Chanticleer Book Reviews

Tag: Dystopian Sci-Fi

ISOLATED DOMAIN by Tyler Drinkard – Sci-fi, Dystopian, Action & Adventure

Harry Hardacre, better known as Hare to his few friends, hunts for a score big enough to lift him out of poverty, in Isolated Domain by Tyler Drinkard.

Hare hopes to leave his disreputable business contacts and desperate neighbors behind in the decaying slum known as the Conurb. He yearns for the bright lights of the Central City, where the streets are paved with the possibility of high-paying jobs, and more importantly, highly skilled doctors who can replace his broken-down prosthetic leg and free him from its pain.

But every resident of the Conurb shares his hope, always just one great scheme away from exactly the same dream – and they’re always disappointed when they wake up to grind away another day in the dark and grime.

Hare’s score turns into his worst nightmare, as his partner disappears with the seed for their new “business” while setting the local law on Hare’s trail.

Fleeing from the relatively safe, if downtrodden, Conurb, Hare struggles through a hellish dystopia with no end of novel threats. From endless deserts to carnivorous plant life and cannibal bikers, Hare’s trail ends in a terrible truth that is determined to use him for its own ends – even if it ends him.

Isolated Domain begins as a pulse-pounding wild ride of a caper story, as Hare and his best friend Chunk hunt for that one big score. But their dream takes them to the brink of dissolution and destruction. The story doesn’t relent, each dark turn leading to one darker yet – over and over, in myriad visions of a dystopian future.

Hare will compel readers to follow his journey and empathize with him throughout his tribulations.

His world may be vastly different from the reader’s, but his goals and his dreams still feel familiar. He wants a better life but fears it will only get worse. His descent into pain and struggle lands with a heavy emotional impact. Hare’s quest for that big score toys with his hope and refuses to fulfill it. Anyone searching for a light at the end of the tunnel for Hare and his world may close the book feeling a bit depressed.

Readers looking for an odyssey of misfortune will find Hare an engaging and (mostly) good man as he tries to navigate the layers of chaos and despair. His story finishes with a twist that will leave those readers in a state of dark astonishment.

March 8, 2023
TERMS Of SERVICE: Book 1 of The AI Dystopia Series by Craig W. Stanfill – Science Fiction, Dystopia, Artificial Intelligence

“Terms of Service” are those cryptic notes that accompany computer devices and applications, spelling out their rules. The novel, Terms of Service, by Craig W. Stanfill, turns those notices into the foundation of a dystopian horror story where Artificial Intelligence (AI) controls virtually every aspect of human behavior.

Kim works for a giant AI corporation. It’s her task to train AI systems to interface with human beings, even as those systems make life difficult for the average person. AIs are not alive, not sentient, but they provide the precise terms of service under which every person in major metropolitan areas must live.

We see this world through Kim’s life. The food her kitchen authorizes her to eat is mostly kale and grains. We see her wardrobe, with multiple selections of beige. We ride the subway with her, understanding that there are even penalties for violating someone’s airspace. She meets with her friends, all of whom have gender-neutral names. Kim has sex with someone much like her. Every detail of her life is controlled by multiple AI devices that follow her, know her habits, record her, and decide the punishment for any rule she breaks.

Even the sky is full of artificial eyes.

Kim and Shan, her good friend from childhood, decide to go on a bike ride through a local park. They pass warning signs telling them not to proceed onto unauthorized paths, but they push on anyway, showing a spark of rebellion. This fateful ride, which contains multiple infractions, opens a new chapter of life for Kim. Expecting to be punished for her violations, Kim’s masters instead give her a groundbreaking assignment.

Her new role is to train a more advanced AI system with even greater potential to control people. This one will have a face, however – Kim’s face. The AI will know every aspect of her life and will blur the line between creator and creation.

This chilling world, one in which the all-seeing AI knows every aspect of your life, is a half-step away from where we are now.

It’s hard to read this novel without recalling the use of facial recognition, advertising algorithms, and mass sale of personal data that underpin our modern digital world. Artificial intelligence no longer has to be invited into our lives. But Terms of Service, by taking our current world and showing it implemented to the extreme, also urges us to fight back and value our individuality. This story shows that living beings, even under the thumb of machines, can choose what to make of their lives.

Terms of Service begins with a “Note on the Translation” on the first page. It warns readers not to search for the sexual identity of anyone in this book. Character names are carefully genderless. “She,” “her” and “hers” are used throughout. The language of the day is “Panglobal,” in which words like “mother” and “love” are nonexistent. Gender identity is among this world’s most severe crimes.

Anyone worried or fascinated by the rise of AI in the modern world will find a gripping, thoughtful work of science fiction in Terms of Service.

December 16, 2022
TRINITY’s FALL (Vu-Hak War Book 2) by P.A. Vasey – First Contact Sci-fi, Religious Science Fiction Fantasy, Sci-fi Anthologies

Trinity’s Fall, the second book in the science fiction thriller series (Vu-Hak War) by P.A. Vasey, delivers the story of an alien invasion as seen through the twisted, heart-pounding lens of a Twilight Zone episode, complete with invisible mind-controlling alien monsters, nuclear explosions, hidden lunar bases, and secret wormholes with “Men in Black” playing both sides.

As this entry opens, the protagonist has no idea of her true identity—and no memory of her first encounter with either the monstrous alien Vu-Hak—or her relationship with humanity’s presumed savior, Adam Benedict.

Although this is the second book in the series, the first half of the book does an excellent job of bringing the reader up to speed. Looks can be deceiving. When the FBI knocks on her door—and knocks her out of her amnesia-induced rut—she begins to remember who she is and what’s at stake.

Kate gradually rediscovers the truth—and Vasey cleverly allows new readers to discover it with her.

The action pounds readers with thrill-a-minute suspense as Kate races to recapture the threads of a life stolen from her. She then takes charge of an around-the-world hunt for the one person who might be able to stop the alien invasion. Stakes are high, and no one wants to believe the invasion is further along than previously thought.

Once Kate and Adam reunite, Vasey slows the pace a bit.

The characters and their colleagues must reckon with the harrowing possibility that the aliens will succeed. Questions arise about whether the ends justify the means, and what they will do to ensure the human species survives. Do they have the right to set humanity on a different course? Vasey develops the plot, including the paradoxes of time travel, the ethical implications of human cloning, and even the ultimate question of where life begins.

Fans who love their sci-fi with a serving of ethical discourse on the side will love this series. No doubt, the Vu-Hak War saga overall will amass fans in both the sci-fi world and literary circles as well. Book two closes with a universe-altering surprise that bodes very well indeed for the third and concluding book in the trilogy. Stay tuned, much more is on the way!

Trinity’s Fall won 1st Place in the CIBA 2020 Cygnus Awards for Science-fiction novels.

August 13, 2021
SOLAR REBOOT by Matthew D. Hunt – Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction, Action/Thriller, Dystopian Fiction

There’s a lot about life on earth that we take for granted. Most of us go about our daily lives, but what would happen if the sun shot out a gigantic solar flare. Would we survive? What would happen to us?

In Solar Reboot, a giant solar flare destroys the world’s power grids, disrupts the Internet, television, and radio communication, and is an all-around nightmare for air traffic controllers. Add tidal waves and gigantic storms to the mix, and it becomes evident that life on earth will change profoundly.

Alex Robinson, his wife Cameron, and daughter Piper get to find out how tough it will become. On a trip to New York City, Alex and Piper expect to be home in Seattle in a few days. For Alex, a park ranger, flying back will be a relief from the hustle and bustle of Manhattan. But when the sky turns purple, power disappears. Internet and broadcast communication all but ceases, and there are multiple reports of planes crashing to earth all over the planet, Alex quickly discovers the only way he’ll be able to return home will be to drive. It turns out that even driving is its own form of hell.

Meanwhile, Cameron in Seattle is also experiencing the effects of the solar flare. An ER nurse with military experience, she’s urged by her husband to pack up and leave the city with as much food and medical supplies as possible. She has indulged Alex’s survivalist leanings with some skepticism, but as tension mounts at home, she wonders if he may not have been right. Finally, she decides to leave for their well-stocked mountain cabin, accompanied by her older next-door neighbor, Bettie, who decides that life in the mountains might be safer than dealing with a frightened, angry citizenry at home.

Life is difficult for both halves of the separated Robinson family. There is no easy way to find a way home for Alex and Piper. Driving becomes undependable. Picking up rides, finding horses, and even back-packing become the only means they have of completing their journey. However, that doesn’t help when blinding rainstorms wash away roads, bridges, and, on more than one occasion, the vehicles they’re using. If that weren’t bad enough, other people whose lives have been disrupted often turn ugly as they forage for food and supplies, hunker down with weapons to protect their hoards and homes.

Of equal importance is Piper’s diabetic condition. It’s not a problem in society as it once was, but what happens when the insulin she and her father carry runs out and pharmacies are virtually all closed?

Cameron’s trip to their mountain cabin community might seem to offer her a more comfortable life. Don’t count on it. When she and Bettie reach the mountains, they find contentious, sometimes dangerous people. Some would love to invade their community and others inside their boundaries, intent on doing things their own way. Some even kill to get what they want. She becomes the de facto leader in the compound and forced to make difficult decisions of life and death.

Hunt has delivered a solid punch to our collective solar plexus. The pressure doesn’t let up as this separated family use their physical and mental resources to reunite, each half fighting against the elements and their fellow human beings to survive until they can be together. While some might consider this a science fiction novel, it is grounded in life as we know it makes it more of a book on survival. Solar Reboot is a testimony to the human spirit under virtually impossible conditions, and a tribute to people’s ability to survive under the most challenging conditions.

Solar Reboot won First Place in the 2018 CIBAs for Science Fiction novels.

July 17, 2020