VanWest The Past

This was a highliy enjoyable distopian novel! The setting is 3000 years after civilization as we know it ends, but with technological advances, our protagonist, VanWest travels through time from the 'present' which takes place in Antactica as the only part of Earth that is inhabitable above ground, to the past. He is torn betwen his loyalty to the Universal (the current government) and a rebel faction where he has personal ties linking to his erased past. The book has a lot of action sequences and it keeps moving at a brisk pace that is engaging. I wanted to know what would happen next and as the book ended, I am only disappointed that I have to wait to read the next one! The only detractors for the book are some proofreading errors, while the language is intended to be somewhat stilted and different, of a different time, I really wanted to edit parts of the book! An upside to the interesting choice of language is that this book is appropriate for young adult readers and has no traditional cursing or inappropriate content, aside from fighting scenes and violence. This was an interesting opener to a distopian series and I am looking forward to reading the next installment when it comes out!

As the many overwhelmingly positive, helpful reviews will tell you this is a very good read. A very solid scifi tale, which is the beginning a likely-to-be excellent series.

Thanks very much for the review copy!!

VanWest The Past, by Kenneth Thomas, is a dystopian scifi novel. In 3000, the battle between the haves and have-nots on Earth has become a divide between genetically enhanced, long-lived Elites and working Citizens.

Our hero, Captain VanWest, is a competitor in the worldwide war games, something between our real Olympics and a dark Hunger Games. If VanWest can succeed here, he'll join the Elites. I enjoyed the references to Roman myth here, and this battle allows readers to see VanWest's character.

Although we quickly come to admire VanWest's strength and discipline, it takes a while to see much of his emotions and internal thoughts. VanWest's challenges take him into the past, where we see his strength and quick-thinking again and again, and he's finally challenged to take a stand between obedience and rebellion.  Most importantly, by this point, I cared enough about VanWest to worry about him.

The worldbuilding highlights many familiar problems in our own world, and posits a dystopian outcome to these worries. All of today's worries about climate destruction and social inequality have intensified, creating a dark but believable future.  Since the story takes place hundreds of years in the future (well... VanWest timetravels, but the story begins far in the future), spoken English has undergone some changes. The characters in VanWest have their own slang, which adds to the worldbuilding whenever they speak.

Without revealing too much about the ending, I'll just say that a sequel is clearly coming.