Tuesday 27 March 2012

Review: Generation by William Knight (Blog Tour)

I am writing this review as part of a Novel Publicity book tour. The layout of this post will be slightly different from how I usually format my reviews to make it stand out from my regular posts. Make sure to check all the other awesome blogs in this tour out too, and read the Tour Notes below (you can win stuff!)

Review

Generation by William Knight
4 out of 5 stars

Published by Standing Hare
Review copy received as part of the tour

When I started reading Generation I was expecting full horror with a little bit of crime mystery. The first page did nothing to change those expectations; we begin with Patient SW0112 who feels how his own body is decomposing in graphic detail. I got quite a strong stomach for this kind of story; but I was very glad that this book is more than just three-hundred pages of gore.

Hendrix Harrison is a journalist for the Strange Phenomena magazine. When he gets sent to a small village to do research for a story, he comes across something way bigger than just a ghost sighting. There are bodies disappearing from a university facility, and it looks like they were used for testing genetic modification drugs by a pharmaceutical company. People are noticing that Hendrix is digging in stuff he isn't supposed to and some people are getting very, very annoyed.

When a book has an average rating of over four stars on Goodreads I get sceptical. It's impossible that everyone loves the same book, right? In the case of Generation I have to admit, this book is of a very professional standard. It's very well written with just the right amount of suspense, conspiracy, gruesomeness and science. I really liked how the virus that turns people into some kind of concious zombies was developed. Some authors take the easy way out and leave the details unexplained; Mr Knight on the other hand gives us a solid foundation so we can believe in his story.  

Generation is a very engaging book. Slowly you discover together with Hendrix what is going on at the university and the pharmaceutical company. For me personally it was too slow. I knew what was going on about halfway of the book, and the main characters took several agonizing chapters until they finally wanted to admit the "big secret". I did like the big conspiracy though, so I wasn't that annoyed. The characters were pretty lifelike and layered, but it turned out they just weren't people I very much liked. It's hard for me to identify with a single ex-military turned journalist. There was also a little romance that I didn't understand at all. I couldn't find any reason for them to be attracted to each other.

Luckily these were just minor problems and they didn't take away from my enjoyment of the book. I think a lot of lovers of thrillers will adore Generation. I would definitely recommend it, on the condition that you can handle a little bit of gore!

Novel Publicity Blog Tour Notes

> You can get your own copy of Generation on Amazon or Barnes & Noble

> Please vote for Nyx Book Reviews in the traffic-breaker poll for this tour. The blogger with the most votes wins a $50 Amazon gift card (which is totally awesome). You can vote in the poll by visiting the official Generation blog tour page and scrolling all the way to the bottom.

> Be sure to enter for your chance to win an autographed copy of Generation

Author Bio

William Knight is a British born journalist and technologist currently living and working in Wellington, New Zealand. He's chased a varying career starting in acting, progressing to music, enjoyed a brief flirtation with handbag manufacturing and was eventually wired into technology where he's been since 1989. In 2003 he published his first feature in Computing magazine and has since written about the many successes and failings of high-tech for the Guardian, Financial Times and the BBC among many others publications. He continues to maintain a lively IT consultancy. Connect with William on his website, blog, Facebook, Twitter or GoodReads.

14 comments:

Andrea Modolo said...

Sounds really interesting, I like the idea of the mix of horror and crime. It's good to hear that the author explains things for you. I haven't heard of this book but I'm interested to check it out. Great review!

Celine said...

Thanks Andrea! Yeah, it's two genres you don't see combined often, and it was very well done. It's a very good book, I definitely recommend it ^^

Ritesh Kala said...

Personally, I did not have a problem with the romance bit. I thought it was something that brought the two together to solve the mystery.

Celine said...

I found it a bit strange that an ambitious scientist falls in love with an ex soldier turned unsuccessful journalist. Maybe opposites attract. I wasn't really shocked by it, but it was just a little bit puzzling for me

Ashelynn @ Gypsy Book Reviews said...

oh, very interesting! Haven't heard of this book, but it SOUNDS very intriguing. May have to get my own copy. thanks for the review. :) 

Ashelynn @ Gypsy Book
Reviews.

Emlyn Chand said...

Awesome review, Celine. I love it when bloggers discuss pros and cons. It gives potential readers such a better idea of what to expect. Very well done! When you have a moment, would you kindly cross-post to Amazon and GoodReads?

Thank you for being a part of this tour,
Emlyn

William Knight said...

Hi Celine, I don't think anybody said anything about "love". More lust and comfort.

William Knight said...

Thanks very much for the review, Celine, and for taking part in the blog tour. I'm really pleased you enjoyed the read. 

I particularly liked this line: "Some authors take the easy way out and leave the details unexplained; Mr Knight on the other hand gives us a solid foundation so we can believe in his story."

I can't write about something unless I can believe it myself! 

Celine said...

Hmmm, you do have a point there

Celine said...

Hehe, thank you Emlyn! Yes, I already posted the review on Goodreads, but not yet on Amazon. I'm on it!

Thank you for hosting these awesome tours (:

Celine said...

Thanks William!

In some cases the story makes sense in the author's head, but not so much in ours because we don't get all the details. I'm very glad this wasn't the case with Generation. Thank you for sharing my review (:

Celine said...

Thanks for leaving a comment Ashelynn! If you do decide to pick Generation up, I hope you'll enjoy it ^^

kimba88 said...

This sounds very good, I love this type of book and had not heard of it, so thank you for sharing it and your lovely review. 

Celine said...

Aww, thank you Kimba! (:

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