Forget binge-watching. Louise Carey’s Inscape series is the binge-read series you need in your life.
Like all memorable reads, Louise Carey makes this post-apocalyptic nightmare a potential future for us all. The book lives up to its genre. Downfall is a thrilling read.
By creating characters that don’t conform, don’t disappoint, and stacked with their own agency, once hooked, Louise Carey’s writing doesn’t let go.
Downfall’s intense read picks up where Outcast left off. Intech’s program, Harlow 2.0 upload has obliterated society’s personality. Tanta and Cole prevented it from doing far worse, are on the run and must act quickly to save their friends. Their only protection from the update is to remain underground. Fliss is their way out of this problem. Her lack of implant makes her immune to Intech’s modification. This third installment opens with Fliss, the action starts as she acquires a vital part to Tanta and Cole’s new mission; reverse Harlow 2.0’s damage. Her secret mission sets the tension and pace for the rest of the book. The gruesome scenes and their underground lives portray desperate despair of those not lost to Harlow 2.0. The author dishes out hope in small, tantalising doses.
Carey writes Intech’s invasive technology in an accessible, understandable, and relatable way so as not to drop you from the bleak projection of a future world torn up by political manipulations and corperate ambition. Those who enjoy their sci-fi character driven will feel at home.
Despite all the grand-grimness of the Inscape trilogy world, it’s immersive and engaging as opposed to overwhelming. As events in unfold Downfall the focus expands beyond London, and we get to see settlements and the wider impact of Intech and the ruthless Thoughtfront’s, ambitions. The subplots of Tanta and Reet’s conflicts, and Thoughfront versus Intech are as satisfying as seeing the outcome of Tantra and Cole’s ordeal.
It’s always said that joining a series in book three isn’t advised, but the approach to balance backstory and pace is enough for a familiar genre reader to still savour and enjoy it. And, of course, go out and snap up the other Inscape novels.
Recomended
ISBN 9781473232761
Published by Gollancz
Available as: Paperback, Ebook, Audiobook.
Review copy courtesy of the publisher.
© 2023 Shellie Horst
