Silent city by G.R.Mathhews — A book review
I enjoyed reading the Silent city. It is one of those books that you can read in one sitting and will remember decades later.
In a dystopian universe, humanity has been forced to live under-water as it is simply too dangerous to live on plain ground. For clarification sake, when I say “under-water”, it does not mean staying right below the surface of the water. On the contrary, these people are living anywhere from the range of 40,000 to 80,000 feet under water. Quoting a character in the book referred to as the mayor:
“We live in the deep sea, surrounded by pressure that could kill us in an instant, with no access to the surface world that is our natural home”.
Let me regress and state that it is not all dark and desolate. Science has evolved to physically create large pockets of air. These pockets of air are very large and allow humans to easily create large metropolitans and live a normal life.
However, our main character has lived anything but a normal life. We read about our main character in first person through a middle-aged man named Corrin Hayes. Hayes is person who regularly fist fights and drinks in order to escape his brutal past.
On the topic of Hayes’s past, I found that his past was perfectly portrayed to us. The readers could clearly figure out that Hayes had multiple life altering accidents (one being, the death of his daughter). However, the rest still remains untold. I believe that this is kept for book 2.
Perhaps Mr. Matthews is purposely creating an allusion that Hayes could never become socially capable after his tragic past. Often times, Hayes meets lady-friend and we are led to believe that both of them will engage in a relationship. Yet, like most other characters, these lady friends never stick around for long.
Speaking of long and short, I found this book to be the perfect length. Any longer or shorter, and the book would have lost its spark. The plot is very well set out and has the potential to span out for many books.
Of course, I had to keep the best thing of the book for the last, the plot. It’s dark and filled with action; Like any other day, Hayes was drinking his head off, when an attractive and charming woman offered him a high paying job. In the beginning he is tasked with doing ordinary “stuff”. However, his tasks soon become very difficult. As people start dropping dead, Hayes questions his loyalties. More importantly, he now has to do the impossible: survive.
Overall, this book is short but filled with all the action you need.
Ideal time to read this book: When you are in a really dark mood and want to read something dark
Overall rating: 4/5
Improvements: It would have been nice to see greater descriptions of the setting Hayes is in. At times, it was slightly difficult to picture Hayes’s settings.
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