Battlestar Suburbia
Battlestar Suburbia by Chris McCrudden Farrago Humor , Sci Fi & Fantasy Pub Date 20 Sep 2018
Review
Battlestar Suburbia is a bizarre confection, part humorous part surreal, but entirely unique. Like Brazil ( the movie ), it is bitingly satirical in a way that can be funny, painful, or painfully funny. The electronic appliances on earth have not only become sentient - they have also taken over. Humans are at the bottom of the totem pole, tasked with cleaning. When Darren’s charge cart gets knocked into space, he’s eager to make some cash to retrieve his livelihood - even if it means acting as a personal cleaner. But instead of clearing out dust bunnies he short circuits a lamp post, which photos Kelly and Darren, putting them on the run. One haphazard act after another leads them into unwittingly starting a revolution, and to Pam, a bread maker, discovering a conspiracy that drives them on a collision course.
From megalomaniacal smartphones to lock picking drones, appliance fetish parlors to hair salons that walk on mechanical legs, the world of Battlestar Suburbia is weird and wonderful. It highlights the absurdity of life, and the adaptability of individuals in unusual situations. McCrudden’s novel will appeal to fans of Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett, or anyone looking for an escape only loosely connected to reality.
4 / 5
I received a copy of Battlestar Suburbia from the publisher and Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.
— Crittermom
Description
In space, no one can hear you clean… When Darren’s charge-cart gets knocked off the Earth-to-Mars highway and lost in space forever, he thinks his day can’t get any worse. When Kelly sees Darren accidentally short-circuit a talking lamppost, and its camera captures her face as it expires, she thinks her day can’t get any worse. When Pamasonic Teffal, a sentient breadmaker, is sent on a top-secret mission into the depths of the internet and betrayed by her boss, a power-crazed smartphone, she knows this is only the beginning of a day that isn’t going to get any better. Join Darren, Kelly and Pam in an anarchic comic adventure that takes them from the shining skyscrapers of Singulopolis to the sewers of the Dolestar Discovery, and find out what happens when a person puts down their mop and bucket and says ‘No.’ Battlestar Suburbia will be loved by fans of Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett and Jasper Fforde, as well as anyone who’s ever wondered just how long someone can stay under one of those old-fashioned hairdryers.* *The answer is: a really very, very long time.
