Tag: #dystopian

Wolf Country — Tunde Farrand

By 5t4n5

Wolf Country -- Tunde FarrandI’m surprised that this book has got so many good reviews, it really doesn’t deserve them.

The whole world is changed overnight into a dystopian caste system that virtually everyone seems to accept without much question simply because they get a free house and a job.   Even though they all know that as soon as they can’t do their job they’re either euthanised or thrown into the walled off lawless slums to be at the mercy of cruel and evil, gangs.

It basically takes a bunch of dystopian themes and throws them together for the sake of a story, but it doesn’t really hold together as a story.   There just seems to be this acceptance that everyone in the whole world just accepted this system and goes along with it because they all clamour to be high spenders.   Like everyone would just give up social care, social security, pensions, etc., just so they can have a free house, be a slave and strive to be a high spender.

The book spends most of its time telling us how horrible and cruel the new system is with our protagonist and her husband not doing very well, only for the last small part of the book to find a bizarre way to allow them and their few friends to live happily ever after — The End!

Basically, it’s just about passable, and it’s just about readable, but not much else can be said.   If you’re looking for a good dystopian story then your time and money will be better spent on something else.

Tunde’s Page

#dystopian #tundefarrand

The Last Town — Blake Crouch

By 5t4n5

The Last Town -- Blake CrouchPines and Wayward were brilliant, and so i dove straight into this finale to the trilogy without pausing for air.

It’s been a while since i’ve been treated to such unputdownable books, and to have 3 of them in a trilogy is wonderful.

As with the other two books, great writing, great characters and great all-around story telling.

And what a great ending.   Although, for me, i feel it would have been a tiny bit slightly better without the Epilogue — it wouldn’t be a good review without some negative criticism, now would it?

I am most certainly going to be reading more from Blake in the future.

I’m now a fanboy.

Blake’s Page

#scifi #dystopian #blakecrouch

Wayward — Blake Crouch

By 5t4n5

Wayward -- Blake CrouchPines was a really good read, and Wayward did not disappoint in any way either.

I found both books totally unputdownable, any spare moment i had i found my head glued to my Kindle, reading.

The story keeps on having more layers and twists added to it as more information from the time before suspension is revealed — all to be played out in the small town of Wayward Pines.   And the characters just get better the more we learn about them as Blake artfully drip feeds the occasional back story snippet from their previous lives.

Full-on story telling from a full-on story teller.

And now it’s straight into The Last Town for the finale.

Blake’s Page

#scifi #dystopian #blakecrouch

Pines — Blake Crouch

By 5t4n5

Pines -- Blake CrouchI started to watch the TV series a couple of years ago, just because Juliette Lewis was in it.   And then they had the utter gall to kill her off in the third episode.   WTF!!!   So i binned watching the TV version and decided to read the books instead.

So how was the book?   Awesome!

I was very surprised to see this listed as “horror” at Amazon.   I would definitely put this in dystopian sci-fi, i didn’t notice any horror, just the normal dystopian sci-fi kind of stuff.

I’ve previously read Blake’s book, Dark Matter, which was exceptionally well written and Pines is just as good.   Blake does a fantastic job of putting his protagonists into some really mind-bending, disturbing situations and putting the reader well and truly into the protagonist’s mind.

All in all, a great start to this trilogy and i’m diving straight into book 2, Wayward, very optimistic for more of Blake’s style of writing — i’m becoming a big fan.

Blake’s Page

#scifi #dystopian #blakecrouch

The Vernal Memory — J. N. Chaney

By 5t4n5

The Vernal Memory -- J. N. ChaneyI was hoping for a bit more from this last book in this very enjoyable series.   It was still very enjoyable, fast flowing, full of action and everything the first three books were, that’s not the problem.   The problem is that throughout the previous books it’s felt like we’ve been thrown a trail of breadcrumbs concerning lots of things, and i started reading this book thinking that that trail would have lead to somewhere.   Sadly, someone seems to have run out of breadcrumbs.

Previously we were told that the Variant came from a hole that was drilled into the ground, which sounded like someone was covering something up.   Like a hole in the ground would have enough gas to destroy a whole planet plus one more when it leaked through a worm hole.   It didn’t seem plausible for all this gas that has flooded two whole atmospheres to come from a hole drilled into the ground.   But that’s all that’s said about it in the whole series — nothing more.   No further explanation is given.

I was also hoping to have explained to me why the people of Everlasting can’t breathe Variant but the rest of the people on the planet can.

Then there’s Garden.   Who seem to have been around quite some time before the humans arrived, yet their sole purpose seems to have been to stop Gel from his master plan to invade Earth with genetically modified people from Everlasting — genetically modified with Earth’s help.   So no real explanation as to what has been going on in Everlasting before the humans arrived to have caused the insurrection was given.

And there’s other little picky things that just made this feel like a quickly-wrap-the-series-up-and-move-on-and-not-get-too-deep-about-anything kind of book.

But, as i said at the beginning, it’s still an enjoyable read, but i’m just left with the feeling that it could have been so much more.

All in all, a good series, good writing, great characters, fast flowing pace throughout, just slightly lacking at the end.

J. N. Chaney’s Page

#dystopian #scifi #jnchaney

Hope Everlasting — J. N. Chaney

By 5t4n5

Hope Everlasting -- J. N. ChaneyThe third book of this, so far, very enjoyable tetralogy.

We left book two after the story split into two stories on two worlds, Earth and Kant, and enter book three where the story moves onto Kant almost in its entirety.

One would have expected a little slowing down in the story by now, but no, in fact the story starts going more, especially towards the last quarter of this book.

More characters are added to the cast, more ingredients are stirred to the mix, more clues are added to the puzzle, but still very little is being revealed as to what is really going on.   And it works really well, you just want more of it.

And so wanting more i dive straight into the fourth and final book, where, hopefully, all will be revealed and we will find all the answers to this puzzle.

J. N. Chaney’s Page

#dystopian #scifi #jnchaney

Transient Echoes — J. N. Chaney

By 5t4n5

Transient Echoes -- J. N. ChaneyI really enjoyed book one of this tetralogy, so i dived straight into book two, and really enjoyed this as well.

Not as flowing as the first book as it’s essentially two separate stories set on two separate worlds, but it still manages to flow fairly well.

As with the first book, there’s no words wasted on pointlessness.   Everything keeps the story moving forward, which is what we like.

More clues are added to the puzzle of what caused the Variant in the first place, yet i’m not left hoping for the answer any time soon as i’m quite enjoying putting the pieces together in my own head.   Yes, it’s definitely one of those, Can-you-guess-what-it-is-yet? stories.

And because you’re always eager for more clues to the puzzle you just have to keep reading.

And so it’s straight onto book three for me.

J. N. Chaney’s Page

#dystopian #scifi #jnchaney

The Amber Project — J. N. Chaney

By 5t4n5

The Amber Project -- J. N. ChaneyA gas called Variant has engulfed the Earth and only a small pocket of humans cling to life in an underground city.   Procreation is strictly controlled, resources are limited, and time is running out to find a solution to humanity’s future as the city is slowly failing from age.

The solution this book deals with is to genetically engineer the children to be able to exist breathing Variant, thus allowing future generations to return to the surface, and this is the story of one of those groups.   And, i have to say, it’s a rather good story too.

It certainly keeps moving along at a good pace as there’s a lot going on in the city with the various competing groups and their agendas.

It’s well written with good characters throughout.

All in all, a very good start to this post apocalyptic, dystopian future, tetralogy — and i’m happily diving straight into the next book for more of it.

J. N. Chaney’s Page

#dystopian #scifi #jnchaney