Okay, listen up. Don't read this book. I FORBID you to read this book. Unless.......unless.....you have an imagination as wide as the ocean and as deep as a bottomless pit. The author has so it seems only fair that the reader should too, and trust me, you will need it and it will stand you in good stead.
In politically-neutral Neo-Yuthea, Albert Smith's orderly life is disrupted when Mr Zand campaigns for Mayor.
Shocking deaths caused by strange forest creatures, enforced arranged marriages, and the impending suppression of Albert's secret garden meetings bring the community to the brink of chaos.
Albert and his neighbours must rally together, resisting the encroaching darkness, and fighting for their freedom before their world crumbles.'
Elliot J Harper has created an immersive landscape, possibly in a galaxy far, far away, but this doesn't hit you as a stereotypical science fiction novel in terms of planet hopping in spaceships and hurtling through hyperspace. There's elements of speculative and fantasy fiction too. One of the things I enjoyed was the paradox of describing fairly normal and straightforward pursuits, like drinking tea, familiar to us in our present day earth alongside some weird and otherworldly happenings, not to mention hanging out with some weird and wonderful otherworldly beings!
New Gillion Street is a settlement created and populated by survivors of a space ship crash after they left Yuthea (which I think we can interpret as earth) to seek a new life elsewhere. The planet upon which they landed was already populated and those 'indigenous' inhabitants aided the survivors to create a new society on the understanding that they remain separate. Neither strays into the domain of the other. And it works. For a while.
The Odds and Evens reminded me of Malorie Blackman's Noughts and Crosses, so the seeds of a division are sewn early on. I also thought of Animal Farm, 'all animals are equal but some are more equal than others' when Mr. Zand decides to assert himself as a leader. But if all that sounds like stuff you've read before you won't have been bargaining on the expansive imagination of Mr. Harper. The world created is like none you've ever visited with overwhelming beauty and characters that range from a talking, swearing garden gnome to the Narda, a peaceful and wise race who I wish would populate earth, right here, right now.
I wouldn't want to plot spoil because exploring that is one of the joys of the book but also words are inadequate to truly describe how the initial narrative explodes into a landscape so far removed from all that we know. It had me thinking of the author, whatever he's on, I want some!
But it isn't just an intergalactic fun romp there's some serious intent behind the story. I mentioned Animal Farm? The character of Mr. Zand prompted that with his aspirations, his devious contriving, to bend the inhabitants of New Gillion Street to his will. These sequences illustrate the frailty of life's infrastructures and how in the wrong hands the changes can become devastating. There's a political undercurrent to the book but fear not if politics isn't your bag because it doesn't dominate and the book also has plenty to say about love on many levels.
The writing sparkles along with pace and clarity reaching a conclusion that should satisfy us all. Even the facking gnome.😉
My thanks to Isabelle Kenyon of Fly on the Wall Press for a gifted copy and a place upon the blog tour.
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