Crater’s Edge by Lucy Andrews is a sci-fi thriller that
takes place in a futuristic world where the ever increasing birth rate has been
managed in a very interesting way.
Earth is colonising other planets, and cities are being
built that have a unique twist. Cities like the domed city Central where the
population is divided into the Early Zone and the Unity Zone. The people in the
zones share work areas and public places but sleep and eat on their own side.
This means that work on the colony can continue around the clock as each team
works in shifts. Every member of society thus has a Duplicate that they never
meet. Work on a new area of Three-Craters is causing concern as machines are
breaking down or turning on for no reason, miners are getting ill at an
alarming rate, accidents are occurring regularly and construction is being
delayed. Kalen Trinneer is a Senior Engineer in the Colonisation Division of
the Ea-Zone and is sent to investigate the strange happenings. Kalen’s
investigations start turning up some bizarre revelations, and he is reluctant
to recommend that mining recommences until the incidents are resolved. Kalen’s
recommendations, however, seem to be ignored as his superior back in Early (who
is also his girlfriend), is urging him to drop his suspicions and sign off on
the safety of construction. He starts to doubt his worries as he is afraid that
his ideas have been influenced by the painkiller Narquum he has been addicted
to since the cave in at Area 9 that he believed he caused.
Kalen needs to take the investigation deeper, and with the
help of Sera, Jorge (the mining captain) and a number of other trusted miners
he leads the investigation to levels in the construction site that very few
have seen. Soon he realises that his life is on the line and that he needs to
contact his Duplicate in Unity to see how much information is being falsified.
Staying alive is more important than silly rules about Duplicates right? What
Kalen stumbles across will make him question every decision he has ever made
and every assumption he has had about his life. Is his realisation that he may
have been a pawn in a bigger game too late?
The concept behind the book was an interesting one, and the
idea that in the future this might have to happen to control the population’s
space was thought-provoking. A lot of vivid imagery takes place which helps the
reader imagine the world extremely well, especially in the encounter in the
garden and the feeling of claustrophobia so deep underground. Kalen’s struggle
with his decisions definitely came through, and the introduction of the God-force
and its ramifications put a new spin on things. The author has sprinkled in a
good dose of heroes and villains, and you can feel your blood pressure rising
when a villain gets away with something. The book has a deeper meaning than at
first glance, and if you read into it, you can see parallels with influences in
the world right now.
The book was well edited with only a few mistakes creeping
through. The writing style was pretty consistent, but lost its pace in some
areas like this where repetition occurred throughout dialogue:
“When will you be able to give an opinion?” he asked, trying
to keep the irritation out of his voice. “After I’ve done a full analysis.”
Perhaps she would have a view once she had done her analysis.
This cropped up a couple of times and the repetition of
words or ideas was unnecessary. I also felt a little irritated when Kalen
arrived at the area he was to investigate and before he met the geologist Sera,
kept commenting on how he thought she would be big, or ugly or unsociable. He
said this a number of times and it seemed a needless thing to keep thinking
about. The biggest bugbear, for me, was the ending. There was a lot of action
and events leading to it and as the build-up gets going, the words THE END pop
up. Unless this is the start of a series, that is an extremely abrupt ending.
The author would have done well to just let the reader know more is coming as I
can see this being a reviewer’s negative comment.
The book will make you thankful for some of the freedoms we
take for granted right now, and have you wondering what would happen if the
world went that way in the future.
