Genesis by Bernard Beckett has rather lovely and intriguing cover art and, despite it's extremely slim size by current day standards, the phrase "a novel" underneath the title. I would have guessed it was a novella at 150 pages with plenty of white space, not that the classification really matters, what matters is that you can read it quickly and there are not another two weighty tomes in the series to finish the story. All in all, a nice relief given current genre publishing trends.
The setting is a remote island state, isolated from a world wide apocalypse, and rebuilt as an independent republic. The story follows a student of history as she tries to pass her examination to enter the Academy, her specialist subject one of the key historical events of her society.
Initially a style/layout choice put me off, or rather hindered me getting into the story, that choice being that a large chunk of the book is presented in a screenplay fashion, with just dialogue. I found this a bit distracting. Also, the first portion of the book is quite infodump heavy, with a lot of explanation and scene setting. The descriptions at least do have a sensible reason for their existence, as the main character Anaximander is facing an examination, and has to explain her studies; but I found it a bit too heavy handed. There is a lurch from apocalyptic scene setting to the real meat of the book, but that's when the story picks up.
The story did, however, win me over, particularly when it left the screenplay style. It's still conversation heavy, not a book in which I re-read long passages of description, but consequently moves along at a high pace and dispenses with anything which could obscure the story's central purpose: the intellectual argument.
There have been many books which deal with Genesis's ideas, of post-apocalyptic society and AI, in a more subtle way. Genesis attacks the issue head on, which again, won me over despite initial reservations, and finishes in a very satisfying way; one aspect I could see coming, one I couldn't.
Enjoyable Science Fiction, which tackles its core issue in a succinct head on intellectual argument, and then wraps it up with a surprisingly emotional ending.
Genesis by Bernard Beckett is published in the US on 20th April 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and in the UK on 7th May 2009 by Quercus Publishing
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