CROMBY'S AXIOM by Gary J Kirchner #RBRT

4 out of 5 stars

On Amazon
On Goodreads

How I discovered this book: it was submitted to Rosie's Book Review Team, of which I am a member.

In a Nutshell: dystopian; battle against invasive technology.

There are so many good dystopian books around now, and I love reading the many, wildly different versions of what might await us in decades to come.  I enjoyed this, the debut novel by Gary J Kirchner.

In the future, the people are crowded together in cities and connected by the Hive mind; all thoughts are connected, all information just a micro-second away.  Tommy is a world famous athlete who finds himself lost in the 'Fallowlands' of Switzerland - and, worse than this, he has somehow become unconnected, as he discovers when he searches for the information he needs about where to go and what to do.  Eventually he meets up with members of the Ketchen: rebels who live outside the cities and the Hive mind.

The differences between life inside the Hive and the old world of the Ketchen give one a lot to think about, especially if one is of a certain age and grew up without the technology that exists now.  The sinister truth about Tommy's world unfolds gradually, and is no less shocking for being almost expected.  Several times, one of the people who controls Tommy offers some depressing reflections of our real world:

'...from the days of metal electronics and hand-held interfaces to skin graft technology and visual implants and finally to seamless thought communication, the same pattern was followed: technology is developed, a vanguard establishes its use, meek voices raise issues of privacy and ethics, which simply get swamped in the global rush to embrace this newest step...'

And about why the Ketchen are allowed to exist:

'It's healthy to have an enemy.  It brings people together... the idea that 'out there' are outlaws, bad guys who want to do your side in.  If the Ketchen didn't exist, we'd probably invent them'.

Tommy is a likable character and, despite my feeling that some of the explanations could have been edited down to be more reader-friendly, the story held my interest throughout.  The exciting events of the last ten per cent of the book, and the ultimate end, are particularly good.  I'd definitely like to read more books set in this world.