The author paints a vibrant picture of an incredibly efficient, futuristic, and bizarre world.
Living life within Vertical City may not provide much privacy or comfort, but at least the millions of residents of this unique structure are alive! Edgar Pacey is one among many who has been spared the cataclysmic events that led to earth’s demise. Now, living exclusively within the confines of an immense skyscraper that also extends deep into the ground, the remaining humans have worked out a functional society where everyone contributes to the wellbeing and preservation of mankind. And most people seem content with this hardworking life that is free from personal boundaries or choices. But Edgar is not most people. Others find his reclusive tendencies as either a little odd or outright rude. Never comfortable with the idea of a life lived almost entirely underground where every action is performed in close proximity to a neighbor, Edgar can barely keep his skepticism for the status quo under wraps. He has suspicions that something sinister is happening, but nobody is buying his wild conspiracy theories, so he mostly keeps them to himself. When he makes a snap judgment and averts a potential tragedy, everything changes for Edgar. His life as a lowly carbon miner transforms overnight into an opportunity to explore more of Vertical City than he’s ever been able to before. He’ll use his newfound freedom as a chance to take in the bigger picture, hoping to justify his innate distrust of the system and find some alternative to his mentally and physically confined existence.
Reminiscent of the suffocating feeling you get reading Hugh Howey’s Wool, claustrophobia sets in on the first page as we get a keen sense of just how crowded and public life is in Vertical City. Tristan Scott offers no relief to readers as he details the ins and outs of cramming so many people into such tight quarters. Imagining private showers that people feel free to barge in on to get a back scrub or touchy-feely friends being the norm instead of the exception is enough to make any of us want to find a secluded place to hide away for a long time! The author paints a vibrant picture of an incredibly efficient, futuristic, and bizarre world that has an undercurrent of darkness, so that the idea of life inside the massive structure is as cool as it is disturbing. The mental chasm that exists for Edgar, living in a metropolis but still feeling isolated and in every way different, is an accurate parallel to people today coping with a technology-driven world that is packed with virtual friends and remote workspaces. If you enjoy a well-crafted post-apocalyptic novel about the psychological dynamics of a forced social hierarchy, this cautionary dystopian tale will enchant and astonish as it takes human survival to new heights.
