Blurb
The Balagoun brothers’ ten-year plan for taking the citizens of New London to a new life on Mars following the apocalypse is about to become a reality with the approaching launch of the first test flight, but equipment, supplies and energy are going missing, conspiracy theories are rife, and it seems as if not everyone wants to leave the Earth anyway.
To take their places as leaders of the new civilisation, their granddaughters Freya and Reihna must put aside their divided loyalties to the family and keep a restless city supporting a questionable dream.
If the information that the local news reporter Hanna Finnegan discovers proves to be true, that dream might just turn out to be a nightmare…
My Review
Thanks to Kelly at Love Books Tours for arranging this blog tour and to the author for my copy of the book.
Reihna and Freya are the granddaughters of the Belagoun brothers, Alek and Nikolaus. The brothers have a plan to save some of humanity after a disastrous war by building ships and going to Mars, which the survivors will then terraform into a habitable planet. Why not stay on Earth you (and Freya) ask? Because there is a meteor shower on it’s way and the meteors and Earth are on a collision course. Nikolaus and Reihna live on a space station, while Freya and Alek live on Earth, in New London, linked by the Spacebridge, that is used to shoot shuttles into space and up to the station, E-Gate.
Except nothing is as it seems. Hidden forces, alien forces, are at play and all plans start to go awry, as an army of escaped slaves from the hidden factories and farms attacks London, and the group that believes it is masterminding events converges on the space port in New London. Freya is kidnapped for a second time, she escapes, and explosions happen. Reihna and a friend named Jim hide some shuttles and supplies before the spaceport is destroyed by the alien forces who’ve taken over E-Gate.
Eventually, Freya, her damaged grandfather and a dog are found in old London by a strange group, who lead them underground, into an old network and a new world.
The concept of a post-apocalyptic world where elites enslave the rest of the survivors in order to escape impending catastrophe isn’t a new idea. Aliens manipulating humans and taking over their bodies, also not a new idea. But putting them together in this combination is enjoyable, as it’s fairly obvious that they’re going to eventually destroy each other, the normal people will thrive, and I want to see how Catto does it.
I enjoyed the story, the plot is good and quite twisty. You have to get your head around all the competing groups as they are introduced, where their loyalties lie, who is tricking whom, and just how messed up it is all going to get. Also, there’s a mysterious structure in the meteor cloud on it’s way to Earth. Who is it, and what do they want? Will they help the humans or the aliens? It’s intriguing. Clearly this is the start of a series, and this book feels like a prologue, or the opening chapters of a much longer work. There are questions we are left with: where are Reihna and Jim? Will the aliens stuck on the space station get to Earth? Will the other cities, presumed lost, make contact with London? Will Wombat make enough beer for 2000 people in a week? The book ended with hope and a moment of levity, which felt slightly incongruous but was enjoyable.
The characters are interesting. I liked Freya and Reihna more than their grandfathers, but best of all are Jim and Wombat. I would have loved to read events from their perspectives. I think Jim has contributed more than the reader realises as the story is mainly told from the perspective of Freya, Reihna and Hanna (journalist who unearths important information and was last seen seducing Pierre the waiter at the Diner).
The writing felt clunky to start and the whole book could really do with a little editing and finessing, but when I got into it, the writing’s flaws didn’t bother me as much, so it either improved or I was enjoying myself enough that I didn’t notice. A good story can make up for less than perfectly flawless writing, but perfectly flawless writing can never compensate for a bad story – luckily for Catto he came down on the first half of that equation, so I finished the book.
I generally feel reasonably positive about this book and look forward to reading the next in the series.
Author Bio:
Steve Catto was born in Yorkshire, but his parents took him to Australia when he was six years old and he grew up there, sometimes racing cars across the desert.
He once spent three weeks working in a factory that made handles for buckets.
In his late teens he returned to the UK, and his parents followed him – which wasn’t what he wanted because he was hoping to get away from them.
At various times in his career he has lived and worked in France, Switzerland, and Canada, and now lives in Scotland.
Since appearing in school plays as a child he has performed almost continuously on the amateur stage, and spent a few years scuba diving. These two things have nothing to do with each other.
In terms of his pedigree as an author he has written many technical manuals and filled in countless timesheets, so considers himself well versed in the art of conjuring up works of fiction.
Author’s Website: https://stevecattos.world
Everything Is Better With Dragons 