By the Feet of Men
by Grant Price
Publication date: September 2019
Genres: Science Fiction, Adventure, Dystopian
Synopsis:
WANTED: Men and women willing to drive through the valley of the shadow of death.
The world’s population has been decimated by the Change, a chain reaction of events triggered by global warming. In Europe, governments have fallen, cities have crumbled and the wheels of production have ground to a halt. The Alps region, containing most of the continent’s remaining fresh water, has become a closed state with heavily fortified borders. Survivors cling on by trading through the Runners, truck drivers who deliver cargo and take a percentage. Amid the ruins of central Germany, two Runners, Cassady and Ghazi, are called on to deliver medical supplies to a research base deep in the Italian desert, where scientists claim to be building a machine that could reverse the effects of the Change. Joining the pair are a ragtag collection of drivers, all of whom have something to prove. Standing in their way are starving nomads, crumbling cities, hostile weather and a rogue state hell-bent on the convoy’s destruction. And there’s another problem: Cassady is close to losing his nerve.
Review:
- I received a copy of this book from the author.
I accepted this book partly because I love dystopian fiction and partly because I have a truck driver for a husband. It took me a while to get to it because I have this HUGE, I mean TOWERING TBR pile.
By The Feet of Men is a fast paced novel that still finds the time for deep character moments.
I really enjoyed the main characters Ghazi and Cass. Although there were times that I couldn’t quite get what Ghazi was thinking. Or why he seemed to jump from one thing to another… although by the end he seemed to have evened out. Cass however was really well written, you could feel his seams ripping out, you feared that he was a breath away from losing it all together. The tension in him was palpable.
The post-climate-apocalyptic setting is one that’s setup to appeal to current audiences, and seems to be an “in” trend these days. This was usually handled pretty well in the book, but there were sometimes it was just too much. A little too much hit-you-over-the-head, guilt-tripping exposition. At other times you could really feel like the setting and history were really plausible.
Sidenote: I always try to pick ironic bookmarks and for By The Feet of Men I used one of our American Agri-Women Women Heros of Science and Technology bookmarks. It felt absolutely perfect to have Hope Hart, the leader of the molecular characterization team at Sygenta, with me every time I picked up the book.
Late in the book you get to hear the backstory of a character who lived through the collapse, and man that was emotional and well done and believable.
The big thing that kept this book from receiving my highest rating is that it goes on for a little too long. The team gets hit again, and again, and again, and by the end I felt a little fatigue from it all.
Bottom Line:
A solid post-apocalyptic, dystopian science fiction novel. It’s one I enjoyed even if it went on a little too long.
Goodreads / Amazon
P.S. Every blog comment between now and Valentines Day (Feb 14th) will get you one entry into a giveaway of a kindle copy of A Bad Breed by Kat Ross. A darkly magical reimagining of Beauty and the Beast. Giveaway is International, so long as you can receive a link to redeem a Kindle book from Amazon.
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