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A review by barb4ry1
Silent City by G.R. Matthews
3.0
I wasn't allowed to watch The Abyss in 1989. My parents thought I was too young. Fortunately, there were ways to get around the ban. I remember watching the movie through the half-open doors to my parents' room. They thought I was asleep. I tried to remain silent. It wasn't easy as the movie was breathtaking and awe-inspiring. The scene in which Ed Harris got into the suit filled with breathing fluid was incredible, and it'll stay with me forever.
It turns out liquid breathing isn't a fiction. It's just so damn hard to breathe liquid and move at the same time that it's not used in real life (because of liquid viscosity and problems with CO2 removal). Still, it's a fascinating concept, and science development may allow us one day to feel like a fish in the water.
GR Matthews' Silent City is the first book I read in which liquid breathing is vital to the plot. It's a dystopian tale that takes place in the future. Humanity screwed big time, and the life goes on underwater, in the oceans, under domes. People languish in the underwater cities, surrounded by endless waters. Diving gear is essential for surviving and doing maintenance work. Submarines navigate through waters.
It's difficult to summarise the plot - I feel that what we've got is just an intro to a bigger, more layered adventure. The story's protagonist Corin Hayes is a middle-aged and hard-drinking guy with a dark and tragic history he doesn't want to think or speak about. Whatever money he gains doing underwater maintenance, he spends on alcohol (mostly). He's no stranger to bar fights and bitter reflections about life in general. To be fair, though, he's not (yet) a drunkard. It's just his life lost any sense of the direction and whiskey helps him to go on.
One day he gets a job offer. Money is good. The job is moderately difficult. What could go wrong?
How about everything?
I won't summarise anything more as it would be spoiler territory.
While the book is set in the dystopian future, it has a feel of hard-boiled detective fiction, minus mystery and satisfying conclusion. It ends with many unanswered question and sort of cliffhanger. The plot is rather simple, but my assessment may change when and if the questions that arise will be answered in the sequels.
The story is told from the first-person perspective. Corin Hayes. He's not handsome, his charm is sorely lacking and his social graces were left in the gutter. He's also well past his prime and he repeats it multiple times.
Corin's voice is mostly enjoyable thanks to his wry sense of humour and realistic, down to earth approach to life. On the other hand, he's not fully convincing as a suffering father. He quickly falls in lust and can mourn his daughter's death, picture her mutilated body while assessing breasts of a woman. I dunno. Also, at times his voice becomes simply tiring, and his actions make him kind of a reckless asshole.
All in all, he's decent protagonist, just slightly tiring in bigger doses.
Despite book's short length, there's a healthy dose of world-building done right. I find the concepts of underwater cities, operating the fish tank fascinating and it seems GR Matthews has done some research. If you like technical details, you should be satisfied. I was.
The pacing is right - there's plenty of action (infiltration of the underwater base, bar fights, explosions and stuff). It's difficult to say anything about the villains, though. We learn very little about them. Corin incapacitates or kills some people along the way, but don't expect to learn who they were or if they actually were bad guys. One of the killed dies in a particularly gruesome way.
The writing is accessible and simple. It's also neat, although some misspelt words/under-edited sentences can be spotted. Two examples:
Nothing unforgivable. It happens to the best. The writing is solid, and I appreciate the fact that the author makes the words count. There's no fluff here.
Overall, it's a solid book that doesn't answer any questions. And it's a bit irritating. Will I reach for the sequel? Probably yes. Do I like Corin? Mostly. But he's one of the guys it's cool to know and meet once in a while, just not too often.
I read the book as part of the TBRind - An Indie Author and Reviewer Matching Service created and maintained by The Weatherwax Report.
It turns out liquid breathing isn't a fiction. It's just so damn hard to breathe liquid and move at the same time that it's not used in real life (because of liquid viscosity and problems with CO2 removal). Still, it's a fascinating concept, and science development may allow us one day to feel like a fish in the water.
GR Matthews' Silent City is the first book I read in which liquid breathing is vital to the plot. It's a dystopian tale that takes place in the future. Humanity screwed big time, and the life goes on underwater, in the oceans, under domes. People languish in the underwater cities, surrounded by endless waters. Diving gear is essential for surviving and doing maintenance work. Submarines navigate through waters.
It's difficult to summarise the plot - I feel that what we've got is just an intro to a bigger, more layered adventure. The story's protagonist Corin Hayes is a middle-aged and hard-drinking guy with a dark and tragic history he doesn't want to think or speak about. Whatever money he gains doing underwater maintenance, he spends on alcohol (mostly). He's no stranger to bar fights and bitter reflections about life in general. To be fair, though, he's not (yet) a drunkard. It's just his life lost any sense of the direction and whiskey helps him to go on.
One day he gets a job offer. Money is good. The job is moderately difficult. What could go wrong?
How about everything?
I won't summarise anything more as it would be spoiler territory.
While the book is set in the dystopian future, it has a feel of hard-boiled detective fiction, minus mystery and satisfying conclusion. It ends with many unanswered question and sort of cliffhanger. The plot is rather simple, but my assessment may change when and if the questions that arise will be answered in the sequels.
The story is told from the first-person perspective. Corin Hayes. He's not handsome, his charm is sorely lacking and his social graces were left in the gutter. He's also well past his prime and he repeats it multiple times.
Youngsters always seemed to watch their diet more than us older folks. We knew our body would betray us and begin to build fat no matter what we did, so why bother? I kept it to a minimum, but my metabolism wasn't what it used to be.
Corin's voice is mostly enjoyable thanks to his wry sense of humour and realistic, down to earth approach to life. On the other hand, he's not fully convincing as a suffering father. He quickly falls in lust and can mourn his daughter's death, picture her mutilated body while assessing breasts of a woman. I dunno. Also, at times his voice becomes simply tiring, and his actions make him kind of a reckless asshole.
All in all, he's decent protagonist, just slightly tiring in bigger doses.
Despite book's short length, there's a healthy dose of world-building done right. I find the concepts of underwater cities, operating the fish tank fascinating and it seems GR Matthews has done some research. If you like technical details, you should be satisfied. I was.
The pacing is right - there's plenty of action (infiltration of the underwater base, bar fights, explosions and stuff). It's difficult to say anything about the villains, though. We learn very little about them. Corin incapacitates or kills some people along the way, but don't expect to learn who they were or if they actually were bad guys. One of the killed dies in a particularly gruesome way.
The writing is accessible and simple. It's also neat, although some misspelt words/under-edited sentences can be spotted. Two examples:
I wasn't entirely sure who she was talking too.
They're are called Silent Cities
Nothing unforgivable. It happens to the best. The writing is solid, and I appreciate the fact that the author makes the words count. There's no fluff here.
Overall, it's a solid book that doesn't answer any questions. And it's a bit irritating. Will I reach for the sequel? Probably yes. Do I like Corin? Mostly. But he's one of the guys it's cool to know and meet once in a while, just not too often.
I read the book as part of the TBRind - An Indie Author and Reviewer Matching Service created and maintained by The Weatherwax Report.