The book doesn’t even start and we already love it because the disclaimer goes like:
“This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental or an act of God.”
Matt Adcock
HA!!!! That’s how you keep it original! HA!!
So, in an over-polluted, over-populated, over-heated planet called Earth, in a not so far away future, we have L2, a “replica” of London filled with tech, air toxins and regulations of all sorts from a government that is led by an authoritative, extremely shady figure that is as cold as ice caps. This leader, Razour, is… nefarious, mean and quite charming as it seems, not afraid and quite contempt when using brutal force to get his means, or just have fun given that he commands the military forces in a highly policed society.
Cleric20, our main character, is a regular – ex-military – , ordinary citizen of L2 city, that is just trying to live his life and forget his loved one that is no more while getting drunk and laid almost everyday with the always present companion bot, GiX, that is kind of the soul of the book.
Things start rolling off great, and everything is just dandy, until, a few scientists find the “footage” of the prophecy of “The Day of Carnage”, promised on ancient biblical times, more than a thousand years back. Such footage, is enough to doom all that have seen it, bringing death, or better saying: annihilation to all that might be related to such incident, that is sent directly from the high members of the World government, but the question is: Why?
The narrative of Matt Adcock is inviting and the author can create many types of imagery simultaneously which is very nice. Although there is lots of tech-lingo, the author is careful enough to explain each term that might present itself too complicated for one to understand, while others are instantly recognizable to the reader.
Humour is something that you won’t miss here, and there’s the deliberate use of profanity – not excessively present- which is something good, given that the book promises to defy convention and create shock. Violence and gore are taken as a walk in a park as the writer doesn’t shy away from describing vivid scenes of rolling heads, cut throats, energy shields that shatter bodies completely and much more from the very beginning.
There’s lots of sarcastic, satiric, contemplative humour into the fiction of the book itself, be it while talking about the reaction of characters, their expressions, or just interacting with the reader with the “thoughts” of the narrator. These thoughts, about life, death, gods and devils, are refreshing, and thought provoking in a way that you cannot help but smile a sarcastic and amused smile as you read them, mostly for the truth embedded into them. It’s nice.
The gore, the evil, the random, the fighting, the cursing, the shooting and the sex are ever-present in hefty proportions bordering the extreme and fitting this book into the category of total Chaos! It’s something cool, the fact this book, is almost completely random and unpredictable.
The dry sarcasm is something not seen before. It’s something so dark and coarse that will leave you asking: “What in the holiest of fucks?”, while you laugh yourself off. People being nuked, because entities “thought” they were terrorists and “just wanted to be sure”, suicidal religious bots in search of eternal life in heaven, and anything you never dared to imagine on a semi-satiric/action sci-fi book that makes sense in many of its ironic remarks and shows point that must be reflected upon. Very nicely done by Matt.
I must emphasize that this short book, although sci-fi/action/comic in style is a contemplative and quite gore-ish ideological/religious satire with dry nerdy humour. It’s not something that you are accustomed to reading but you will enjoy reading if you are under the right set of likes and are “up” to challenge your own religious conceptions and notions.
Given the comic-style interaction and narrative that provokes graphic imagery, this book would be perfect, will be perfect as a comic book- out in Sept 24th – .
Pros:
- Nice plot
- Great dry and dark humour
- Consistent imagery and descriptions
- An easy to picture world and social system
- Fun implications and ironic narrative passages
- Good use of religious satire
- Nice action scenes
- Nice characters that were well developed
- Tight-kept plot development
Cons:
- Given that this is an comic-like book, some scene sequences would be better understood with images
- There is sometimes, a few times where there’s a slight exaggeration of humour.
Scribble's Worth 