3.5 stars

Shattered Roads
The Skyfire Saga #1
Alice Henderson
Rebel Base Books, April 2018
ISBN 978-1-63573-049-4
Trade Paperback

Shattered Roads starts out gloomy—in a subgenre that’s already exceedingly gloomy—with a protagonist who’s living a life of nothingness. Her soul purpose in life is to remove bodies when people die, much like the people in 17th-century London who trundled carts from door to door to pick up the dead. The truth is no one in this terribly damaged world has any joy, having no names, spending all their time in front of computers, interacting with no one while, outside the city walls, chaos reigns supreme.

One day, H124 finds something that piques her curiosity and leads her to unimagined discoveries about what really happened to bring such devastation to this land and to people who just might be able to make a difference. Now, H124 has a new purpose in life and, after a somewhat slow start, I found myself almost unable to turn away. Shattered Lands will be out in December and I’m already anticipating spending more time with this brave young woman.

Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, June 2018.

This novel follows a worker designated H124. She has minimal human contact and no contact outside the city. This changes when she stumbles upon a secret that she cannot reveal. So H124 is forced to flee to safety and try to find help.

The plot was very well written with a great backstory. The cities felt like a satire of everyday life: people sitting in-front of a computer screen 24/7 without questioning life. The badlands outside the cities were equally as bleak with cannibals and limited food. The badlands reminded me of the Mad Max series. I would have liked to learn more about the history of the planet and how/why the cities grew so quickly.

My main problem with the novel was H124 as a character. She was interesting enough and actually a good character until Henderson tried to make her into a love interest for every male character. I hate the pointless sex object/symbol female trope.

In conclusion, this is an interesting dystopian novel with a good backstory and plot. It has a slower beginning but it quickly picks up.

Thanks to Rebel Base Book and Netgalley for this ARC.

Shattered Roads by Alice Henderson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

H124 is just a clog in a very big machine until she makes a disturbing discovery. The book started like it would be a did not finish but I was glad I read a few more pages before stopping. After a slow start it got much more interesting. I love H124 and how strong she turned out to be. The world building and back story were very well presented and the action kept getting more and more tense. While H124 finished the journey she started the problem was far from solved. That left me wanting to read the next book in the Saga.

I received a free copy of the book in return for an honest review.

DNF. Slow to get started, and I found my interest waning.

Started off as a good dystopian book, but quickly felt preachy about both society and Global Stewardship which tended to make me dislike it.

An interesting and insightful read, couldn't put it down!