Review! The Atopia Chronicles.

A book must take you to places unseen,  must imagine the unimaginable, see a world beyond this , and meet extraordinary people. Usually the best are those are seen most fleetingly. Tantalising you with tales as yet untold. Books should not be mundane, books are by nature escapist and therefore should not be boring, it should be a pacy, roller-coaster ride through another realm.
The Atopia Chronicles promised me this, and then failed to deliver, getting bogged down often in its own clever concepts. You see in the end the Atopia Chronicles for all it's clever puns in the title was left wanting. A brilliant concept that left a hole of disappointment. Like the consciousnesses of it's far too many protagonists the narrative splintered itself too far and fell over itself. Lacking a clear threat and antagonist the final denouement far from being a great reveal just adds to the confusion. There had been little to no indication that this individual was the individual behind it all. Though by the end the reader is so baffled as to what is reality and what isn't you're not entirely sure as to what "it all" even is.

The abundance of first person narrative protagonists is overwhelming and somewhat repetitive. Rather than a painter adding layers of fine detail, it frequently feels like the author is just rehashing encounters from just another perspective. Some of the best stories are given the least time, and none of the characters are particularly likeable, which is annoying because there's so many of them, whose stories could easily be absorbed into someone else's. Particularly annoying is how the opening hook of the book, just like the end, is left unresolved. Streamlining would benefit this book immensely. Why the author felt that so many perspectives were necessary is just plain weird when 2 or 3 would have done, as the technology demands more than one perspective.
Being science fiction understandably the book gets technological, but it was technological to the point of boring and i found myself drifting off.
The denouement was a surprise even to the antagonist, that they were the antagonist, which was a bit weird, normally there would be some hints that something wasn't quite right, but all the warning signs were easily rationalised, and the normality of the character put the Whaaa?! factor through the roof. I still can't decide if it's a cop out or not.

Despite this, I couldn't help myself, I liked the book. The concept is brilliant and very clever. There were a couple of Characters you felt for, and dammit if the ending, didn't make me want to read the next installation.

Overall the book was annoying but good. I may read it again and see if it works any better the second time round...

3 Stars