The government of England is one of appeasement. Furigans, misfits who thrive on violence and anarchy are deemed not responsible for their criminal behavior because of being disadvantage and marginalize. Indeed, to condemn them is to commit an act of Nastiness, be harried by Compassion Stewards, and come under the scrutiny from the Commission for Fairness. All parties adhere to this Political Consensus. Debate is empty and meaningless.

Roger Tyson, a business magnate, is a solitary voice calling for a return to truth, justice, freedom of speech, and an end to mandated Niceness. He’s being vilified for it until his dire predictions of economic collapse begin to manifest.

But are Roger’s tough-love politics and bare-knuckle tactics enough to save England from the shadowy Muhonin who are preparing to violently overthrow the decaying, corrupt government and reinvent this Green and Pleasant Land by imposing their own violent and radical ideology?

Steve Shahbazian’s novel, Green and Pleasant Land, is cleverly conceived and well-considered dystopian fiction similar to George Orwell’s classic in that the government seeks to gain consensus not through violence but by influencing the cultural milieus of the masses. If you disagree with the policies of the government of the day they don’t make you disappear, they use their unwitting operatives to shame you into silence.

However, the strength of this novel is also its weakness. Replete with political machinations and characters launching into philosophical diatribes it is dense, plodding and much of the dialogue is didactic. Real action, the exciting kind that builds tension is scarce, and similar scenarios of debate, discussion, and ultimately indecision, are presented again and again with little or no consequences.

Well-developed characterization is also lacking with the host of characters only defined by their political affiliations.

The author has also chosen to use Japanese greetings and political terminology throughout the story. Perhaps it is a metaphor to indicate how far the birthplace of the Parliamentary system has drifted from its roots. If so, it’s an unnecessary impediment.

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I was soooo excited when I won a fabulous signed hardcover for Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton and a paperback copy with a pile of goodies for Colel by Mimi Jean Pamfiloff.

Amazon / Audiobook / Goodreads

MY REVIEW

Kira Jane Buxton has definitely delivered on this original, unique glimpse into her zombie world where animals are the saviors and humans are the ones in need of saving. They can’t do it as individuals, it takes a murder to save a village. Hollow Kingdom is filled with every emotion I can think of, terror and fear, sadness and happiness, lost and found, tears and smiles, despair and hope.

4 Stars

My copy of this is an ARC that I picked up at a conference four years ago. Yes, it took me this long to finally read it. Because it's an ARC, I won't be quoting from it.

Phoenix and his team spend their work days fighting battle after battle. Each time they die, they're regenerated. That's because they aren't people - they're the NPC enemies that human gamers try to defeat. The only difference between one day and the next is what game they're in. When Dakota, a new member, is added to Phoenix's team, things gradually start to fall apart.

Dakota won't stop asking questions. She has what she thinks are memories of a life prior to being in the game. Doesn't that mean she, and all of them, are really human? Doesn't that mean there's a life she could get back to? Phoenix tries to ignore her and concentrate on being the biggest, baddest opponent gamers have ever fought against, but then things start happening that even he can't explain away.

I went into this thinking it'd work reasonably well for me. I like "stuck in a video game" stories, and this seemed somewhat in the same vein. Unfortunately, I disliked Phoenix, who I assume was written to primarily appeal to male gamers. His idea of a good life was battles, good weapons, and Mi, his only female teammate prior to Dakota's arrival, tucked under his arm when she wasn't pulling off an impressive number of headshots. Although Dakota annoyed him, he gave her living quarters closer to his because he thought she was hot...which was weird since he acknowledged that all women in his game world were hot.

I spent a good chunk of the book thinking Dakota would have made a better POV character, but I doubt that would have made me like this book any better. She annoyed me almost as much as she annoyed Phoenix. But at least she was less passive than Phoenix, who was aware that things were going on around him that he knew nothing about but who did nothing to learn more about those things.

For a book that contained cannibals and a Mad Max-style dystopian wasteland, this was surprisingly boring. The pacing was really bad, and none of the characters felt like actual people. Part of the latter could have been due to Phoenix's POV. Mi, for example, came across as his token girlfriend. Why were the two of them together? She seemed more inclined to question things than him, and there were hints that she had thoughts and emotions he hadn't even tried to find out about. And yet the two of them stayed together. The only explanation I could think of was that Phoenix was team leader, and as team leader he was required to have a girlfriend. Which was...depressing.

The book's ending was garbage, a last-ditch effort to mess with readers. The result was hugely unsatisfying. Phoenix's shock and horror didn't exactly do much for my opinion of his intelligence, either. The ending he'd been about to have was filled with great big gaping plot holes (not to mention a stunning display of selfishness and wastefulness, but that's a whole other issue). It shouldn't have required dragging him over and rubbing his nose in them for him to see them.

Extras:

I don't know if these made it into the final book, but the ARC came with a few illustrations and stats for Phoenix and his teammates.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)