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Post by: Helena Trooperman Dated: 5th March 2025 Asin: BOC4QXLBSC Title: Critical Habitat, book 1 Author: Terrance King
Dystopian cli-fi novels aren’t usually for me, but the bee storyline really interested me — totally unique! The factions on this climate crushed world, fight over who possesses the last honey bees. The Empire versus the Rebels. Here is where the feeling of Star Wars creeps into this character driven story. If you like well written complex stories with a multi-character cast this is for you. Critical Habitat does have a learning curve with the naming conventions, but is well worth it. The names give an important feeling that transports you into the world.
What does it mean to be a rebel, a hero, or the destroyer of habitat and civilization? As a devastated world recovers from war and plight, an unlikely heroine emerges and attempts to rescue distressed rebels from the government’s corruption controlling the rationed food supply and from a rogue general trying to steal the only known honeybees.
And Earth itself fights back.
Following the Great Uprising of the Millennium, the remaining human population in the Third Continent’s forty-four districts—starved and weakened—are dependent on the Authority. The new power structure that emerged after the war rules by fear and tyranny, confiscating property, and feeding the masses poisoned food.
Yet out of the rubble, rebellious clans who dream of a better future emerge, able to grow their own food because of their secret weapon—the last remaining nest of honeybees. Now a war wages between the rebels and the Authority. X and Y, children of the rebellion, have the key to the rebellion’s success: a download that can bring down the Authority once and for all.
Power hungry and corrupt, the Authority’s General Speer is intent on finding the download, along with the rebel’s bees and food stocks. And he will stop at nothing until he rules all the districts.
The fate of humanity hangs in the balance as X and Y join forces with an unlikely heroine and their allies in a race against time. But in a futurist world where survival is paramount and everyone has an agenda, who can they trust?
Whoever has the honey bees has the answer to food production and supply, on a world where most crops are extinct and the rebels hide the last vestiges of verdant crop growth.
Everyone has secrets to unpick.
Mel Custode is enveloped in the nastiest of blackmails. A rebel herself and imprisoned, she’s chosen as the most resilient person incarcerated with a means to withstand huge hardship and a terrifying journey to find out the location of the last honey bees held by the rebels. The carrot the Empire taunt her with is her mother and sister. She goes against everything she believes as she meets fellow rebels on her travels through the eyes of an undercover agent. Together they meet and tackle many obstacles in a bid to survive. Mel’s accompanied out of prison by Simple Eye, a flying bot used for the Empire to monitor her progress and ensure her compliance. An interesting interplay happens between Mel and Simple Eye, who is trapped too.
I really enjoyed the rag-tag found-family of travellers thrown together for their own reasons. Custode; Simple Eye; Sun Bin, the wise and compassionate man; X (female youth), Y (male youth) have their own mission to recover stolen plans now in the wrong hands; and Beck the lovable rogue trader with a soft side.
An enjoyable read.
Together there is mayhem, adventure, and changing allegiances. The ‘bubble speeder’ chases are the best. Fight scenes are fast and furious, often with unique aspects thrown in. If you like fast action scenes knitted together with found-family, Star Wars without the magic of the Force, or enjoy a unique cli-fi plot with a twist at the end, then this story is for you.
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Until next time, keep calm and read on.
NEXT MONTH… Ed’s Pick (RHS) If you like the idea of galactic pest controllers, this origin story of what brought them together is not to be missed.🇨🇦