Book Review
Title: Sovereignty by Anjenique Hughes
Genre: Post-Apocalyptic, Science Fiction, Fantasy
Rating: 3 Stars
The opening to Sovereignty was actually pretty interesting and I don’t know why I didn’t pick it up sooner since it has been on my shelves for years at this point. We are introduced to the world in the 23rd century after several wars so the population is greatly decreased before being essentially taken over by the Sovereignty Regime. The SR as it is known implants chips into the right wrist of every baby at three days old and this chip controls everything from your bank account to searching for information meaning things like laptops, phones and bank card have become obsolete but it also acts as a training device. We are introduced to Goro and his friends, Alex and Cory as well as his siblings Josiah who is 5 and Stephanie. Goro and his friends plans to blow up some fireworks and see if they can hide themselves from the SR using one of Alex’s creations but while they get away from the site and split up Goro is targeted by the SR and almost taken away if it wasn’t for something more important coming up. At Stephanie’s graduation the next day he has to watch his sister be humiliated when she is given an award only to be told there is a mistake and for it to be given to the Headmaster’s daughter when she clearly hasn’t worked for it like Stephanie has and this is the final straw for Goro as he wants to take down the SR. He has the crazy idea of getting recruited by the SR and attempting to destroy it from the inside since there has to be a weakness and I can’t wait to see where it goes.
As we approach the ¼ mark in the novel, Goro begins discussing some revolutionary ideas which are beginning to scare his friends and family. They worry that these ideas might get him hurt or into trouble but he is determined to bring down the SR for good. As we learn more about the SR and the characters we can see it isn’t a good thing, take Alex for example, his father was a rebel and was killed and he doesn’t talk about what happened to his mother so Goro and Cory take care of him. Then their friend Zan lives in the Backlands, this is a place where the poorest people are housed and essentially trapped in a ghetto like environment. The SR torments these people further by stealing their water and then selling it back to them for three times the normal price meaning these people can’t afford to live at times. The SR also controls the jobs and schooling meaning people don’t even have the freedom to choose their own jobs as they are assigned to them and can be dropped from them at any moment and it can sometimes takes months to be assigned a new position. Goro is aware that his opinions could get his family hurt so he decides to tone it down but he encounters a stranger waiting for a train who gives him an old fashioned key and instructions to find them, and assume these are the rebels that have been mentioned and they think Goro has potential to help them bring down the SR possibly from the inside and I can’t wait to see what happens with this.
As we cross the ¼ mark in the novel, Goro is on his work assignment and has to deliver a scanner to his father’s department and decides to visit him despite not really being allowed to. During this visit he overhears something he shouldn’t that the SR are planning to destroy everything and everyone in the Backlands as they have been deemed non-essential to society. When they realise Goro is there they chase him down and he manages to escape with the help of Luc who is part of the Alliance Defence Force or ADF which are the rebellion against the SR. They remove his chip and wants his grandfather’s chip he wears around his neck claiming it is the key and tell him about some of the technology they have discovered but Goro doesn’t want to help them because he has family to look after and leaves. He ends up going to the Backlands where his family is as the SR come in and begin killing people. Josiah has run off to help others and buy them time and Goro obviously goes after him and has to watch the SR kill his brother. He tells the rest of his family to go home and wear Alex’s bracelets until he can arrange some help and returns to the ADF hideout. There he finds they have already collected Alex and Cory but he is still unsure what use he can be to them but now he wants to help bring down the SR for revenge.
As we approach the halfway mark in the novel, Goro has returned to the ADF hideout and they have taken him, Cory and Alex in to train them to be a part of the army they are amassing in order to take down the SR. Obviously Goro is completely on board with this after watching his brother get murdered but he can’t believe that his friend, Zan would join the SR after everything he had been put through by the SR and this might come back to bite Goro later on. In the early part of their training Cory has to be sent for medical attention after he has some complication from the beating the SR gave him but attitudes are changing quickly when they understand what has been taken from them and what is being offered to them. Goro becomes a lot harder and colder after his brother’s death but I think this is because he is in shock trying to process the death of his little brother and the situation he now finds himself in. Despite this he learns a lot about the ADF and how they get their information and how useful that information is but we the readers know the SR and its leader are aware of the resistance and are planning to completely destroy it before it can do any significant damage to them.
As we cross into the second half of the novel, the boys are moving through basic training and are beginning to see the benefits of it as they become faster and stronger but something seems different about Goro. This becomes even more intense when the connection between Goro, his grandfather and the ADF is revealed but there seems to be an atmosphere surrounding this reveal like there is more to it but that hasn’t been revealed to us yet. We also get a brief look at Zan within the SR and how he is planning on getting out as soon as he can while retaining his humanity but that might not be the case given what we have seen of the brutality of the SR. We also seem that the SR have narrowed down the location of the ADF to three places but the second in command seems to know exactly where they are and is planning a hit on them in his own time. Coupled with the intense training and drills they are running there also seems to be some hidden information on Goro’s grandfather’s chip with details about the inner lair which they haven’t been able to obtain until now making me think Goro’s introduction to the ADF might have been planned since he was born but we will have to wait and see for now.
As we approach the ¾ mark in the novel, Sovereignty doesn’t seem to be reading like a standalone but the opening to a series but from what I can see this is the only book the author has published. If this is the case then that is definitely going to impact my rating overall but I am enjoying the story. I felt around here the story was becoming rather rushed as Goro and Genesis take a romantic interest in each other but this is overshadowed by Goro’s rage when he finds out that the SR are actively hunting for their location and this information has been hidden from him. His rage intensifies when Zan is among the SR soldiers and he seems to have gone to the dark side but he is suffering. Zan ends up being beaten and killed and a video of this is sent to Goro basically asking for him to turn himself over to the SR. This is all because of his grandfather’s chip but the ADF have the information already but they decide now is the time to make their move even though they are unprepared but there is something bigger hiding underneath everything that we haven’t seen yet and I don’t think we will in the last 50 pages.
As we cross into the final section of the novel, we get to see the final battle begin and the set up for the sequel which I don’t think is going to come since it has been six years since this book was published and I am not holding out hope for the sequel. While this was an interesting dystopian SFF book it was lacking in world building and character development. I thought with a bit more time this could have been something amazing if it was a little more developed and the sequel preview we get at the end of the book sounded amazing but it isn’t to be. Honestly all this book needed was another 100 pages were the world could be expanded upon and explained properly and for more character development and it would have been a solid 4 star book but I can’t rate it higher than a 3 right now.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
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