Stephanie Jane recenzis Child of Etherclaw de Matty Roberts
An intriguing novel with amazing worldbuilding
4 steloj
On spotting that Matty Roberts is a vegan author, I was keen to be a reviewer for this new dystopian novel, Child Of Etherclaw. The story is set hundreds of years in the future after humanity has completely messed up our planet, been rescued and is in the process of totally messing everything up again. This aspect is certainly very plausible! Fenlee and her younger brother, Elliott, are supposedly living with their father, but as an off-planet miner he is absent for weeks at a time, leaving the children to fend as best as they can for themselves. Fenlee's scavenging and tight budgeting together with Elliott's homemaking efforts allow them to survive, however it is obvious that both children are struggling and traumatised and I appreciated how sympathetically Roberts shows this to readers. We can see that the situation is far from ideal, even though it has become normal within …
On spotting that Matty Roberts is a vegan author, I was keen to be a reviewer for this new dystopian novel, Child Of Etherclaw. The story is set hundreds of years in the future after humanity has completely messed up our planet, been rescued and is in the process of totally messing everything up again. This aspect is certainly very plausible! Fenlee and her younger brother, Elliott, are supposedly living with their father, but as an off-planet miner he is absent for weeks at a time, leaving the children to fend as best as they can for themselves. Fenlee's scavenging and tight budgeting together with Elliott's homemaking efforts allow them to survive, however it is obvious that both children are struggling and traumatised and I appreciated how sympathetically Roberts shows this to readers. We can see that the situation is far from ideal, even though it has become normal within that household. The bond they share really comes across well.
It did take me a couple of chapters to get myself fully into this story, however once I did so, I was gripped. The sheer scale of the New Cascadia city - horizontally and vertically - is breathtaking and vividly portrayed so I could easily imagine everywhere from the vertigo-inducing high tiers to the dilapidated Undercity.
The whole etherclaw concept itself is particularly intriguing too. We learn about how its varied effects can be manipulated by those people who carry it and a little of its Earth history. I liked that Roberts doesn't bog us down in too much backstory detail here though. I wondered if other novels might further explore the phenomenon. I am hoping Child Of Etherclaw is intended to be the first of a series because I would love to revisit this world.