This story was not my cup of tea. A dystopian novel set in 2040 a government worker decides too escape his life. This is a short read and listed as a novella. Book 1 in a new series, Tinhau. This story seems to be well received and high reviews for Science Fiction readers. I received a copy of this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

The modern day politics being the sh*tshow that they are, sometimes science fiction is the best way to hold up a mirror to it all. This is that kind of book. Told epistolary style through emails, texts and diary entries, this is a story of a possible world where NAU (Northern American Union) has become a strictly conservative bastion of traditional values and Asia prospers, especially the tiny nation of Tinhau (known to us as Singapore). There are also superpowered people around now and each government is treating them according to their respective values, which is to say they are given equal rights in Tinhau and put in concentration camps in NAU. So it is in this political climate that a man named Lucas Lehrer sets off to negotiate a treaty between the two nations. The deal fails, he stays behind, only to find that his new country is also on a brink of a major upheaval and, more importantly, fall for a woman whose revelations about the very nature of reality around him will change the world as he knows it. So you got mutants (used here very much like in X Men, which is to say as a homosexual metaphor, but then again can be treated as immigrants, possibly), multiverses, international intrigue and suspense…that’s a lot for such a slim volume. Pretty exciting. The execution wasn’t as great as the concept deserved, good, not great, the narrative was somewhat dispassionate for such passionate subjects and the main character was kind of milquetoasty and very weepy. But it was fun overall, a fun adventure and a fun read. The original ideas and concepts heavy outweighed the delivery, but since this appears to be book one in a series, there’s always time to improve upon things. So mostly good things here, which is lovely since I’m the first person (not counting the author) to review this book with actual words. It actually gathered plenty of praise from other well known writers, which was one of main attractors for me. So yeah. This was pretty good, science fiction fans should enjoy this one. Thanks Netgalley.