Rating: 4/5
Review:
Enjoyably witty
I enjoyed Battlestar
Suburbia; it is witty, imaginative and well written, but it did go on
rather too long for me.
Chris McCrudden has
taken an old SF trope and given it a fresh and amusing tweak. It is
several millennia in the future; machines rule the world and permit
humans only to perform menial cleaning functions and to live on
orbiting “Dolestars”. However, McCrudden’s machines are the
products of a type of evolution which gives them character traits
reminiscent of their original ancestors – a homely, domestic
breadmaker or a bossy, arrogant smartphone, for example. He uses the
story of the accidental spawning of a human rebellion to sling
satirical barbs at a good deal of current human activity, including
use of the internet, sexism, scaremongering totalitarian politicians
and much besides. It’s well done and often made me smile and even
chuckle once or twice; the notion of a nuclear missile with the
personality of a sulky teenager might give you the idea. (And, by
the way, I liked that, without making a fuss about it, almost all the
chief protagonists were women.)
It’s a good read
which, crucially, never feels as though it’s congratulating itself
on being so cleverly amusing. However, I found it became very
fractured at times and even the willing suspension of disbelief
didn’t quite make up for some of the more absurd developments and
illogicalities in the machines’ make-up. I found that the central
tenet didn’t quite support the book until the end and it could have
done with a little tightening up.
I can recommend
Battlestar Suburbia. It is the first of a series, though, and I’m
not sure that I’ll rush to read the next book; I think that for me
the idea may have run its course.
(My thanks to
Farrago for an ARC via NetGalley.)
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