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Kings of a Dead World

Kings of a Dead World

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The dead world is a futuristic version of earth, where climate change has left much of Britain flooded and what remains is parched and arid. No amount of solar panels or wind turbines has been enough to satiate the world's greed for power. Therefore the United World Congress has come up with an extreme solution - if the demand for resources cannot be curbed, then the time that people can use those resources will be. The result is The Sleep - three months of induced sleep followed by a month of real life. In the sleeping city, elderly Ben struggles with his limited waking time and the disease that is stealing his wife from him. Outside, lonely Janitor Peruzzi craves the family he never knew. Around them both, dissatisfaction is growing. The city is about to wake.

By contrast, I would liked to have seen a little more in the Before section, of the events that led up to the introduction of the Sleepers. This section is well-realised and the sequence of events of the ‘end of the world as we know it’ feels all too credible and realistic. But there feels as if there was scope here for more character work in the relationships between the younger versions of Ben and Rose and both their relationships with charismatic cult leader Andreas. There’s also an interesting relationship with the disturbingly violent police officer Quinn, who pursues them and who later plays a pivotal role in the story. Putting the conflict between these two more directly into the story could, I think, have been interesting. As someone who is not usually a dystopian genre reader I was surprised how intrigued by this book I was from just the blurb, so when I got the change to read it I snapped it up. I did have a couple of problems with the book. We discover that Ben, one of the two main characters, was a bomb-making terrorist in the past-set segments, which makes it difficult to identify with him. He is also in his eighties in the late-set segments, yet despite this and a poor diet, he sometimes acts physically as if he were Bruce Willis in Diehard. The bigger issue was the credibility of the scenario. The changes to the UK don't bear any resemblance to current climate change predictions. For no obvious reason, countries seem to have abandoned all efforts to produce renewable energy or mitigate climate change. The country can't support the basics of life, but is able to maintain an extremely high tech computerised system controlling citizens' sleep. Similarly, it's not possible to maintain simple technology like wind generators, but somehow this extremely advanced technology is kept going. Perhaps worst of all, in the 50 years or so between the 'our world' and 'their world' segments, all existing culture and religion has been replaced by one dreamed up from scratch - it's far too short a timescale for such a fundamental culture change. Janitors, taking care of the population and trading with other countries, watch over society in the meanwhile.I think the only place the pacing came as a detriment was in some of the emotional exchanges between characters. I wanted to feel a little more for their interactions, some of which were imbued with such human feeling that I didn’t really have time to take it all in. That said, I can see why it would be that way – the chain of events wasn’t going to wait for emotion or relationships. It certainly didn’t detract from the thoroughly engaging reading experience. There is a lot to like about the character of Ben. He loves his wife Rose but, he knows the futility of the future. He feels such pain, not for himself but for her and the many like her. Climate change is rendering the world uninhabitable and there are too many people for the space that’s left. The world needs to do something and world leaders are taking matters into their own hands. Their solution? Sleep. With a capital S. In the waking time between, Ben steals moments with Rose, who is slipping through his fingers as each Awake moment passes. Peruzzi watches over them all, tasked as the sentient watchman of the Sleepers, but his ivory tower is shrinking. The city is waking up and reality is crumbling. Ben is desperate to confess his past before it’s too late. What is left when the world we thought we knew falls apart around us? I would like to see Kings of a Dead World made into a 'cli-fi' film, marketed as both cautionary tale and satire.' Juliet Blaxland, shortlisted for the Wainwright Prize

I have read a lot of ‘cli-fi’ style books, and what strikes me having read this novel is how often books in this genre focus on the powerlessness of the human race against the inevitable climate onslaught we all face. Narratives focus on the post-apocalyptic ‘after’ and how humans that are left begin to rebuild. But this comes only after humans are ‘done to’. In this novel, world leaders have to choose to ‘do to’ the human race. They realise they need to take decisive actions. What Mollart shows us is something that feels close and uncomfortable – the reality is that world powers will have the power to decide what action to take and this novel explores what that action might look like. It places humans in the driving seat and it’s not pretty. It is a frighteningly entertaining look at how good we are as a race at isolating and destroying ourselves.’ SFF World The Tyler/Narrator dynamic plays out in the relationship between fellow Janitors Peruzzi and Slattery: colleagues, quasi-friends, and partners in crime. While their decadent lifestyles spoil them with at-home gyms and Brave New World-inspired raves every three months, Slattery tempts Peruzzi into seeking out greater highs than pills and sex. Their explorations into the Sleeping world at first tap into a Fight Club-esque awakening of the blood, only to tip into Project Mayhem levels of voyeurism and violation in pursuit of confirmation that what they do actually matters.This book is one I’ve thought about for some time since putting it down. It is powerful and uncomfortable and real. And you should go read it, because it is out now! My only real issue with the book is that it is a bit of a sausage fest, there aren't any strong female characters or indeed any characters that aren't in the book except to be a plaything for the male characters. Even Rose - Ben's wife is mainly there as a hinderance. Perhaps that will change in upcoming books but for now I am only looking at this one. Kings of a Dead World is definitely an incredible read. Jamie Mollart presents us with a future that is not beyond the realms of possibility. We’re in a world where all the resources on earth are running out and the powers that be have decided that the solution is something called “the sleep”, everyone sleeps for three months straight and then wakes for a month so essentially you’re only awake for 3 months in the entire year. I enjoyed the expert world-building and the rich complex characters. this is a really great read, exploring a haunting vision of the near-future. Kings of a Dead World kept me gripped from beginning to end. ‘ Temi Oh, Winner of the Alex Award



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