The Malaise is a post-apocalyptic horror novel (with an incredibly cool cover) that takes place in the somewhat near-future.
It’s the year 2038, and our main character is Mike Pilkington, a college professor who is an expert on digital technology, specifically Razor Technologies. Razor Technologies was founded by Rick Razor, whose goal was to “connect the world” through products that could essentially read a user’s mind and provide them with what they need. These products were provided free to the public, at least in terms of a price tag – the consumer, of course, must give up their privacy in order to utilize these products. Pilkington rallies behind this technology and Razor himself. Until, of course, disaster hits and most of the world’s population is wiped out overnight: It’s kill or be killed, leaving Pilkington alone with his infant daughter until he finds other survivors.
The story jumps forward almost twenty years, and together Pilkington, his now teenager daughter Zara, and a few others slowly rebuild a community. But the mystery of why the massacre happened, and it’s possible link to Razor Technologies lingers. There is also the allure of finding whoever else may be out there, and so some members of the community leave their peaceful existence in search of answers.
This results in a story with a lot of action, but at times, it felt blandly written. Some of the dialogue was a bit stiff, but at least the author tried to paint full portraits of his characters. With a story like this there are many characters to follow and hear from, and I admit at one point I had to refresh my memory by reading an earlier chapter to remember who someone was. I think the more interesting stuff happened toward the end of the novel, and actually wish the last quarter of the book could have been explored more because of the dilemma it raised for the characters, and because of the villain.
Something I enjoyed is that the book incorporated material such as interviews into the story, to give the reader a fuller picture of Razor Technologies and its founder. Without giving too much away, I thought the catastrophe that took place was an intriguing concept, and one that’s timely, given the current issues involving websites like Facebook and privacy concerns. Overall I did enjoy the story and I liked that one of the main characters we followed was a young girl who not only had to grapple with growing up, but also growing up in such a crazy world.
Check out The Malaise if you’re into post-apoc stuff and if you have some thoughts on the social media/privacy debate.
The Malaise by David Turton [ISBN 1785359029] will be published on December 14th, 2018 by Cosmic Egg Books.
Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.
Recent Comments