Just a sniff of the word ‘dystopian’ and I’m in. I love that not quite sci fi, futuristic flavour that runs through the genre. That fusion of the recognisable from our contemporary world and the imagined from the created world. In Crowned Worthy Tulo is the location with a hierarchy of citizens ranging form the Unworthy to the Glorified all striving to improve themselves by making merit. This goal of increasing one’s merit gives the name to the intended series of stories - The Merit Hunters’.
Best we read the blurb…….
‘Ajay often wondered where Tulo would be without the invention of SkipSleep. Back when people used to sleep more, progress was so much slower. Then after SkipSleep, the City just flew.Ajay Ambers is the perfect Tulo citizen. His climbing merit score, prestigious job, and a host of merit-making friends, all help him get closer to the Glorified Quarters - home to the most Worthy in Tulo. With a Glorified-born girlfriend at his side and a natural talent for technology, Ajay happily settles into the life of success and ambition, without the fear of becoming Unworthy.
However, as the true brutality of the system takes hold, will that fear ultimately destroy him?
A new dystopian book series, this novel explores themes of success, work and relationships through coming-of-age characters, who navigate a society controlled by technology and demonstrations of each person's worth. Comparisons can be drawn with Huxley's Brave New World, Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go and concepts presented in Netflix's Black Mirror.’
This is a well plotted story with a detailed and defined society dominated by technology that reminded me a little of Jem Tugwells’s iMe stories, No Signal and Proximity. But there are usually common threads in dystopian fiction and that’s part of the appeal. Without giving too much away the book takes elements of our current world and shows how potentially damaging some of our obsessions with technology and its various applications can be. But it’s subtle.
It’s a well paced narrative with some unexpected moments, not necessarily twists and turns because I don’t see it as a thriller. But there’s more to Ajay than first meets the eye and the turmoil he finds himself embroiled in is tense. The creation of a different society with its protocols and doctrines is extremely well done, immersive and believable. I got a sense of The Hunger Games from time to time more from mood and the atmosphere created than from specific actions.
It is one thing to imagine an alternate society but it’s quite another to construct a palpable and believable fiction around those imaginings. Every last detail has to be accessible, credible and stand up to reader scrutiny. L.G.Jenkins has done just that. And I so want to read the next book.
About the author
Lydia Grace Jenkins is a young, Christian novelist, with a degree in English & Foreign Literature from the University of York. An avid reader, Lydia loves to explore different genres, characters, and thought-provoking ideas, all of which inform and inspire her own writing. She has a particular passion for the lives of young people as they begin to navigate the working world and adult life.
Buy link
Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Crowned-Worthy-Merit-Hunters-L-G-Jenkins/dp/1912863707/ref=sr_1_1?crid=Q58ZUCR9PS1W&dchild=1&keywords=crowned+worthy&qid=1615131097&s=books&sprefix=Crowned+%2Cstripbooks%2C181&sr=1-1
Thanks to Kelly and Meggy at LoveBooksTours for a gifted copy and a place upon the blog tour.
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