After the ravages of global warming, this is place of deep jungles, strange animals, and new taxonomies. Social inequality has ravaged society, now divided into surface dwellers and people who live in the Upper Settlement, a ring perched at the edge of the planet’s atmosphere. Within the surface dwellers, further divisions occur: the techies are old families, connected to the engineer tradition, builders of the Barrier, a huge wall that keeps the plastic-polluted Ocean away. They possess a much higher status than the beanies, their servants.
The novel opens after the Delivery Act has decreed all surface humans are ‘equal’. Narrated by Pearl, a young techie with a thread of shuvani blood, she navigates the complex social hierarchies and monstrous, ever-changing landscape. But a radical attack close to home forces her to question what she knew about herself and the world around her.
When Saxon finds a girl with no memory on the outskirts of the Nevertyre community, his family take her in and nurse her back to health. He is wary of this stranger but compelled to learn more about her. He soon realises the danger they all face.
When Kerina wakes she must fight to make sense of her situation, but she is haunted by images of her past. She is the key to the future, she just doesn’t know it yet.
To find answers Kerina and Saxon must work together. They set off on a quest of self-discovery. Along the way they meet allies, enemies and uncover truths too difficult to accept. Both must leave the past behind and find a way toward their future.
Kerina and Saxon. Two different stories. Two separate lives. One connected future.
A thousand years in the future, the last of humanity live inside the walls of the totalitarian Kingdom of Cutta. The rich live in Anais, the capital city of Cutta, sheltered from the famine and disease which ravage the rest of the Kingdom. Yet riches and power only go so far, and even Anaitians can be executed. It is only by the will of the King that Nate Anteros, son of the King’s favourite, is spared from the gallows after openly dissenting. But when he’s released from prison, Nate disappears.
A stark contrast, Catherine Taenia has spent her entire life comfortable and content. The daughter of the King’s Hangman and in love with Thom, Nate’s younger brother, her life has always been easy, ordered and comfortable. That is, where it doesn’t concern Nate. His actions sullied not only his future, but theirs. And unlike Thom, Catherine has never forgiven him.
Two years pass without a word, and then one night Nate returns. But things with Nate are never simple, and when one wrong move turns their lives upside down, the only thing left to do is run where the King’s guards cannot find them – the Outlands. Those wild, untamed lands which stretch around the great walls of the Kingdom, filled with mutants and rabids.
Throughout my time at university I had the opportunity to study a variety of books as we had a lot of very different modules available to us. There were many that I loved, many that I just about tolerated and some that I forced myself to finish (as I did try to read as many of the novels as possible) or just gave up with.
So, I thought I’d go through my five favourite books that I studied at university! As always, this list isn’t in any particular order.
I studied this dystopian novel in my Health, Illness and Technological Imaginaries module (like I said, our modules were different) and loved it. My entire dissertation was around dystopian novels so they’re usually a win for me. I just loved how this was pretty much the reverse of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go. It’s also one of the only dystopian novels that I’ve read where I felt genuinely unsettled as it felt like the idea of this society could actually come to fruition in reality.
I’ve briefly mentioned this book before, but this was a novel I also studied in my Health, Illness and Technological Imaginaries module. Unfortunately, I missed our discussion seminar on this novel (as I was failing my driving test at the time) which is a shame as I had so much I wanted to say about the novel. I thought this was a really interesting take on the idea of a small number of humans left alive and it remains one of my favourite sci-fi novels. Perhaps I will re-read this one to review it properly, as well as give the rest of the series a shot!
Now, I’m going to be honest, I’m not a fan of Jane Austen at all. I’ve read four of her books at this point and this is the only one that I have enjoyed (sorry to all the fans of Mr. Darcy out there). This novel came up in my Gothic to Goth module which looked at the progression from Gothic literature to the ‘Goth’ subculture. What Austen does with this novel is very clever and it’s a brilliant parody of the classic ‘gothic’ genre and one I thoroughly enjoyed.
This novel was included in my Postcolonialism module and it was just amazing. When I used to see a long book on my reading list, I would feel a bit of dread as it could very well derail your reading for the entire week for other modules, but that dread was totally unfounded with this book. The novel is set in 1970s India which sees four different characters come together during India’s ‘State of Internal Emergency’. A Fine Balance is both hopeful and heartbreaking, and a novel I highly recommend.
I’m fairly certain this novel was in my first year module The History of Literature. I had heard of the book before but I didn’t really know anything about it. I think one of the reasons I enjoyed this novel so much is because it wasn’t what I expected at all, it also opened my eyes to post-modernism. I loved the sudden change in narration and it made the novel feel fresh and left a big impression.
Now, the reason this is a bonus entry is because it isn’t actually a book it’s actually a play that I studied in my Modernism module. I love it when texts break the fourth wall, so to speak, and this is something this play does brilliantly. With the characters storming the stage, demanding that their author finish their stories. I would love to be able to see this play performed in person.
Have you read any of these texts? Do you have favourite texts you’ve studied at school or uni? Tell me what they were! Also, let me know if you’re interested in a post going over the worst books that I studied at university.
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