Bettie's Books

Read from March 11 to June 01, 2014

Dystopian/Utopian

My copy is withdrawn from City of York Council and has a poly-wally cover.

Dedication: For Matti

Description: Welcome to the island paradise where utopianism and human greed are set to collide - with catastrophic results ...

The whole world is beginning to fall in love with Atlantica. Miles from anywhere, the man-made island is a true twenty-first century vision. With a thriving economy based on global waste disposal and an infrastructure run by advanced software, politician-free Atlantica is the envy of other nations and a consumer paradise. But even Utopia has its outcasts. Meet Harvey Kidd, petty criminal, papier mâché craftsman, forlorn lover and holder of an explosive secret. Is the system about to discover that it spat out its most difficult customer too soon?

Opening: If there's one thing to be said about a life in captivity, it's that you get to travel.

That opening sentence is a quandry until it is revealed that our paper-eater is on a prison-ship. Tremendously original storyline going on here; each Jensen novel is completely different from any of her others. Well, that stands as far as I can tell with what I have read so far.

Imagine the Atlantic Rubbish Patch made into an island where the economy is income from the rest of the world's waste.



4* The Rapture
4* The Uninvited
TR Ark Baby
2* My Dirty Little Book of Stolen Time
5* The Ninth Life of Louis Drax
4* The Paper Eater

Trivia: Liz Jensen is married to author Carsten Jensen:

5* We, The Drowned
3* I Have Seen the World Begin