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A review by librariann
Pastworld by Ian Beck
3.0
Ages 11+ (grisly murders with body parts strewn about, a few minor instances of language - "scared shitless" would be one of them)
Forty years in the future, London has been reimagined as a Victorian-era theme park. Run by the shadowy Buckland corporation, who hosts vacationing "Gawkers" at a steep fee, Pastworld London is full of crime and poverty - quite different from the sanitized outside world. To remain authentic, even the laws are those of 1890's England, from the small: smoking in pubs, to the large: the death penalty, by hanging.
Pastworld even has its own Jack the Ripper: the Fantom, a mysterious serial killer, is on the prowl. Tangled up in this odd world are Bible J, the street urchin with a heart of gold, Eve, a teenager who doesn't know Pastworld isn't the real deal, and Caleb, a visitor whose father was one of the park's original imagineers.
Gets off to a quick and engaging start but ends up as a passable sci-fi. The unique premise and cobblestone-pounding plots are the draw, the stock characters are not. Worst sin: a completely guessable twist (I figured it out at page 80)
Forty years in the future, London has been reimagined as a Victorian-era theme park. Run by the shadowy Buckland corporation, who hosts vacationing "Gawkers" at a steep fee, Pastworld London is full of crime and poverty - quite different from the sanitized outside world. To remain authentic, even the laws are those of 1890's England, from the small: smoking in pubs, to the large: the death penalty, by hanging.
Pastworld even has its own Jack the Ripper: the Fantom, a mysterious serial killer, is on the prowl. Tangled up in this odd world are Bible J, the street urchin with a heart of gold, Eve, a teenager who doesn't know Pastworld isn't the real deal, and Caleb, a visitor whose father was one of the park's original imagineers.
Gets off to a quick and engaging start but ends up as a passable sci-fi. The unique premise and cobblestone-pounding plots are the draw, the stock characters are not. Worst sin: a completely guessable twist (I figured it out at page 80)