Review of Roderick Craig Low’s England 2026…
(Roderick Craig Low, England 2026, Amazon UK Authors, 2.0 edition, 2013, ASIN B00BU80YBQ)
England 2026 is what I call neo-dystopian. It portrays England “after the Discord,” a bleak police state in economic collapse. It’s a collection of diverse city-states glued together by a brutal and scheming Gestapo-like force, the CLIP, aided by a network of citizen spies, the Harkers. The “neo” means that there are glimmers of hope for a better future. I recommend the book for all lovers of this genre.
The story follows Robert Oliver, a PV (Paperless Vagrant), as he returns from France to look for his daughter. At seventy-plus years, the man is in no shape to make the journey, mostly on foot, but he doggedly perseveres. If this brings to mind Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, let me say that Low’s book has better prose and is not nearly as depressing. It’s more akin to John Christopher’s No Blade of Grass (see below), although not as lean.
Early British authors dominated the dystopian genre. Some of the classics are H. G. Wells’ The Time Machine, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and Ape and Essence, Arthur Koestler’s Darkness at Noon, and George Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm. These older British authors were disenchanted with war and totalitarian regimes (Koestler was born Hungarian but spent most of his life in Britain).
Low carries on this tradition, joining other modern sci-fi authors and books from the U.K. and the U.S. like C. M. Kornbluth’s Not This August, Phillip K. Dick’s many works, Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, Brian W. Aldiss’ Non-Stop (Starship in the U.S.), William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, Samuel Youd’s The Death of Grass (John Christopher’s No Blade of Grass in the U.S.), and P. D. James with The Children of Men.
Still, a bifurcation between modern U.K. tradition and U.S. tradition exists. U.S. writers often lean to minimalist writing—their prose is lean and to the point while leaving much to the reader’s imagination to fill in. Readers must participate in the creative process. British authors often use more detailed and extended prose. Even when dwelling on bleakness, readers are often swept away by the sheer beauty and elegance of the language. Yet readers are more passive observers. Who is to say what’s best stylistically? Both styles have much to admire.
The British style perhaps allows the author to probe deeper into characters’ minds. There are few main characters in Low’s book, but you’ll know them well. The protagonist, his first benefactor Joe, little Mary, and Irish Rosin are the most important. The author portrays villains less convincingly; they often fade into the bleak landscape of his future Britain. Robert’s road trip is intense, though, and the neo- part of neo-dystopian only flashes at the end like a brief searchlight in the darkness. You’ll put the book down, deep in thought—and probably a bit troubled that it might be a reasonable extrapolation of our present.
In libris libertas….
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