Review: Machine Learning: New and Collected Stories by Hugh Howey

A new collection of stories, including some that have never before been seen, from the New York Times best-selling author of the Silo trilogy.

Hugh Howey is known for crafting riveting and immersive page-turners of boundless imagination, spawning millions of fans worldwide, first with his best-selling novel Wool, and then with other enthralling works such as Sand and Beacon 23. Now comes Machine Learning, an impressive collection of Howey’s science fiction and fantasy short fiction, including three stories set in the world of Wool, two never-before-published tales written exclusively for this volume, and fifteen additional stories collected here for the first time. These stories explore everything from artificial intelligence to parallel universes to video games, and each story is accompanied by an author’s note exploring the background and genesis of each story. Howey’s incisive mind makes Machine Learning: New and Collected Stories a compulsively readable and thought-provoking selection of short works—from a modern master at the top of his game.

Star Rating: 4.5 stars

I received this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I have thoroughly enjoyed a number of Hugh Howey's novels, in particular the Silo series so I was really pleased to see that this collection of short stories revisited the world and the characters of that series. The three Silo stories - In the Air, In the Mountain, and In the Woods all seem to continue on from each other almost forming their own novella in and of themselves. It was good to see some familiar characters as well as some new ones (unless they weren't new and I've just forgotten about them which is possible as it's been a while since I finished the Silo series). These three stories are for those who have already read the Silo series as they contain spoilers.

This collection of stories was broken down in to sections. In addition to the Silo Stories section, we had sections (and stories) on Aliens and Alien Worlds, Artificial Intelligence, Fantasy, Algorithms of Love and Hate, Virtual Worlds and Lost and Found.

I do not generally have a good track record when it comes to short stories. Usually I approach them by reading a story here and there whilst also reading another book but on this occasion I actually read this book cover to cover. More often than not, I tend to only enjoy a few stories in collections and a lot of the time find myself left wanting when a story ends. However with this collection, I enjoyed every one of the stories. Bar one. One of the fantasy stories (Hell from the East) I actually skipped. But that's pretty good going I would say. I found myself engrossed in all the other stories and enjoyed the characters and the worlds. My favourites were Second Suicide, Glitch, The Plagiarist, Peace in Amber as well as all of the Silo stories.

Peace in Amber is set in the same world as Kurt Vonnegurt's Slaughterhouse Five. Now I'm not a fan of that book so I was a little apprehensive about the short story. I thought I'd end up skipping it. But I really liked it. It was well written. I could see similarities and the nods to the book but Howey's writing style and his ability to create worlds and interesting characters came through giving me a better experience of that world.

My favourite thing about this whole book is that Howey adds commentary on each of the stories at the end of each one. Not only does it provide some insight in to Howey's writing process, his inspirations for stories and why he writes about the subjects he does but also it gives us some idea of who is as a person and what makes him tick. As a fellow boat dweller, I love the fact he lives on a boat and is sailing around the world (at least he was when this book was being written). I found his commentary helped me understand the story better, something that on occasions I struggle with with shorter fiction. I actually enjoyed the commentary as much as the stories. I feel that more authors should commentate their short stories in this way.

I will definitely read more of his short fiction and novels in the future.

Review: Speak by Louisa Hall

A thoughtful, poignant novel that explores the creation of Artificial Intelligence — illuminating the very human need for communication, connection, and understanding.

In a narrative that spans geography and time, from the Atlantic Ocean in the seventeenth century, to a correctional institute in Texas in the near future, and told from the perspectives of five very different characters, Speak considers what it means to be human, and what it means to be less than fully alive.

A young Puritan woman travels to the New World with her unwanted new husband. Alan Turing, the renowned mathematician and code breaker, writes letters to his best friend's mother. A Jewish refugee and professor of computer science struggles to reconnect with his increasingly detached wife. An isolated and traumatized young girl exchanges messages with an intelligent software program. A former Silicon Valley Wunderkind is imprisoned for creating illegal lifelike dolls.

Each of these characters is attempting to communicate across gaps — to estranged spouses, lost friends, future readers, or a computer program that may or may not understand them. In dazzling and electrifying prose, Louisa Hall explores how the chasm between computer and human — shrinking rapidly with today's technological advances — echoes the gaps that exist between ordinary people. Though each speaks from a distinct place and moment in time, all five characters share the need to express themselves while simultaneously wondering if they will ever be heard, or understood.

Star Rating: 5 stars

I received this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

First off, I really liked the front cover of this book. Simple but elegant. I guess it's what drew me to the book as I hadn't heard of it nor the author prior to that.

If I had to compare this book to other stories, I'd have to say it's I, Robot meets Artificial Intelligence (A.I), meets Transcendence. Others have compared it to Cloud Atlas in format. I cannot comment on that unfortunately as I had to abandon Cloud Atlas pretty early on. It is a story of love, loss, the importance of relationships and communication, and what it means to be human.

This book is told through five different voices which span centuries and continents. These five voices however are told through one person, Eva, a robot who is being taken on mass with others like her for destruction. This is how the books starts off. We're plunged in to a world where we know robots are being persecuted but we're not sure why. The story unfolds as each of Eva's voices shares their story. The five voices are all very different people yet they are all interconnected in some way and they tell their tale in a variety of formats – memoirs, letters, and online chat dialogues.

I was going to list the voices in the order in which they appear (and which they are numbered in the book) but instead I'm going to to start with the one furthest back in time where it all starts off.

Mary Bradford, is a young Puritan woman who leaves for the New World with her parents, new husband and her dog in 1663. They most likely were among the first of the colonists. Mary's diary I found difficult to read. She has written it in the style of an early adventurist (she does mention his name but I can't recall it). I've not read any of his work (if he's in fact real) so I cannot comment on the likeness of it but I found it very stilted. I also thought that the language perhaps wasn't very 15th century. It felt quite modern but that may be because Mary's journal that we are presented with as readers has been edited by Ruth Dettman. We'll come to the Dettmans later.

Next we have Alan Turing who is corresponding with the parents of his best friend Chris. He tells of their work in the field of computing and how the mind works and of his time at Bletchley. It was his aim to put the mind of his deceased friend in to that of a computer.

Then we have the Dettmans. Ruth and her husband Karl, individually fled Nazi Germany during the Second World War and went to the US where they met and got married. Now in the midst of the Vietnam War, their marriage is on the rocks because Ruth spends all her time talking to the speaking computer, named MARY, that Karl designed.

We then have Stephen R Chinn, in 2040, who is writing from inside the Texas State Correctional Institution. We know he's been detained because he created the robots which are being herded up for destruction. He talks of his past and how his ideas developed. At first I found a real affinity with the character but that changed as the story progressed.

And lastly we have Gaby White who converses with MARY3, the third generation of the original MARY which Karl Dettman created. MARY3 is a lot more sophisticated and has a personality. We find out about the ordeals which Gaby and her young friends have gone through as their babybots have been snatched away from them leaving them bereft and inconsolable.

Then full circle, we have Eva, who is one of the babybots who was taken away from their owner.

This book is well written and I enjoyed each of the different voices and the part they played in telling the story. The author has created some well thought out characters and employed some interesting plot devices.

I have a background in computer science and cybernetics in addition to psychology so this book really appealed to me and I found it very interesting. I think anyone who uses computers and are interested in how technology develops would enjoy this book. This book is science fiction but done in a literary way. I guess I would compare it to the likes of Station Eleven which centres on the characters and their interactions with each other more than the external events. I enjoyed the character focus immensely but I was left with many questions about the world generally and what happened for robots to go from being loved and wanted by all to being removed from their owners and destroyed.

Would I read more from this author? Possibly. I guess I enjoyed the combination of her writing style and the subject of the story.

The book is a quick read and I enjoyed it very much.

Review: Three Moments of an Explosion: Stories by China Miéville

London awakes one morning to find itself besieged by a sky full of floating icebergs. Destroyed oil rigs, mysteriously reborn, clamber from the sea and onto the land, driven by an obscure but violent purpose. An anatomy student cuts open a cadaver to discover impossibly intricate designs carved into a corpse's bones—designs clearly present from birth, bearing mute testimony to . . . what?

Of such concepts and unforgettable images are made the twenty-eight stories in this collection—many published here for the first time. By turns speculative, satirical, and heart-wrenching, fresh in form and language, and featuring a cast of damaged yet hopeful seekers who come face-to-face with the deep weirdness of the world—and at times the deeper weirdness of themselves—Three Moments of an Explosion is a fitting showcase for one of our most original voices.

Star rating: 4 stars

I received Three Moments of an Explosion: Stories through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I was so excited to receive this book as China Mieville is one of my favourite authors.

That said, I am not a big fan of short stories. Just a couple months ago I finished reading my first book of short stories. Normally I start, then give up. I am pleased to say that I read every story in this book. There are well over 20 stories, some are very short while others are much longer. I have to say that I got on better with the longer ones.

As with all short story collections I've attempted to read, this one has a number of stories where you are left at the end wondering what that was all about and wondering if you missed something. I had this feeling on quite a few occasions. Despite this confusion, I was also often left with a feeling of enjoyment.

One of my GR friends who loves short stories said to me that she views a short story as a photograph, that it is just a snippet of a time, a person, a place or a situation and you can't see outside the frame of the photograph. But you don't have to in order to appreciate the photograph. I really liked this analogy and I have since been keeping it in mind while I read short stories and it helps me tremendously. (Thanks Camilla!)

Some of my favourites in this collection were Polynia in which Icebergs appeared in the skies of London; The Dowager of Bees in which special cards would appear mysteriously during games of Poker with very interesting consequences; In the Slopes was set at an Archeological dig site where some strange findings are discovered; The Crawl, a Zombie movie trailer which I would definitely go to see if it were ever actually made in to a movie; Watching God, a post apocalyptic island set story where ships sit off the coast just watching; The Buzzards Egg about a guy that I really felt for who had to look after a captured God; Dreaded Outcome about a therapist who will go to the extreme to ensure her patients get well; and After the Festival which was very grim and disturbing that it game me goosebumps and made me shiver upon recounting the story to my partner.

There was quite a mix of stories, all a little strange as one would expect with Mieville. He created some awesome worlds which I would love to spend more time in. I was left with lots of questions (which is not uncommon for me at the end of a short story) but I feel ok with that.

I will definitely be reading his older short story collection Looking for Jake and Other Stories (as well as future novels).

Review: Slow Bullets by Alastair Reynolds

From the author of the Revelation Space series comes an interstellar adventure of war, identity, betrayal, and the preservation of civilization itself.

A vast conflict, one that has encompassed hundreds of worlds and solar systems, appears to be finally at an end. A conscripted soldier is beginning to consider her life after the war and the family she has left behind. But for Scur—and for humanity—peace is not to be.

On the brink of the ceasefire, Scur is captured by a renegade war criminal, and left for dead in the ruins of a bunker. She revives aboard a prisoner transport vessel. Something has gone terribly wrong with the ship.

Passengers—combatants from both sides of the war—are waking up from hibernation far too soon. Their memories, embedded in bullets, are the only links to a world which is no longer recognizable. And Scur will be reacquainted with her old enemy, but with much higher stakes than just her own life.

Star rating: 3 stars

I received this book for free through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

There's not too much I can say about this book without giving away the story - it's such a short book. Despite it's length, the author does manage to cram a lot in and it's a well thought out story. I guess because it's a novella and therefore short, it doesn't build a vivid picture in the reader's mind of the environment or the characters.

The whole story takes place on a skipship, a ship which is both carrying soldiers from both sides of a war after the ceasefire, in addition to prisoners and civilians. The ship is malfunctioning and wakens everyone out of stasis and then all chaos breaks loose.

This is told in first person by Scur, a female (actually now I think about it I'm not sure it states her sex but I assumed she was female) soldier. She? tells the story as if she? was speaking directly to the reader which I often find a little annoying.

This is the first book I have read by the author Alastair Reynolds. Despite the "addressing the reader POV", I liked his writing style, so I would like to read more of his books in the future.

Review: The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi

In a future hammered by climate change and drought, mountain snows have turned to rain, and rain evaporates before it hits the ground. In a fragmenting United States, the cities of Phoenix and Las Vegas skirmish for a dwindling share of the Colorado River. But it is the Las Vegas water knives - assassins, terrorists and spies - who are legendary for protecting Las Vegas' water supplies, and for ensuring Phoenix's ruin.

When rumours of a game-changing water source surface, Las Vegas dispatches elite water knife Angel Velasquez to Phoenix to investigate. There, he discovers hardened journalist Lucy Monroe, who holds the secret to the water source Angel seeks. But Angel isn't the only one hunting for water, Lucy is no pushover, and the death of a despised water knife is a small price to pay in return for the life-giving flow of a river. Star Rating: 5 stars

I loved Paolo Bacigalupi’s last book, The Windup Girl, so when I saw The Water Knife available on NetGalley, I just had to put in a request for it. I am so pleased that my request was excepted and I received a kindle version for free in exchange for my honest review of the book.

Like with The Windup Girl, the beginning is a little complex. I know why it is and so I suppose I didn’t mind it so much. This book is set in the future and therefore, the world as it is then needs to be explained as does its technology, politics and problems. That said, I found that quite quickly I was able to understand what was going on, much quicker than what I had with The Windup Girl – I was well and truly hooked by the end of Chapter 2.

As I’ve already said, this book is set in the future in a world where Climate Change occurred well and truly, brought about a permanent drought and everyone is desperate for water. This book is scary and I said the same thing about The Windup Girl too. It’s scary because this could actually happen and so much of it is reminiscent with our current situation in this world.

I really liked the following two quotes – kind of sums up what is happening right now with the whole Climate Change debate.

“If I could put my finger on the moment we genuinely fucked ourselves, it was the moment we decided that data was something you could use words like believe or disbelieve around.”

“We knew it was all going to go to hell, and we just stood by and watched it happen anyway. There ought to be a prize for that kind of stupidity.”

The story is set in the Southern States of America, near the border with Mexico. Bacigalupi includes many local Spanish words and phrases (and the odd Chinese one too as there are some Corporations from China involved in the storyline). I really like it when an author does this.

So each chapter focuses on a different character at the beginning. We have Angel, who is a Water Knife for Catherine Case who owns the Archologies in Vegas in which many people live in; Lucy who is a Journalist living in struggling Phoenix; and Maria who has to do anything to make money to live in a city which is going down the pan. These character’s lives intertwine when Angel is sent to Phoenix to check out whether some important water deeds actually do exist.

Bacigalupi did a fantastic job creating believable, likeable (and dislikeable) characters.

I know that Bacigalupi has been likened to William Gibson in the past and I can see why for sure. Gibson coined a few words and I reckon we may see the term “collapse pornography” around after The Water Knife is published. I thought this was a great term for the articles produced by the media detailing everything going down the pan and what’s worse, people can’t get enough of it.

So in a world where there is limited water to go around, it goes the way of oil today: it’s sold by the litre, it fluctuates with the markets, companies drill for it and make a lot of money from it, pipeline deals, and fighting and wars over the reserves. I really liked this.

It’s amazing how many phrases we use that are water related (and boat related for that matter) – I only noticed recently when I bought my boat and I became really aware of when I use one of these phrases in conversation, for example, “we’re really pushing the boat out”. I like all the water references throughout the book, for example, people were described as being out of their depth or drowning (metaphorically). I’m glad that the author didn’t shy away from these phrases when the main focus of the book was on water (or lack of).

There was quite a raunchy, explicit sex scene about three quarters of the way in. I don't mind a bit of sex in a book as long as it's not the main focus of a story. I did find it interesting the words the author chose to use to describe this scene though, especially the use of the C word. I don't mind expletives – I use enough of them but I really wasn't expecting to see that one placed there. But upon reflection it does go with the style of the writing and the harshness of the world these people were in.

I whizzed through this book so quickly. I was hooked from the beginning and it was fast paced so I just had to keep reading to find out what would happen next. A 5 star read for sure. More books please Mr Paolo Bacigalupi!

Tuesday Intro & Teasers: I, Morgana

First Paragraph - First Chapter - Tuesday Intro is hosted by Bibliophile By the Sea. So for this book meme, I just have to post the first paragraph of the first chapter of either a book I am currently reading or about to start.

I'm going to be focusing on a book which I am planning to start soon - I, Morgana by Felicity Pulman. I received the book through NetGalley in return for an honest review. A couple of my Goodreads friends read it and didn't think much of it so I'm not sure what my experience will be with it. Only time will tell! At least it's a pretty short book.

"I am an old woman now. My bones creak and scrape together like bare branches in a winter wind. I ache with longing for my youth. When I notice my reflection, I am aghast at the vision of the hag who looks back at me. I mourn the passing of who I was, and everything I could have been. More than anything, I long to reverse time. Throughout the years I have tried and tried to do this, without success. Now, even my most potent spells and incantations cannot transform me into the young woman I once was, with all my life still to live. With age, my magical powers have all but deserted me. Once I was desired by men; now I am disregarded by all and loved by none."

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Miz B of Should Be Reading. So for this book meme, I have to randomly turn to a page (or two) and choose a sentence to post here to tease you all with. I'm combining the two book memes and using the same book for both.

My teasers:

"It is a surprise to be summoned by the Prioress and told that an envoy has arrived with a message from the king demanding to see me." ~ 19% (chapter 3)

"The castle is quite small by Camelot's standards, but with extensive grounds that, in a high tide, are severed from the mainland so that we live almost on an enchanted isle of your own." ~ 28% (chapter 5)

I, Morgana: View on Amazon || View on Goodreads

What do you think? Would you keep reading?

Review: Age of Iron by Angus Watson

Bloodthirsty druids and battle-hardened Iron Age warriors collide in the biggest epic fantasy debut release of 2014.

LEGENDS AREN'T BORN. THEY'RE FORGED.

Dug Sealskinner is a down-on-his-luck mercenary travelling south to join up with King Zadar's army. But he keeps rescuing the wrong people.

First, Spring, a child he finds scavenging on the battlefield, and then Lowa, one of Zadar's most fearsome warriors, who's vowed revenge on the king for her sister's execution.

Now Dug's on the wrong side of that thousands-strong army he hoped to join ­- and worse, Zadar has bloodthirsty druid magic on his side. All Dug has is his war hammer, one rescued child and one unpredictable, highly-trained warrior with a lust for revenge that's going to get them all killed . . .

It's a glorious day to die.

Reading Format: Kindle eBook
Year Read: 2014
Star Rating: 4.5 stars

I was really excited to receive this book through NetGalley for free in exchange for an honest review.

Badgers Cocks! That was a good read! No I am not making up new expletives but it is one that Dug, one of the main characters in the book, uses. A LOT!!! Actually, he pretty much proceeds our usual swear words with Badgers. I thought this was a nice touch as it added some humour, lessening the impact of the language.

Still on the subject of language, I didn't like how sex and women generally were described. Shag this, bang that, and riding the red horse are just a few of the terms used. I suppose the language was in keeping with those who were saying it and may also be the culture of the time but it just bugged me a little.

I don't think the book was male focused, although that was my first impression based on the front cover (reminds self to take the advice of never judging a book by its cover). A lot of fantasy stories are male dominant in characters and the women tend to be weaker and in need of rescue so it was good to have some strong female characters in this one.

This book is being marketed as being similar to Martin's Game of Thrones series and Joe Abercrombie. I've read the former and loved it but none of the latter so I cannot comment on the similarities there unfortunately. It's dark, consists of battles between ruling “kings” of the three main regions of Britain, and plenty of raping and pillaging so I suppose that is why it has been compared to Game of Thrones. But that's really where the similarities end for me. This is no Game of Thrones in my eyes but I am a Thrones geek so perhaps I'm a bit biased. I don't like it when publishers compare new books to other authors.

That said, I still enjoyed this book. It is the authors first fictional debut in what looks like could be a promising new fantasy series. I say fantasy series as that is what it's listed as but it's not really fantastical. It's fantasy-light. Yes it mentions Druids who practice human sacrifice, tell the future by spilling the innards of children, and the odd bit of magic but that's as magical as it gets.

As well as it being light on fantasy, it is also light on history. The book is set around the time of the Roman Invasion of Britain and I think it's listed as historical fiction but it's more alternate history I'd say. This was my view while reading it but once I got to the end and read the authors “historical note”, it did give me a different viewpoint. He states that the book is “a fantasy story, not intended to be serious history. However, the history in it is generally accurate. I've made up the tribes and the characters, but all details – their homes, the towns and villages, clothes, industry, farming, flora and fauna, weapons, etc. - are as correct as they can be.”

If you can get past the lack of history and fantasy, for your historical fantasy book, then I think you'd enjoy the book. I like the writing style and the characters are well developed. It is darkly humorous in places too.

I thought the book started well by dragging us straight in to a battle (although it's pretty one-sided) and I thought I was going to be in for one hell of a ride with cover to cover battles but then things quietened down a bit and more characters were introduced and the story was developed. There is lots of action, some of which is a little disturbing in places but it isn't described in graphic detail so it's easy to skip it if you would rather do that. I thought it had the right amount of battles in it. As much as I like a good battle, I do like the journeys, chance meetings, and personal quests which help develop the characters.

The main three characters, Dug, Spring and Lowa are an unlikely trio, all stumble upon each other after the beginning battle. All of them have different agendas: Dug is trying to stay alive, Lowa is hell bent on revenge and Spring is just Spring. I loved all of them for different reasons.

I will definitely be reading the rest of the trilogy.

Age of Iron: View on Amazon || View on Goodreads

Related Articles: First Paragraph - First Chapter - Tuesday Intro: Age of Iron

First Paragraph - First Chapter - Tuesday Intro: Age of Iron

First Paragraph - First Chapter - Tuesday Intro is hosted by Bibliophile By the Sea.

I started reading Age of Iron by Angus Watson just this morning. In fact, I have read the exact amount as what you have read with this post. It is the first book in a new fantasy series and the author's fictional debut. The book isn't due out until September but I received a copy from NetGalley for review.

"Mind your spears, coming through!"

Dug Sealskinner shouldered his way back through the ranks. front rank was for young people who hadn't learned to fear battle and old men who thought they could compete with the young.

Dug put himself halway in that last catergory. He;s been alive for about forty tears, so he was old. And he wanted to compete with the young, but grim experience had unequivocally, and sometimes humiliatingly, demonstrated that the young won every time. even when they didn't win they won because they were young and he wasn't.

Age of Iron: View on Amazon || View on Goodreads

What do you think? Would you keep reading?

Review: Paradigm by Ceri A Lowe

What if the end of the world was just the beginning?

Alice Davenport awakens from a fever to find her mother gone and the city she lives in ravaged by storms – with few survivors.

When Alice is finally rescued, she is taken to a huge underground bunker owned by the mysterious Paradigm Industries. As the storms worsen, the hatches close.

87 years later, amidst the ruins of London, the survivors of the Storms have reinvented society. The Model maintains a perfect balance – with inhabitants routinely frozen until they are needed by the Industry.

Fifteen-year-old Carter Warren knows his time has come. Awoken from the catacombs as a contender for the role of Controller General, it is his destiny to succeed – where his parents failed.

But Carter soon discovers that the world has changed, in ways that make him begin to question everything that he believes in. As Carter is forced to fight for those he loves and even for his life, it seems that the key to the future lies in the secrets of the past...

Reading Format: eBook
Year Read: 2014
Star Rating: 3.5 stars

I requested through NetGalley to receive this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This is my first disclosure. My second disclosure is that I am a thirty-something reading a YA book so I am not it’s intended audience.

“You have five minutes of this life left.”

The first line of the book is a great opener and really draws you in. But then just a few sentences later it mentions something about the over thirties which gets my back up.

“If he could keep himself together, then surely the old-timers should be able to manage it. It just confirmed everything he knew about anyone over thirty.”

So a bit of a mixed start for me! Despite the inference that I’m an old-timer, I carried on with the story. ;-)

I really like how the story was told. It is written in third person from two different POVs and two different time frames. Confused? Well there’s no need to be as it’s really well done. Carter Warren, a 15-year old boy, shows us what it’s like in a present day post-apocalyptic world while Alice Davenport shows us how life as we know it changed forever and how the new society was formed. I thought this was quite unique among the dystopian/post-apocalyptic stories out there as we generally see what it’s like after the s**t has hit the fan as opposed to as it’s happening. Each chapter switches POV to progress the story and each story line makes things fall in to place in the other.

While we don’t know exactly what has caused the Storms, it’s obviously global warming related in some way. The Storms came followed by floods then people died. Any remaining stragglers were picked up by Paradigm Industry and taken underground to sit it out until a society could be established above ground again. This is the bit I found scary! Not in a horror story kind of way but that this could happen; Corporations gaining control and being in charge is where we’re heading now. While we still have a government in our country many of the MPs have shares or some other involvement in big businesses and banks, so laws are passed to favour themselves, we have schools sponsored by companies and things being tendered out to private companies such as homeland security and prisons to name just a few.

So Back to the story! 87 years down the line, technology has advanced significantly and people are chosen by the Industry to go back in to the catacombs underground to be frozen in stasis for an unknown period of time to be awakened in the future to bring balance to society. Carter Warren is one of those people who were chosen and frozen just aged 15 to be brought back in the future as a contender to be Controller General, the person in charge of the Industry and Society as a whole.

I forgot to mention that the book is set in London too which I also liked being a Brit myself. There are so many books set in the US within this genre so it's good to see we get our own one now.

Whilst reading, I felt like I was waiting for the obligatory romance to start which always seems to crop up in YA books. But it didn’t happen which was quite refreshing. There were some mentions of crushes and love and the odd kiss and cuddle but it wasn’t the main focus of the story. And no angst!

A few interesting issues are raised in this book. Carter has sex for the first time, aged 15 on his going away party, and gets a girl pregnant with twins. I thought this sends a clear message to the YA audience to practice safe sex and that even on the first time you can get pregnant, although the message is more implied rather than being spelled out. It also briefly addresses paedophilia/sexual assault with Alice being attacked by an old man whilst she was under his care. Difficult topics to broach but they were woven in to the story nicely and sensitively.

I felt that some of the things that happened were predictable while other things happened which were really unexpected (but were good) and blew me away. I also felt that some characters were well thought out and developed, for example Alice and Carter, while others not so and it was difficult to understand who they were and what they stood for. At times things happened and I wasn't sure what, leaving me feeling confused although that eased off as things were explained later in the book.

I really liked that it covered the creation of a post-apocalyptic world and the reasons why they made the choices they did and the omissions they made to society and life. I also get why those restrictions which once worked no longer do when time moves on and why 87 years later people are rebelling against the rules.

All in all I thought it was an enjoyable read. Will I be reading the sequels? I’d quite like to know how the story progresses so I probably will.