same time keeping a journal of what is happening over the course of the following days. This gives the air of a locked-room mystery as the hotel and the suspects, or guests as they should be referred to, are isolated.

The author has done a wonderful job of giving a sense of isolation and also coming to terms with the fact that the world they once knew has gone. There are mentions of things being organised such as food, hunting parties, and basic stuff like that, but this is mentioned in the form of the journal notes.

This is a story that has many twists and I did enjoy the style of the book and the mystery element to it. Yes, it is dystopian but actually more mystery with a good suspense vibe to it. If you are a fan of murder mystery stories in isolated settings that do have a thriller sense to them rather than a cosy mystery then this is one that you may like. I enjoyed it and I would happily recommend it.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Hanna Jameson’s fourth novel, part murder mystery and part post-apocalyptic thriller – THE LAST – is out early 2019, with Viking UK and Simon & Schuster – Atria Books US. The Last is the story of an American academic searching for the truth about a girl who has been murdered in his Swiss hotel in the aftermath of a nuclear war that has destroyed most of the Western world.

Jameson had written the first draft of her debut, award-nominated novel – SOMETHING YOU ARE – at just seventeen. Something You Are and two further novels in the series – GIRL SEVEN and ROAD KILL – are available now in the UK, Germany, Japan, and the Netherlands.

She lives in London currently, and is working on screenwriting projects. She likes whiskey, history, and emotionally taxing TV shows.

Many thanks for reading my post, a like or share would be amazing 🙂 xx

The Silence Project by Carole Hailey @CorvusBooks #NetGalley #TheSilenceProject #dystopian #fiction #bookreview

yvonnembee 2 Comments

I am delighted to share my review today for The Silence Project by Carole Hailey. This is a very thought-provoking novel set in the near future and I adored it.

My huge thanks to Corvus Books who granted my request to read and review this book via NetGalley.

On Emilia Morris’s thirteenth birthday, her mother Rachel moves into a tent at the bottom of their garden. From that day on, she never says another word. Inspired by her vow of silence, other women join her and together they build the Community. Eight years later, Rachel and thousands of her followers around the world burn themselves to death.

In the aftermath of what comes to be known as the Event, the Community’s global influence quickly grows. As a result, the whole world has an opinion about Rachel – whether they see her as a callous monster or a heroic martyr – but Emilia has never voiced hers publicly. Until now.

When she publishes her own account of her mother’s life in a memoir called The Silence Project, Emilia also decides to reveal just how sinister the Community has become. In the process, she steps out of Rachel’s shadow once and for all, so that her own voice may finally be heard.

MY REVIEW

This was a brilliant book to read and the cover as well as the synopsis definitely caught my eye. This is a dystopian novel set in the near future. Rachel, a wife and mother decides to go to the bottom of the garden to live, she doesn’t tell anyone why she has done this as she has decided to stop speaking. She decides that she is going to listen to the world around her and while this sounds like a good thing to do she has walked out on her daughter’s 13th Birthday.

The story flits back and forth from the perspective of the daughter, Emilia. There are also accounts in the form of emails from various other people mentioned in the story. I do have to remember that this is a work of fiction but it does read quite alarmingly as an actual account of something that may have happened.

While this story is about Emilia, it is also much more profound than that. It tells of how a simple action from Rachel gradually gathers momentum, attention and publicity. All this is going on while Emilia is growing up as a teen than as an adult. In the future setting the author brings a different turn than I expected, but it does actually work well within the story.

This could so easily be seen as a work of fact, and there are many factual events that are included. Trying to work out or remember what has happened against the fictional events is something that made me shudder at times. In a world where the population is rising, where people are starving, and the climate is changing there are groups that are standing up and making their voices heard. This is where I think this story is clever as it is the absence of a voice that makes the loudest noise.

The beginning half of the book deals with life, how people are being drawn to Rachel and how her simple act of not talking but listening to others gains momentum. This gradually leads to an Event that shocks the world and for a moment the world is silent together in horror. After the Event, the story takes on a more sinister and troubling but also very understandable turn. The Event has given the Community as it is referred to a momentum that cannot be stopped. While I am not going to say much more about this, it does actually feel that it could happen and this is the shocking part of the story.
I have noticed that this book has many reviews and that readers are divided. For me, it worked incredibly well and I adored it. It was a story that I thought about when I wasn’t reading it and one that drew me straight back into it when I picked it up again.

I enjoyed this one a lot, it comes across as being a possibility in a world that is full of negativity at the moment and I can understand the thought behind the positivity and hope that the author expresses through her silent character. The role of the daughter being caught up in her mum’s actions is given in a very convincing way and this made it a very readable story.

If you are a fan of dystopian fiction then this is one that may interest you. I for one am very glad I spotted this book and read it and I would definitely recommend it as it is very thought-provoking.

Many thanks for reading my post, a like or share would be amazing 🙂 xx

The Waiting Rooms by Eve Smith @OrendaBooks #dystopian #thriller #suspense #bookreview

yvonnembee 4 Comments

I am delighted to share my review today for The Waiting Rooms by Eve Smith. I think it was around this time last year that I read this author’s next book, Off Target (Full review HERE). It made such an impression that I immediately bought a copy of The Waiting Rooms, unfortunately, it took me nearly a year to read it. But it was excellent and has left me looking forward to more from this author.

The Waiting Rooms

Decades of spiralling drug resistance have unleashed a global antibiotic crisis. Ordinary infections are untreatable, and a scratch from a pet can kill. A sacrifice is required to keep the majority safe: no one over seventy is allowed new antibiotics. The elderly are sent to hospitals nicknamed ‘The Waiting Rooms’ … hospitals where no one ever gets well.

Twenty years after the crisis takes hold, Kate begins a search for her birth mother, armed only with her name and her age. As Kate unearths disturbing facts about her mother’s past, she puts her family in danger and risks losing everything. Because Kate is not the only secret that her mother is hiding. Someone else is looking for her, too.

Sweeping from an all-too-real modern Britain to a pre-crisis South Africa, The Waiting Rooms is epic in scope, richly populated with unforgettable characters, and a tense, haunting vision of a future that is only a few mutations away.

MY REVIEW

With Covid, Avian Flu and also the threat of resistance to antibiotics fresh in my mind I decided to read The Waiting Rooms. I have read the 2nd book Off Target by this author and it made a huge impression. The Waiting Rooms is an amazing book to read and at times one that can be quite uncomfortable.

This book is set up as having two timelines. One is pre-crisis and the other is a near-future setting. The pre-crisis draws the reader into a world where antibiotics are not working, and infections, diseases and illnesses are deadly for those who contract them. Wave after wave of resistant diseases is killing millions of people worldwide. The race to find alternative medicines and cures is on.

The near-future setting is one that we are sort of familiar with, face masks, no contact and being super careful about being in groups. However, the author has made it a much more dangerous scenario with riots, risks of attack and the dilemma of what to do with people who are too ill to continue with their lives.

While the story in the near future does have medical implications there is another underlying story. How this is connected to the pre-crisis setting is one that is intriguing and shows how things change over the decades. How dealing with one problem can set off a series of events that causes a larger problem in the future. I think this is something we can relate to easily when we look at fossil fuels and other industrial advances against the global climate we live in today. The author has taken a similar route and it is one that is all too easy to be able to realise.

This is a brilliant read. The terminology is basic to understand and the importance of decisions made and that has to be made is one that keeps the story moving. Events and characters have been woven and twisted so that I always wanted to what was going to happen next.

I adored the suspense and thrill of this story, but it also exudes an element of reality. An eye-opener of a thriller and one I would definitely recommend.

Many thanks for reading my post, a like share would be amazing 🙂 xx

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley #classicfiction #dystopian #scifi #bookreview

yvonnembee 10 Comments

I am delighted to share my review today for an old classic. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley was written in 1931 and published in 1932. A book that I have wanted to read for years but actually managed to pick up and read at the beginning of December last Year.

Brave New World is a dystopian novel by English author Aldous Huxley, written in 1931 and published in 1932. Largely set in a futuristic World State, inhabited by genetically modified citizens and an intelligence-based social hierarchy, the novel anticipates huge scientific advancements in reproductive technology, sleep-learning, psychological manipulation and classical conditioning that are combined to make a dystopian society which is challenged by only a single individual: the story’s protagonist.

MY REVIEW

This is a book that I have been wanting to read for years but never got to it. I finally decided to give it a go. I was only aware of the basics of this book and I hadn’t read any other reviews about it.

What I discovered is quite a bizarre story that became quite addictive. It does have a strong literary fiction feel to it. At times the writing is poetic, at others disjointed and overall a story that gradually got under my skin.

The world that Huxley has created is one where people are expected to be happy, they are brainwashed into feeling this. There is no mother, father or in fact any type of family connection. Each person has been produced in a test tube and altered at a genetic level to become what is required for Huxley’s world to function. There is a layered social system where people are born to be what they are engineered to be, so someone with a lowly job will be content with that job. They don’t aspire to be anything more than what they are supposed to be.

Creating this world, the author then throws an anomaly in the system, this is something that shows that even with the use of technology there will be a time when nature intervenes, or it may be a simple human mistake. Either way, this is where the characters that start to question the system have a more important role.

In the second half of the book, there is a move from the system to that of the outside world, this is more what we know today. Parents, relationships and unique traits and characteristics. This for me is where the story then takes an even more addictive turn. The comparisons built up between those in the system and those out of it are great. By the end of the book, I found I was very interested in some of the characters. The ending, well that was a shock!

This is a fabulous book to read, and I did struggle to find the flow at the beginning. I did read it in two sittings. The first sitting was a bit wobbly and at 33% I decided to have a break, this turned out to be a great time to pause and then come back to it the following night. I then found myself unable to put this book down and finished it.

This is a book that has loads of reviews, has loads of opinions and there are probably theories and it will have been analysed in every aspect. I read for the pleasure of it, so for me, this book was one that intrigued me. It did feel disjointed, to begin with, but it grew on me. I enjoyed this and I am very glad that I have read this book.

For a book that was written in 1931 and published in 1932, it has some brilliant imagination and foresight into a possible future. A world where people are engineered to fit into a hierarchical society. It is a very good book and it is one I would happily recommend.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

This most prominent member of the famous Huxley family of England spent part of his life from 1937 in Los Angeles in the United States until his death. Best known for his novels and wide-ranging output of essays, he also published short stories, poetry, travel writing, and film stories and scripts. Through novels and essays, Huxley functioned as an examiner and sometimes critic of social mores, norms and ideals. Spiritual subjects, such as parapsychology and philosophical mysticism, interested Huxley, a humanist, towards the end of his life. People widely acknowledged him as one of the pre-eminent intellectuals of his time before the end of his life.

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A Kinder City by Peter Taylor-Gooby @PeterT_G @ZooloosBT @matadorbooks #dysopian #bookreview

yvonnembee 2 Comments

I am delighted to share my review today for A Kinder City by Peter Taylor-Gooby. This is a fabulous read and one that fans of dystopian are going to enjoy.

My huge thanks to Zoe at Zooloo’s Book Tours for my spot on the Blog Tour.

The City is governed by the grim law of profit and loss. No exceptions, no place for compassion, pleasure, the warmth of friendship or the ardour of love. David, an Enforcer committed to the Law, meets Sarah, a villager from outside, and begins to understand that a different, more joyful, life is possible.


A Kinder City tells the story of their tangled relationship and of how they fall in love, and their struggle against Franklin, the richest man in Market World. If the only law is the market, why not sell everything – and that includes the air we breathe, the land we stand on, the water we drink? No exceptions. His giant factories spew forth the road beasts – the huge machines that devastate the lands beyond the City in pursuit of yet more wealth. Not content with cloning animals, he traps horses in exoskeletons and works them to death. Torn between her growing passion for David and her revulsion at the City that he is pledged to protect, Sarah turns her back on him.


In despair, he confronts one of the convoys supplying Franklin’s mills and releases the horses trapped within the giant trucks. Pursued by terrifying security guards they escape to the Broken Lands and witness at first-hand the desolation that results from ruthless strip-mining and industrial farming driven purely by greed and the misery of the remaining villagers. In their struggle to survive and return to the City they discover the power of their love for each other. Sarah challenges Franklin to his face and, helped by David, sparks off a rebellion among the poor of the City. Together they defeat Franklin. He must learn what it means to be destitute and alone in Market World. The possibility of building a kinder City lies within their grasp.

PURCHASE LINKS – AMAZON – UK – US

MY REVIEW

This is the first time I have read anything by this author and I really enjoyed A Kinder City. It is a dystopian novel that had a very good message behind it.

David is an Enforcer for Market World, a company that has been set up for the benefit of people. It is supposed to be a fair system where everything has a price and no bartering, swapping or donations are acceptable. Transactions are via a wristband, the equivalent of a smartwatch. Your wristband is your account, therefore you are your account. David lives and works in the city, everything is regulated, ruled and runs on time.

When he meets Sarah, a villager he attempts to show her how good the city is. She is very different to him, and while she sees what the city has to offer she knows what is happening outside the city. An eye-opener for David and he starts to see that Market World and the man who runs it, Franklin, are not quite the be-all and end-all.

I really enjoyed this book, so much so that it became a one-sitting read for me. It is a dystopian style thriller and one that did also feel like a Young Adult read as well. Very addictive reading!

The landscape that the author built up showed a contrast between a city where things run smoothly, but behind the facade, something more sinister is lurking. Some are aware of this, but not all. In some respects, this is a political thriller as Franklin wants his dream and his vision to encompass everywhere and everything. His policies do not take into account the impact he is having on the environment and the people outside the city. He produces machines that pollute and destroy but give the greatest profits. Sounds a little familiar doesn’t it?

Having to weave various threads, the author has created a world that shows the difference between working for profit and gain against working with and for nature. This is something that is very relevant in today’s world and I think this is what really works so well for this book.

I really enjoyed the various threads in this story, a chance to discover the truth for David, political wranglings, the hope that Franklin can be stopped and that there is a possibility that all could fall down and even more hardships are incurred by those who do not live or work by the cities rules.

I really think this is a book that would appeal to many readers. It has the political intrigue of business against people, there is a thriller element and environmental issues. A tense story that I adored and I would definitely recommend.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Peter Taylor-Gooby is a sociologist. He has published widely and made many TV and radio appearances. His novels deal with issues that matter – love, money, power and environmental disaster. He has worked on adventure playgrounds, in a social security office and as a teacher. He loves walking, cycling, writing and talking to his children. 

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