Friday 8 May 2015

FUTURE PERFECT (Blueprint Trilogy book 1) by Katrina Mountfort

5 GOLD STARS

Sci-Fi post-apocalyptic drama

On Amazon UK HERE
On Amazon.com HERE




Reviewed by me as part of Rosie Amber's Book Review Team

I LOVED this book!  Read it over a period of 24 hours, hated having to put it down.

The story takes place in year 2181.  120 years after various events that devastated the world as we know it, the chosen people of 'State 11', formerly the UK, reside in 'Citidomes', in which their lives are easy, comfortable - and controlled.  Residents live not in families or couples but with their selected 'resmates', and aspire to join the BodyPerfect clan: women who look like anorexic supermodels, men so metrosexual they are no longer masculine.  Televisual entertainment has returned to the age of baying crowds and gladiators with non-stop reality shows in which those not conforming to Citidome standards are cruelly mocked.  Bodily 'imperfections' are considered a sign of inferiority, emotion is discouraged; residents have 'connections' rather than friends.  There is no religion, no creativity, no literature, and sex is outlawed, seen as dirty.  Children are created by artificial means only.  Details of the country's history is available from the 'Knowledge Fountain', but there is little information available about life before the Citidomes.  However, underneath all this shallow perfection and unquestioning conformity there is a rumbling of discontent; the 'subversive thinkers' want to discover the truth, and find out if life on the outside is really as savage as they are told...

I suppose this is the modern '1984'!  Aside from being entertaining, it all seemed frighteningly possible, especially when I found out, later, what really happened to the UK back in 2065.  I'm very interested in the way the population can be controlled by those in power, in ways more underhand and seemingly innocuous than many imagine (who needs Big Brother when you have the internet?), and how quickly what once seemed to be a ludicrous idea can very quickly become accepted as the norm.  This book is a brilliant portrayal of subtle mind control.

Of course, a great story is only as good as the way it's told, and this is SO well written, the superficial atmosphere and hidden horror of life in State 11 Citidomes told so artfully.  Once the book moves outside (to what was Derbyshire), I loved reading Ms Mountfort's vision of a country left to its own devices for over a hundred years, and how her Citidome residents discovered the old, forgotten ways of their ancestors.

Although the main character, Caia, is only seventeen, I didn't realise the book came under the heading 'YA' until I came to write the review; there's certainly plenty to think about in it that I perhaps wouldn't have seen if I'd read it when I was sixteen!  

A terrific novel, I'm so glad it came my way and, Katrina Mountfort, this is me hassling you for the next one in the series NOW!

FORBIDDEN ALLIANCE by Katrina Mountfort reviewed HERE 

 


2 comments:

  1. Lovely review, I think we do need to be concerned about how much the internet controls our lives.

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    Replies
    1. Indeed yes! Tho perhaps it's too late now...

      I was gutted to see that part 2 isn't out yet, I'm gagging to read it!

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