Review: The Scorching: The World in My Hands By Nick Snape

Blurb:

A lonely PA, a rebellious teenager, two ordinary people on a deadly journey to save humanity.

The world is heading towards global collapse as The Scorching takes full effect. Salvation vessels orbit the Earth, waiting to transport the chosen few away from danger and to start again; ten plantships grown by an alien species for the wealthiest and most powerful, or those lucky enough to be selected by lottery. The rest remain behind, their future dependent on the Drathken finding a solution to Earth’s problems.

Jenna, Personal Assistant to a prominent oil mogul, feels privileged to be among the saved, never questioning her good fortune.

While Seth suffers, forced to leave his friends behind as his family takes their place aboard their luxurious ship.

Yet not all is well on board. Dark secrets lurk in the corridors and depths of their respective ships, dragging Jenna and Seth into a world of malice and violence they thought they had left far behind.

Review:

This was a very interesting and thought-provoking read. 

The story starts with a premise that is deceptively simple to the point of being borderline laughable.  Sure, humanity has doomed the planet, but we now have a benevolent alien race that has quite literally swooped in from the skies in the hour of our need and is happy to work with the world's governments to fix the situation systematically. Not only that, the one-percenters, many of whom were directly responsible for the current status of the world, get a frontline seat into a luxury spaceship headed to greener pastures elsewhere. If the alarm bells in the back of your mind aren't ringing just yet, they will… once the murders begin to stack up.

The story is fast-paced, features a diverse cast of characters, and follows the style of narration that would be familiar to readers of Nick Shape's other books. We don't have an omniscient narrator telling us the story, but rather we get disconnected glimpses into the life of the protagonists.

On that point, the choice of the protagonists is quite unorthodox. On one side, we have a PA who is leaving behind her ailing mother for a job alongside a rich billionaire. On the other, we have an affluent teenager forced to leave behind his entire social circle. Neither of them has any real power and neither is particularly likable at first, but as the story progresses they do grow on you and the different choices they make when faced with overwhelmingly resourceful adversaries form a beautiful contrast. The conflict between idealism vs pragmatism is a central theme, and it is present magnificently.

A slightly off-putting aspect may be that there is a relatively long buildup phase during which we are following two strangers, neither of them particularly interesting, on a journey to .... somewhere. We don't know where we are headed, we don't know how long it will take, and whether the myriad details that are thrown at us about their lives have any significance. Here is a spoiler: they do. Don't give up.

She sells sea shells on the sea shore.

Everything does fit in and though we don't begin to see the big picture until much later, it is absolutely worth the wait.

And while we are waiting, we have the most esoteric spaceship ever to explore. When I heard of the notion first, I was reminded of the wraith ships from Stargate SG. But the author's concept is hauntingly novel. The "plantship experience" alone makes the book worth reading.

Besides that, the unapologetically harsh reality check we get, highlighting the greedy and selfish side of humanity, is also a big plus in my book.

Though I was familiar with the author's past work from his first contact sci-fi thriller series - Weapons of choice, this book was a vastly different experience. Partly because the focus here is not as much on military action, but also the style of presentation is quite different. I, personally, found this book to be a lot more approachable than the previous ones.

And so, I leave you on a weird spaceship that promises to slowly adapt to your preferences - as long as you stay in your safe designated zones. Outside them, danger lurks in every corner, and if you take the wrong turn you may end up getting consumed as fertilizer. 

Finally, before we close, thanks a lot, Nick Snape - for ruining seafood for me forever. For everyone else - you will get it when you reach the end.