NAQUOYA'S BOOK REVIEWS | A Glitch In The World – Alex Drozd
In my search for new science fiction novels, I stumbled upon Alex Drozd's recent novel called A Glitch In The World. Its premise and artwork seemed suitably dark, and the author calls himself a writer of philosophical science fiction, which immediately had me thinking about Philip K. Dick, which as a point of reference for me is a good one.
Whilst not in the calibre of most of PKD's material, A Glitch in the World is a still an enjoyable read, and an interestingly dark story. Stuart is a teenager living on the recently colonised world of Janus. He was born on this world, and lives with his parents who had immigrated out to it through the incentives offered at the time. As this new society goes through its own struggles and adjustments as it grows and matures, so too is Stuart finding it difficult coping with the mundane repetitive nature of life on Janus.
Stuart is more of a loner, finding fault with both himself and most of the world in which he lives. In fact it's life itself that seems to be what bothers him the most. The grinding, repetitive nature of the school day, and the monotony of family life eventually lead Stuart, together with his one friend, Dwayne, to partake of a hallucinogenic substance called HSP. Their experience seemed to go off with out too much happening, leading them both to dismiss it as being ineffectual, and Stuart feeling still very much stuck in his black thoughts about life.
Until the next day at school when something happens to Dwayne. Completely out of character, and leaving Stuart confused as to what he may be missing about his friend, he eventually makes a new friend, a girl in his English class named Alissa. Except she isn't what she seems.
Without wanting to give too much of the plot away, the story delves into matters both psychological and cosmological. It flips between the inner world and the outer world, whilst paralleling this with the forces of matter versus anti-matter, and how the two may be at loggerheads with each other. And somehow Stuarts mind seems to have become a contact point between the two. And then there's the question of what role did the drug HSP play, if any?
It leads up to a fast approaching finish, with an equally dark twist to cap it off. I was reading fully aware that a wrap up of the story was imminent, but the actual ending took me by surprise. And I love it for that alone.
There are parts of the writing that feel a little underdone, but the author has still produced a riveting story, with the parts all holding together and hitting their mark, or close to it. Even Stuart came close a couple of times to being too much of a winy teenager, challenging me to still like the character, but again I think the author found the correct blend of realism, and reader connection. There was no point when I wanted to put the book down and move on, and that I think is the ultimate test. I got through this in a little over a day, so it was a great escape and sufficient blend of dark and light subject matter to keep me entertained.
Published in December 2017.
Find more information at GoodReads and Amazon.
I give A Glitch In The World 3.5 out of 5 stars.
Cover image source. Other images sourced from unsplash.com.
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@naquoya
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Links to earlier works
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Writing Myself Out of Existence
When the Levee Breaks
Reality Fading
Lessons Learned From a Dying Man - includes audio version.
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All The Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr
Where Epics Fail - Yahia Lababidi
Hellbent - Gregg Hurwitz
1Q84 - Haruki Murakami
Soon - Lois Murphy
The Girl Who Played With Fire - Stieg Larsson
American Gods - Neil Gaiman
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep - Philip K. Dick
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson
Altered Carbon - Richard Morgan
Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk
Crooked God Machine - Autumn Christian
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@naquoya,
Thanks for the review. Sounds like something I can sink my teeth in and enjoy.
Namaste,
JaiChai
Awesome, if you give it a go I hope you enjoy it.
Thank you so much for participating! A strong contender!
Thanks for taking a look. Very glad you liked it.
Looks interesting and a must read thank u @naquoya
Yes it is a great little read. Thanks for the comment.
Thank u for sharing 👍🏼
Ooh, I might need to check this one out!
Are you a fan of darker SciFi? If so then yes, give this a go.
I am indeed!
Sounds like a good title for me to suggest to my YA Fiction book group!
Could be a good fit, given the main character is a high school student dealing with what seems like depression. Just add in the scifi and cosmological elements, and who knows? Hope they like it.
If you are interested in topic as psychology and science fiction, you should read Dune by Frank Herbert, if you haven't read it already :)
And if you haven't watched the move already, you shouldn't it doesn't convey important motifs from the book.
Dune is by far one of the best books, not only in genre but generally. Story follows young Paul Atriedes, a son of one of two most powerful noble families. His family moves to the planet Dune. Whole planet is a desert and is used for mining spice. The spice is psychedelic substance which gives insight into the future, and only with insight gained from the spice is the space travel possible.
The book is truly remarkable, I have never seen someone create a civilization and connected it with environment as good as Frank Herbert did with Fremen - the native people of planet Dune.
Yes Dune is a great book, and a favourite of mine. Probably in a higher class of literature than this particular book, but this is still good in its own right.
Sounds an interesting book, I will definitely read it after my exam,I really like the book with a good suspense, and dark theme, thanks for your review.
@casualwriter
Thank you, I hope you enjoy it.
This is quite an interesting plot. I'm curious what role Alissa has in their life this book is quite an interesting plot and more curious what happened in the end
Alissa has a prominent role in the book, but talking about her would have given to much of the plot away. I needed to mention her, but be careful about what I revealed. As for the ending, probably not to your liking, but if you want to know, hit me up on Discord :)
Yes I will definitely ^^
This sounds like a pretty good read. Dark SciFi plus hallucinations, I'm intrigued.
Yes, dark SciFi is a favourite of mine. If it deals with psychological, or philosophical issues, and has a twist or two along the way then even better.
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