Things Unborn (Paperback)

The plot is slightly complex but this is nothing to get worried about, this is a SF book for the intelligent, and it is a very exciting read so worth making your brain cells do a little bit of extra work in my opinion!

This is an alternative world, born from the ashes of a devestating Nuclear War in the early 1960s that wiped out millions upon millions of people in various parts of the world, mostly in Britain, the USA, Russia and China, all places that were affected at one point by radiation fall out. After this war was over, people started to be "reborn" people througout the centuries who had died before their time, young children but not babies and infants and very few people over the age of 55, are appearing near or where they died many years ago. They are nicknamed Retreads and depleted Societies have accepted them with open arms, teaching them to live in a world often very different from the one they left behind.

Of course it is not all Utopia, far from it, a fight for power ensued in the 1970s between the Fundamentalist Nationalists who want to put the reborn Duke of Monmouth on the throne and the Democratic Coalition of all Creeds led by a reborn Lawrence of Arabia. The Democratic Coalition won, and the Duke of Monmouth was once again executed and for the last 30 or so years peace has reigned in Britain.

But a conspiracy is afoot, and the Fundamentalists are gathering momentum as they head toward a revolution in which Britain will be forced back into her Hard Core Protestant days, with anyone who is different suffering the fate of those that do not follow the "true way."

But all is not lost, Inspector Africanus and his motley crew of Police officers, consisting of a retread Spitfire Pilot called Guy who has only recently resurrected back to life, a slightly jaded female WPC who is trying to figure out her place in the world, and a jolly Irish giant nicknamed Uncle Seamus who might not be all that he seems.

Add to this boiling pot some wonderful characters like Lickpenny Nan, the Rakish Earl of Rochester, a mysterious young man called Henry Seymour and the delightful Digby family, one of whom is Guy's ancestor, a retread like himself and you have a delicious sense of being in and out of various centuries as you rub shoulders with high brow Victorians, decadent Georgians, over sentimental Edwardians not to mention the darker side of the retread experience, those who were once criminals with violent and terrifying pasts.

There are some great touches to this book, I especially like the referral made to the long running radio sitcom "The Archers" with a member of the cast awaiting the arrival of a Tudor "retread" ancestor's visit! Delightful.

The main thrust of this book is about the plot to overthrow the Democracy and those now in power since the defining war of the 1970s but there is a surfeit of information about Retread life past and present and this interweaves itself in and out of this dark and often humorous SF thriller making it a compulsive read from beginning to end.

I might add that this would make an EXCELLENT film and I am surprised that it wasn't a Best Seller but each to their own I guess!

If you get a chance to read this book then do so, you won't be disappointed, I certainly wasn't!