Yzabel / October 3, 2012

The Tube Riders by Chris Ward

My rating: [rating=4]

Summary:

Mega Britain in 2075 is a dangerous place. A man known only as the Governor rules the country with an iron hand, but within the towering perimeter walls of London Greater Urban Area anarchy spreads unchecked through the streets.

In the abandoned London Underground station of St. Cannerwells, a group of misfits calling themselves the Tube Riders seek to forget the chaos by playing a dangerous game with trains. Marta is their leader, a girl haunted by her brother’s disappearance. Of the others, Paul lives only to protect his little brother Owen, while Simon is trying to hold on to his relationship with Jess, daughter of a government official. Guarding them all is Switch, a man with a flickering eye and a faster knife, who cares only about preserving the legacy of the Tube Riders. Together, they are family.

Everything changes the day they are attacked by a rival gang. While escaping, they witness an event that could bring war down on Mega Britain. Suddenly they are fleeing for their lives, pursued not only by their rivals, but by the brutal Department of Civil Affairs, government killing machines known as Huntsmen, and finally by the inhuman Governor himself.

Review:

(Book provided by the author through ARR #534 in the Making Connections group, in exchange for an honest review.)

A long book packed with action and events, for sure, and one that I had a hard time putting down whenever I had to.

First, the theme. A book about young people riding trains, barely hanging onto them with tiny boards, and using them first for games, then to escape and run for their lives. In Tube stations and tunnels. In the hands of a reader who’s been known to ride the London Tube and explore corridors and stairwells there just for fun. Awesome. Also, I think the author did a good job depicting his world. Granted, there were a few points on which my suspension of disbelief was somewhat stretched at times (some of the experiments, and a couple of plot junctures). But Chris Ward quickly falls back on his feet, giving us explanations about Mega Britain’s shortcomings, that make it more understandable why a group of fugitives manages to outsmart officials for some time. If anything, I would’ve liked to know a little more about how exactly that country and government came to be; on the other hand, the books is already quite long, and this probably isn’t absolutely essential in order to enjoy it (it’s just me being curious).

The characters portrayed throughout the story were all heroic in their own ways, while remaining very humane, with both merits and flaws. Among the heroes, I especially liked the street-savvy Switch, always so resourceful, and Jess, who had to wade through so much grief and try to find her own answers. And I really wasn’t happy about seeing Simon go… but with such unjuries as he sustained, at best he’d have had to be ‘left behind’ to heal, so from the moment it happened, I kind of suspected what would happen… The villains themselves had humane sides and redeeming points, in spite of their vices; the Huntsmen were clearly victims before being monsters, and Dreggo herself had a vulnerable side and a very hard past that made her anger and resentment all the more understandable. For sure, she was a resilient and interesting adversary.

I’m still hesitant about the ending, to be honest: I can’t decide whether I’d like to see a sequel or not. So much may still happen—the Bristol guys, the person left on the beach at the very end…—yet at the same time, the story still feels self-contained no matter what. It’s hard to tell.