17/06/2017

Book review: The Barrier by Shankari Chandran

I got around to writing a Goodreads review for Shankari Chandran's new book. I actually really think she's found her groove with this fast paced fun style of writing and I can't wait for the next one. Speaking of writing, I'm going to try and put some thoughts down about what is going on for me at the moment, in terms of parenting, my divorce and also my time on prac (for my nursing studies I'm doing clinical practicum in an emergency department). Until I do though, you should totally read the barrier (Aussies can buy it easily in bookshops - Dymock's stocks it and others will get it in) The BarrierThe Barrier by Shankari Chandran
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Barrier is a far cry from Shankari Chandran's Sri Lankan debut novel Song of the Sun God (a family saga, set in Australia and Sri Lanka over several generations - the kind of book that wins literary awards).

The Barrier is a thriller set in a dystopian post-apocalyptic world, a world looking more and more like the present (I suspect the author wishes she was less prescient!). Travel between East and West is banned (a Muslim travel ban, written pre-Trump) and information and biotechnology are used as weapons. The author has created a future world order that lays bare the present day hypocrisies - the rhetoric of democracy, security, terrorism and the axis of evil have travelled from 9/11, down the decades to this novel's near future (2040) setting.

The Barrier asks big external questions about the world, but also some big internal questions. It explores what happens when there is head with no heart, thinking with no feeling and biotechnology becomes more important than people's souls.

With deadly diseases, warring between east and west, and a hero who has to question everything he thinks he knows, The Barrier is a page turner with brains and heart

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