Next up for my new feature I am re-visiting a book that I read last year. Join me, as I share my thoughts with you on the first book of the Project Renova series – Tipping Point by Terry Tyler, which is currently free on Kindle until September 9th.
To start things off for you, here is a brief premise of the book…
Year 2024. New social networking site Private Life bursts onto the scene. Across the world, a record number of users sign up.
A deadly virus is discovered in a little known African province, and it’s spreading—fast. The UK announces a countrywide vaccination programme. Members of underground group Unicorn believe the disease to be man-made – and that Private Life might not be as private as it claims...
And as always, if you like the sound of any of the books I review, you can find out more about the author and their works by clicking on the links below.
In Review of… Tipping Point
Good dystopian novels act as a looking-glass into the future, shaping a vision for the reader that is both imaginative and thought-provoking – Great Dystopia, and Terry Tyler’s first book in the Project Renova series is highly placed amongst these, takes all of the above and underlines them chillingly with a warning aimed at just as much as where we are today in society, as to the future we are shaping for generations to come.
To review the book in depth would be to spoil the pleasure awaiting potential readers, and there is much pleasure to be found with
in those pages. Tyler’s writing is pacey, crisp, clean and fabulously well written (and, despite the subject matter, full of as much wit as tragedy). The future landscape she paints is vividly portrayed, with an authenticity that is well constructed and very well thought out.
2020 has been a year that nobody could have predicted, and yet Tyler’s tale, written in 2017, resonates chillingly with events happening around the world today, portraying how people can react during times of such crisis, warning us of how governments can control these events and their people – showing the many ways that people deal with the things happening around them.
I have read many great books over the last few years, some highly regarded and praised by the press, and I found the writer’s style and the story that unfolds to be as good as, if not better than, a great many of those receiving such accolades.
The central story focuses on lead character Vicky, and her daughter Lottie, monitoring the news and events starting to unfold in the world beyond their sleepy coastal town in Norfolk, via their technology. From the outset, their relationship is believable and you warm to them immediately, such is the writer’s skill, who paints a vivid portrayal of their home life in Shipden, and of the lives of the people who live there.
As events unfold (and to even talk about it would be to spoil it for you), the story starts to really bite.
There should be a stark warning in Dystopian/Post-Apocalyptic novels, acting as a two-way mirror that looks into the future, whilst reflecting upon the present. Underlying this wonderful read, Tyler’s observations of modern life, however seemingly mundane, warn us about our increasingly addictive reliance upon the ever-advancing technology put before us, and of the social media platforms we choose to install upon them. As mentioned before, it is all so very plausible, and with each page, a chill starts to settle under your skin.
In the chaos of the modern world we live in today, every aspect is drawn together brilliantly by the author, whispering at first, then shouting at the reader to be aware of everything we have come to accept; the internet, the scandals of our data being shared, stolen, and who-knows what else – of our daily movements being monitored.
When you think of Dystopian/Post-apocalyptic novels, you imagine a futuristic world, crushed under the boot and heel of its dictators; you imagine the living, trying to survive being torn to pieces by the dead, of bands of heroic survivors fighting to survive in the aftermath of the future we made for ourselves. TippingPoint, Book One of the Project Renova series, ticks all those boxes and Tyler’s skillful tale adds a great many unique ones of her own.
George Orwell warned us many years ago about this, and Terry Tyler’s wonderful read shouts as loudly as any Dystopian novel I have ever read.
Tipping Point will stay with you for a long time, and before you rush to delete your online accounts and ditch your tech, you should, with great anticipation, read this book, and then the rest of this wonderful series.
My Rating: 5/5 Stars Format Read: Kinde Edition
Enjoyed this review? Check out Tipping Point for yourself – the book is currently FREE.
You can also find out more about Terry’s other work here.
And whilst you are at it, you should check out her enjoyable Blog.
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