3 out of 4 stars
Share This Review
The Last City of America
By Matthew Tysz
The Last City of America is a deeply disturbing novel of the fall of humanity into chaos. In the not so very distant future humanity has been devastated by a virus. The virus, created by a madman scientist intent on bringing suffering to the whole world, has run its course. The United States has fallen and in its place have risen the last Seven Cities of America. Each city has taken on independent governance, most leading to tyrannical systems of abuse and neglect. Chicago reigns as the city of horrors, ruled by a manic detached Host, lost in corruption, it's strings pulled by the very madman secretly responsible for the fall of civilization, and it's citizens, robots of despair.
Harold, the apprentice of the mad scientist, groomed to continue the work of bringing on humanity's suffering, finds himself pressed from his comfortable academic world of inhumane experimentation and research by the arrival of Grakus. Grakus, a particularly unusual man raised and cast out by one of the wild tribes living outside the cities, arrives in Chicago and brings about quick and bloody change, pushing towards an unknown agenda.
Morgan and Adam, two young men raised under the oppressive thumb of the city of Manhattan, begin their journey towards change. Angela, orphaned and raised by the tribal hunting mercenaries of the West, begins her journey of homecoming towards the East. Their paths, vastly different, leading towards each other and towards conflict, drag the remaining people of the country into war and death. Following these and many other lives, the tale spins into horror and hope as the Seven Cities of America position themselves to destroy one another.
Tysz's storytelling is profound. He digs deep into the human condition from so many angles that it is quite painful. His insights are disturbing and presented through his characters in detail. Their internal journeys of anger, despair, vengeance, and regret are fully expressed. Tysz's writing style is solid and his dialogue well done.
I enjoyed this book as a solid sci-fi read, but it is disturbing on many levels and was meant to be. Tysz's vision of a ruined humanity is engrossing and realistic, and I was drawn in, feeling the pure horror of a world grown desperate. His exploration of madness throughout the novel was so involved I found myself questioning the true nature of evil in man. He has a knack for taking the most revoltingly written characters and walking the reader through the steps of abuse and despair, exposing their madness and bringing home the fact that the monsters of man are indeed human. This is a book without heroes, it's characters are human, flawed, full of light and terror, kindness and callousness.
The only things I disliked about the book were the 'magic' elements and a slight lack of science type details. With such a deviation from 'normal world' operation based on scientific interference, I would have enjoyed more exploration of the process and results. Without more depth to the situation, the magic element felt like an add-on to get around character placement and interaction in specific scenes.
Overall I give The Last City of America a rating of 3 out of 4 stars. It is a thought-provoking novel, well written, with many memorable characters. I would recommend it to sci-fi and horror readers. I would NOT recommend it for younger or sensitive readers due to its graphic nature.
******
The Last City of America
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Like thaservices1's review? Post a comment saying so!
It is indeed an interesting novel, quite scary in many ways.
