The Roamers is a unique dystopian fantasy. A true ‘what could happen’ story of humanity's future.

This story is full of heart with a real foundation in family, both biological and ‘found’. Both Francesco Verso and, through the translation, Jennifer Delare invite you into a world of super futuristic technology, revolution liberation from that which can hold us back.

The story is really interesting and there is plenty for the reader to engross themselves in. Whether that be the future technologies, dystopia or family ties, there is something for everyone.

My favourite aspect was the thinking and presentation of the detachment from basic human needs like food and the en mass 3D printing of anything you require. It is a really interesting take on the future of humanity and one that I can foresee being a potential future in the real world.

The Roamers mixes some of humanity's oldest ways of living (nomads) and mixes it in a future setting to encapture the reader within the pages. Fans of dystopia will love this novel from Francesco Verso and Flame Tree Press.

Please see my post for review.

Blog tour - http://ramblingmads.uk/2023/05/10/blog-tour-the-roamers-francesco-verso-translated-by-jennifer-delare/

This is such an interesting concept and its unique for me as I haven't seen this before. I am excited at this type of book especially as there are many cyberpunk style books but few have a unique take on this style.

Allan is the son and Miriam is the mother and they seem to have an interesting relationship. I am enjoying it.

The accident that happened and what I am reading shows a huge great ability to think outside the box.

It is very strange and seems more futuristic and very hard to believe but in a lot of ways this is what I like about it. They don't go with what could make sense but what feels right for the story.

I have always been a huge fan of books that have some medical items such as the nanites. It makes me very happy to read these books as to what could be.

The next part is about Nicolas who is a heavyset man who seems to want to be thinner. I can understand that as I am larger than what I should be and would love to be able to take nanites and prevent the weight gain or even eating.

The first part flowed very well but now that i am going through Nicolas part I feel it doesn't have the same flow it is still good just I don't feel it is as fluid.

The story being split into multiple parts can be difficult for some people however I found that it was done well even if I found the second part not as fluid.

Sylvia is one of the characters and in the third part she is the main focus. I am not that fond of her as a character but she fits in well with this story.

The technology that they use, nanites are such a great idea and I really think that the mutations that they bring makes things very interesting.

Even after reading this the story confuses me and I don't think I picked up all the nuances of the plot but I really enjoyed it and think it definitely is a strong book.

I want to thank the author and publisher and the tour organizer for allowing me to take part in the blogtour and for a advanced reader copy of this book.

Thank you net gallery for the advanced copy.
This started out as a si-fi tale about the use of nano technology to replace medicine and wound up being about the city of Rome waging a war on a well-established homeless camp in the name of progress. There were no winners in this story. It could have been so much more.

The Roamers is a book of grand ideas, exploring Maslow’s hierarchy and asking what would happen if we didn’t ever need to eat again. Maybe a sciencey thing could be made that would change our biology? And maybe eating is only a biological imperative, rather than something we also do for pleasure? I do not agree with that last premise, something the author proposes pretty early on, but I still read the whole book.

This is an interesting novel that touches on the current and possible future science of bodies, and how bodies can shape politics. The concept of a community based on this, a kind of Occupy movement, is really well done, and I enjoyed the setting of near-future Rome.

However, among the thoughtful things in the novel, there are things I didn’t like. At least three quarters of the book is telling, from how the science might work, to biology, chemistry, the philosophy of food, bodies, politics, people, chosen and inherited families, the layout of Rome, and a million things besides. This would be bearable in small doses, but what we get is a firehose. The thing that reliably put me off, though, was the exploration of the character Nicholas, who is a rich, overweight man. What felt like the author’s disgust with bodies and/or fat people comes through in his treatment of Nicholas’s own disgust with his body, and in other people’s perception of it. This goes on from around the middle of the book, when Nicholas is introduced, right through to the end, making it quite central to the story. It feels like a harmful and quite unpleasant portrayal of fat people, and I couldn’t get past it. We are not, in fact, just flesh envelopes, which I feel is the foundational theory of the story.

Still, a fun read. Its very cool futuristic concepts are already shaping some of the ways I think—although, relating to bodies, perhaps not in ways the author intended.

Thank you to Flame Tree Press and to NetGalley for the ARC.

With an unlikely group of found friends sparked by a mother who is desperate to save her son, author Francesco Verso paints a very believable future. The Roamers is a view of Rome in times ahead, after changes in businesses, technology and interestingly enough the food industry. After an accident, a desperate mother dares to use an experimental, illegal remedy to save her son. After that, the novel follows several individuals as they go through life, each making a decision that influences the next main character in the story. Each highlighted person becomes a catalyst for a change in the life of another. With Verso’s description of each character’s life within Rome of the future, we get an idea of how life has changed in the city. The changes are gradual and there is not a lot of action in the book. However the futuristic technology and genetic changes are so fun to read and are the reason I am interested in science fiction. In contrast, some parts of society are taken back to pre Industrial Revolution times. I discovered that I do not have to receive a lot of action to keep my interest. What is happening to these characters in their daily lives that is so different from ours today? The author compares those that follow a normal conventional life with those that do out the ordinary, sometimes experimental changes. All of this slow movement over years shows how going out of comfort zone can make a difference in the way people are perceived and causes others to take a chance as well. The story ends with a big change for all these characters and I hope it means there will be a sequel instead of sending them off into the sunset. I enjoyed this novel and recommend it for those who enjoy reading fiction about biotech and futuristic technology. Thank you to Netgalley for a digital arc to try in return for an honest review.

4 Stars!

I have been reading a fair amount of science fiction lately and have found myself more intrigued by the genre than I have been for a long time. The recent releases from Flame Tree Press have fueled this interest so I was happy to have another book from one of the best, if not the best, publishers of dark fiction and science fiction right now. I dove into The Roamers by Francesco Verso looking for another great read from another Flame Tree Press novel.



Nanites have the potential to change the world, but only if mankind has the courage to embrace them. Society has changed drastically with the rise of 3D printing and a movement away from food and the unpleasant side effects of eating. Smells have come to dominate the indulgences of the populace and consuming calories has become a simple process of intaking prepackaged nutrition rather than eating. There are a few holdouts to the old ways who dare to keep restaurants open and cater to those who hold on to the old ways. Then there are the pulldogs and their new and revolutionary thinking that could be the salvation of mankind.



The pulldogs live at the edge of a society that seems to be entering its final lap. Their ways seem old in many ways. They are known around Rome as a group of people who man the rickshaws that move people through town without the aid of motors. While the pulldogs may seem primitive from the outside, their ways are advanced beyond the city they live outside of. The pulldogs have embraced nanites, nanorobots that can assemble molecules to create matter in any form desired, to form the basis of a society that is not reliant upon the trappings of civilization. Their society seems nomadic but is actually future thinking in its approach to a simple and sustainable future. The pulldogs are creating a society in their own vision. It is one that is not accepted by the world at large but one that may just be the best way forward for mankind. Or it could all just be the delusion of a group of outsiders bent on saving themselves instead of the world.



The Roamers is an ambitious novel about the state of the world as well as the dangers and benefits of technology. Verso takes on a lot of issues on different levels and this makes the book a little difficult to read at times. The story weaves between different storytellers in a way that can be a bit disconcerting at times, but it is also rewarding when all the threads begin to come together. There are chapters that seem unrelated to the other chapters, and it is incumbent upon the reader to hang in there and wait for the message to become clear. This is not a light reading story. It requires a lot of concentration from the reader as well as effort to put everything together. That is the point of the story: there is no black and white. There are no easy answers to the problems that society faces. In fact, what answers there are may not present the solutions that we hope for. The future is murky, and the tone and style of this novel serves as an example of the ambiguity of working our way out of the mess we have made of the world.



Overall, I enjoyed The Roamers but I also see how the book will not be for all readers. It is a difficult book to piece together and it is intentionally constructed this way. It reads almost like a mash-up of three or four different novellas that (mostly) come together to form a coherent whole. I was a little put off when the first part of the novel seemed to be an almost different story as the novel shifts its tone and focus once it gets past the first part. After that, the flow is stronger, although disjointed, for the rest of the story. It takes a brave reader to work through the story and be rewarded in the end, but that is fitting given the tone and content of the story. The world is not an easy one, and this book does an excellent job of highlighting the trouble of society not just through the story but through its construction. Some will look to the past for answers while others look toward the future, but the answer surely lies somewhere in the middle. The Roamers is sure to challenge any reader. That is the point of the novel, and the payoff for those brave enough to work their way through this bleak look into the future of mankind is well rewarded in the end.

I would like to thank Flame Tree Press and NetGalley for this review copy. The Roamers is scheduled to be released on May 9, 2023.

I really like the idea behind solarpunk and other genres of futuristic hope, but this wasn't it for me.
The book touched upon a lot of concepts and some spot on societal issues, but many issues made reading it a difficult experience for me.
Apart from Miriam, I was annoyed by the main characters, especially the patronizing Alan and Nicolas. The story was supposed to be cut between 3 points of view, but it was more like a confusing mix. There were too many details, so I was often bored but I kept reading as I still wanted to know what would happen. But then, there was a scene at the end that shocked me, with how casually it was written and felt by the characters (it involves Nicolas and Silvia and doesn't feel consensual to me), maybe I missed something in all the details, but I was left disgusted and disappointed in the end. The overall ideas and concepts also felt flat/ unconvincing for me in the end.

I want to thank NetGalley and Flame Tree Press for providing me with a free version of the book in exchange for an honest review.

No Goodreads or Storygraph entry to add review too
Blog Post goes live closer to release date.


The Roamers has an interesting premise - a group of people develop, with the help of nanites, a liberation from food. The need to eat is no longer as necessary, if at all, and they develop a new society. This at least the premise as pitched in the description. Here is my summary - deeply troubled individuals with too much time on their hands in a sensory obsessed world seek to rid themselves of this obsession. They obtain nanites through illegal means from the very technological advanced society, then rebel and shun such society in an attempt to create a new one.
If that is not clear enough - I disliked this book immensely. The idea and promise of this was great, but the execution felt like a 1980’s teenager’s anti-establishment ramblings. Make it more technologically advanced with some plausible science and you’ve got The Roamers. This is going to appeal mainly to the older crowd in the SF fans who want just the idea of the premise with nothing else.
The characters are frankly terrible. The book starts out with a Mother trying to find a way to fix her newly paralyzed son, Alan. She has no character besides this driving obsession to help him, and once she’s done she actually becomes ‘Cat Lady’ and feeds cats till she’s arrested for spreading Nanites. Alan is an angry, nasty man who hates machines and upon receiving the nanites proceeds to develop an obsession for a woman (described mainly by her thighs and mohawk) who we later find out has an obsession with having a child. After this we then follow Nico, an obese man who is attempting to loose weight. He is a master of scents and eventually joins The Pulldogs (the group that will eventually begin to ‘roam’). Don’t worry, he also has a lady love who is mainly described as being small and with white skin. They all form a group, fight the government of their city when said government attempts to evict them, then eventually just leaves anyway because what really is the point?
The story itself is lackluster, it’s filled to the brim with useless details about sciences that ultimately don’t actually matter. We didn’t need to know about the science of scents, we didn’t actually need to know about the politics of the companies that were involved. But we got pages of them. We also got several uncomfortable descriptions of women including a gay couple, referred to as the ‘he’ and ‘she’ of the couple. Our characters are detestable and manipulated for the sake of the plot, there is little to endear them and honestly I couldn’t find myself interested in them at all. If anything the use of the nanites felt wasted.
Additionally I’d like to point out what felt flawed to me in this. The nanites can heal almost anything, as stated multiple times. Yet it cannot fix Alan’s infertility? All this served to do was to lead to Silvia’s cheating, which was ultimately never really important. What was the point then? It didn’t serve any character growth besides possibly the author’s continued dislike or poor representation of women?
I would not recommend this to anyone. Beautiful cover, fascinating premise, but I think misleading in it’s pitch.

I had a good time reading this book. It's well-written, clever, and well-thought-out. It also managed to intellectually engage me, and that's always a good sign.

This is well done with interesting tech along the way. In some ways it's a character study, and it's not high action. But the writing is solid, and I stayed engaged. Good stuff.

I really appreciate the free ARC for review!!

[Blurb goes here]

In a futuristic 2019-2022, nanobots are an essential part of life. These microscopic machines are used to build everything, from nano-carbon bikes to jackets. That is, if you buy the formula for such objects. Also, food consumption for pleasure, is in decline. 3D food printing has become the norm: people would rather eat nutraceutical bars that will release the required nutrients, and calories, periodically during the day, than spend a few minutes in the kitchen cooking real food.

Miriam, the mother of a forty year old man, gets a call. His son Alan has been in an accident. Globalzon, the company he works for, would rather leave him on the streets than call an ambulance. For reasons not clear, Globalzon can't let any one into its warehouse. Miriam quickly grabs a ride in a rickshaw, driven by Silvia. The young woman pedals fast through the streets of Rome taking Miriam to her destination.

Once in the hospital, a grim diagnostic shocks both Miriam and Alan: The man is paralyzed from the waist down. Miriam has to do something to help his son. Fortunately, she's friends with Ivan Shumalin, A Russian who has been living in Rome for thirty years. Ivan recommends an illegal procedure. Miriam will have to contact scientists through the Dark Web, and offer them a novel nanite design in exchange for them to program a cure for his son into the nano machines.

The treatment is successful, but it comes with unforeseen side effects.

The multiple award science fiction writer, Francesco Verso, treats this novel as if it where an essay, told through the eyes of his characters. Nothing much happens in the way of a story, but his approach to the future tech is amazing. With beautiful prose an interesting character dynamics, The Roamers makes for an inspiring insight into the future.

Thank you for the advanced copy!