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Title details for If Then by Matthew De Abaitua - Available

If Then

#2 in series

by Matthew De Abaitua
ebook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
James has a scar in the back of his head. It’s where he was wounded in the Battle of Suvla Bay on August 1915. Or is the scar the mark of his implant that allows the Process to fill his mind with its own reality?
In IF, the people of a small English town cling on after everything fell apart under the protection of the Process, the computer system that runs every aspect of their lives. But sometimes people must be evicted from the town. That’s the job of James, the bailiff. While on patrol, James discovers the replica of a soldier from the First World War wandering the South Downs. This strange meeting begins a new cycle of evictions in the town, while out on the rolling downland, the Process is methodically growing the soldiers and building the weapons required to relive a long lost battle.
In THEN, it is August 1915, at the Battle of Suvla Bay in the Dardanelles campaign. Compared to the thousands of allied soldiers landing on this foreign beach, the men of the 32nd Field Ambulance are misfits and cranks of every stripe: a Quaker pacifist, a freethinking padre, a meteorologist, and the private (once a bailiff) known simply as James. Exposed to constant shellfire and haunted by ghostly snipers, the stretcher-bearers work day and night on the long carry of wounded men. One night they stumble across an ancient necropolis, disturbed by an exploding shell. What they discover within this ancient site will make them question the reality of the war and shake their understanding of what it means to be human…

  • Creators

  • Series

    The Seizure Trilogy

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    September 1, 2015

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9780857664679
      • File size: 617 KB

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9780857664679
      • File size: 617 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      September 28, 2015
      De Abaitua builds on the promise he demonstrated in The Red Men in this intellectual science fiction novel, whose ambition is matched by its execution. Our world has been transformed by a cataclysmic event known as the Seizure, a disaster De Abaitua depicts from the perspective of the residents of the British town of Lewes. After humans "ceased to be a vital component of the economic system," society collapsed, and the British government sold off Lewes to an "Asian fund algorithm." Now, its inhabitants' lives are governed by a terrifying artificial intelligence known as the Process that employs sophisticated formulas to determine how resources should be allocated, using 120 metrics to calculate what is fair. Part of the Process's calculus is determining which citizens are to be exiled to enforce "socially positive behavior." Carrying out these sentences falls to James, the person transformed into the town bailiff. His discovery of a not-quite-human soldier, John Hector, leads him to realize that the Process is setting things in motion to recreate WWI. The author's thoughtful world-building is enhanced by a cast of relatable characters. Agent: Sarah Such, Sarah Such Literary (U.K.).

Formats

  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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