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Jump to navigationJump to search0.4 by Mike Lancaster (view source)
Revision as of 15:39, 19 December 2010
, 15:39, 19 December 2010no edit summary
Ooh! I really liked the whole idea of 0.4. We see a great deal of fantasy in teen books, but we don't get much in the way of the harder sci-fi - and that's exactly what 0.4 is. It's quite a scary, threatening premise too - are we humans really who we think we are? Or are we living in some kind of experiment or goldfish bowl? If there ''is'' something out there, is it a deity? Or could it be something altogether more mundane, but more malevolent too?
The narrative is in the form of a transcripted audio tape punctuated by editor's notes. Kyle's own story I found tremendously compelling - the boy himself is a thoroughly well-rounded character and not a cipher for the action at all. His narrative has great tension as the mystery of what has happened is gradually revealed. The notes themselves are interesting too - giving a sometimes funny, sometimes painfully accurate picture of 21st century humanity as seen by people hundreds of years into the future. However, I'm not so sure these two aspects of the structure work brilliantly together - for me, the notes detract from the tension of the story and I'd have preferred one at the beginning and one at the end so that I was distractedfrom it. Others may not mind so much.
Nitpicking about editor's notes aside, I truly enjoyed 0.4. We need more classy and intelligent sci-fi in teen books and 0.4 gives us a more than healthy dollop of it. I hope Mike Lancaster has more books in mind for this market - I'll be looking out for them.
