Dystopian fiction is one of my favourite genres, especially when the dark-world it creates feels like just a few bad choices away from our own. CGAS feels unbelievable at a surface level; of course, prisoners wouldn’t be forced to battle to the death on television, becoming celebrities in what’s billed as an extreme sport. Yet the longer the story goes on, the less crazy the idea is.  

The story is a multi-POV book, and the characters are all too familiar. Mixed with the ‘bad person does bad thing and ends up in jail’, there’s an innocent man who’s been wrongly imprisoned. There’s an abused child who snapped back at her tormentor. There’s the mentally ill man that makes bad choices when not given the support they need. For every ‘evil’ character in this book, there’s somebody who is a victim of circumstance, imprisoned by the consequences of a society that wasn’t there to help and protect them. As the characters talk and the story moves on, the author adds footnotes to the margins. Some are extra titbits about a character’s background, but others are facts, such as how the USA prison system is disproportionately filled with people are black, or poor, or from other disadvantaged backgrounds. These footnotes reference real-life miscarriages of justice that also occurred in the history of this world too. Suddenly, you realise you’re reading about very real-feeling people in this make-believe system. Suddenly, the same system that fails people in both worlds doesn’t feel so farfetched to physically exploit them for entertainment.  

I don’t think it’s the best written book in the world, and there was more opportunity to take the social commentary further here. The plot was a little muddled in places, but it kept me hooked all the way through it and I found myself invested in the fates of these people. If you want a Battle Royale for adults that makes you think - this could be the book for you. 

‘A Psalm for the Wild Built’ is told from the perspective of Dex, an ambiguous character whose role in society is to brew tea and be a friendly ear for the people they meet. In Dex’s world, robots, once widespread, gained sentence hundreds of years ago. Seeking their purpose, the robots asked to leave and live undisturbed. Humanity agreed, and gave robots half of the world that soon transformed into untouched wilds.

Dex, superficially happy but unsatisfied with life, decides to explore the wilds and make a pilgrimage to some ancient human ruins there. On their way they encounter Mosscap, the first robot humanity has encountered for centuries, who joins them on their pilgrimage. 

Despite what it may seem, this isn’t really a story about robots. It’s not a tale about a collapsed civilisation, or a book about a robot and a human learning to co-exist on a quest. Really, it’s about exploring how as individuals we measure the value in our lives through these characters. 

I’m in my mid-30s, and questions about the legacy I’m leaving and the impact I’ve had and will have, have been on my mind for a while now. So while the surface story was fine, it was the themes of the book that really resonated with me. I think anyone will enjoy this story, but if you’re someone who’s still questioning your place in the world, this book will resonate with you more like it has for me.