Review: Children of the Fall by H.S Down
Blurb:
Hypatia is a companion child, a cyborg with the consciousness of a child, designed to help her non-verbal human sister, Alexandra, navigate the world.
When a flash knocks out the power and a civil war erupts, the sisters are forced to travel through powerless cities and dangerous country roads in search of refuge on the eastern coast of the United States.
Realizing that without access to a charging station it's only a matter of time before her battery fails, Hypatia must deliver Alexandra to safety before it's too late.
Yet, as Hypatia and Alexandra encounter other companion children that have gone berserk, Hypatia begins to suspect the flash may have done more than just take out the power. Can Alexandra trust her sister, and is Hypatia exactly what she seems?
Review:
This one I have mixed feelings about. On one hand, it was a wonderful way for me to spend my free time at school, and on the other hand, some parts did not live up to my expectations. I stumbled upon “Children of the Fall” looking through the submissions to the review website, saw the jawbone clutched in a hand, and thought: “”Jawbone, plus Fall, plus dystopia chaos - i shall inhale this promptly.”
Had I a teleporter to go around the world to find a random person to talk about this novel, I’d give them this spiel:
“Hypatia and Alexandra, sisters, one of flesh, one of metal. One day, a bug takes out all electronics, sending them scrambling for survival. Care for more?”
But, like all books, that spiel doesn’t encompass the full depth of this novel, and it doesn’t even broach the subject of mind that is played around with here.
To start off this review I’d like to touch upon the characters mentioned within the blurb, Hypatia and Alexandra… One is metal, with some characteristics of a human and doesn’t age, and the other is just about the age of 15 as of the beginning of the novel. Hypatia is the companion, and she’s more or less Alexandra's caretaker and friend, with her main purpose being the safe keeping of her charge. Alexandra is… different from the other kids, with a sharp wit but not a talkative mouth. More often than not, she’ll say one or two words instead of a whole sentence. Together, they’re more or less safe from the ills of the world, but they’ve both been traumatised once a bug in the programming sends another companion child into a fit of rage and ends up murdering their parents. They both have some revelations as to what is happening, Alexandra has some character growth, and Hypatia is as always the protective guardian.
That brings us to the plot of the story, or more the three various plots that are taking place at various periods of time. Each one has its one importance to the story, but only two of the three are properly defined. The other one, well, I’ll get back to that one, because that one was easy to lose track of. But from the two that are clearly defined, there are two worlds happening, one more or less that resembles a twisted “Enders Game”, and the other an apocalyptic hellscape with coordinated incels trying to take over the government and actually doing a decent job of it, using the electronic flash to go for it. Both are well done, and it was pretty easy to see what was what.
As for world building, it’s a pretty standard one to one map of the US and Canada, with a time jump forward into the future, where such things as robots are commonplace, alongside electric cars, and various other things. The fun stuff comes along with the second plotline… I won’t say what exactly it is, however, the only utterance I have for it is: hyperrealistic first person shooter with damaging objectives.
Now, I know this is a short review compared to previous ones, but that compiles down to the simplistic, but fun to read nature of “Children of the Fall”... however, I have two issues with it:
It’s far too easy to predict where it’ll go, and those predictions, while being off by a degree or two, are still close enough. Counterpoint to that however is that it makes “Children of the Fall” a light read for the afternoon, which I can see a majority of people doing with this one. But that brings me to the second issue…
The third and I think also the fourth story line, or it’s a mixture of the recent past and ancient past bundled together into one storyline. It’s a nice touch to add to Hypatia and Alexandra, but it is not implemented in a way that makes further reading easier. It does however throw one out of the loop, and conclusions made about the novel that detract from the overall story due to the confusion later on.
However, that’s just me uttering my grievances, and I know that others perceive novels differently, so what I mentioned above about my issue with it might pull in others to read it.
If you like futuristic predictions, killer robots that are in some way cyborgs, and flawed main characters that are abrasive towards others, well, “Children of the Fall” by H.S Down is for you.
As always, thank you for reading this review, and I hope I’ve helped nudge you towards your next read. If not, don’t fret, we have a plethora of content for you to peruse and enjoy. In fact, here’s a random link to a review that might be for you, might not be for you. Carpe Diem, seize the day and read some books in and outside your comfort zone.
Wherever you are reading this review, have a good morning, good afternoon, good evening and good night!
