Let Ray Porter tell you a story...

I really liked this story and I had no problem following the action-packed story lines... Initially, we learn about Thomas Hanston, Hero, genius, and martyr... and in alternate chapter's, we find Colin Hanston his son trying to cope with the world, and his father legacy. A legacy of legalized slavery, of a dystopic society run by the Authority! You'll wanna grab the book, and let Ray Porter tell you a story!

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

Don't question Authority

Didn't know what to expect though I'm pleasantly surprised. Taking place in the near future, the tech was something I could actually buy into with all the talk of robots and androids in the news. These neons could be appealing to some—terrifying to others. This is probably one of my favorite books this year.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

9 people found this helpful

A dystopian world that keeps you hooked

I really enjoyed Authority. It kept me interested to finish much faster than I do many books. It reminded me of Brave New world. The book follows two time periods, the alien invasion and aftermath, and the future dystopian society. What I really liked is it went through a progression showing how good intentions can be subverted. Authority is a great book that challenges the reader and I highly recommend it.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

Great all around!

I really enjoyed this book. Great book and the best narrator! I highly recommend it.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

Authority by A. K. Meek

The story holds your interest from beginning to end. I enjoyed the twists and lead changes. I would have liked to have seen more character development in the past scenes but not necessarily for the storyline. I would enjoy more books in the universe of grown slaves. I would recommend this book to read.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

Humanity rebuilds after an alien invasion!

In 2035, aliens invade Earth’s solar system and destroyed city after city with its deadly energy beams. The world tried in a desperate, last-ditch effort to destroy the invaders and succeeded but at a high cost. A decimated Earth did its best to recover in the aftermath. With limited resources and a population reduced by half, how will humanity rebuild?

Professor Thomas Hanston, a scientist, comes up with the idea of taking unwanted human fetuses and enslaving them with his invention called the chemi-chip. By doing so, he creates a slave race called neons meant to be docile and follow instructions. With this new labor force, humanity ekes out an existence and civilization attempts to recover.

In 2060, Colin Hanston, son of Thomas, and his wife Spring adopt a neon for the first time for help on their farm. Thomas is morally opposed to the idea but reluctantly agrees with his wife to get one, whose name is Michael. But when Colin discovers the history of his father’s neon program and Colin’s secret connection to it, he embarks on a dangerous journey with his allies to destroy it once and for all!

Professor Ives, director of the Workman Program which makes neons, which Thomas created at the Next New Hoover University, is working with the Authority government against such a movement and is trying to destroy this abolitionist movement. But Colin is determined and is working to free neons from their enslavement and that means bringing down Ives.

But doing so puts his life and those he cares about on the line. Up against a society that needs neons to rebuild, he faces the incredible odds of Ives and his forces as he also confronts his family legacy. Will he achieve his goals or will he lose his life in the process?

This novel has two different storylines going on. The first one starts in the year 2035 and the subsequent years after that. It follows the alien invasion and humanity’s attempts to stop it too. After that, it follows Earth’s attempts to rebuild and the development of the Workman program by Thomas Hanston. It also details how Ives took over the program and twisted it to his ends.

The second storyline follows Colin’s life in 2060, how neons have changed the world and how he joins up with the abolitionist movement to help free neons from servitude. The two storylines mesh with one another throughout the novel. As a result, we see one storyline inform the other and come together in surprising and shocking ways.

The mystery surrounding Thomas’ death, the creation of neons as a lower caste of slaves in society and the secrets that Thomas left behind for his son to discover and utilize are just some of the fascinating ideas to be found here. How Ives perverted the Workman Program and the original vision Thomas had for it makes for an interesting dichotomy. It also makes Ives an evil bad guy who has many skeletons in his closet and you just hate him with every fiber of your being.

The alien invasion storyline in 2035 is exciting and horrifying as aliens wipe out half of Earth’s population, making for thrilling, pulse-pounding reading. Colin’s storyline is much more of a slow burn in comparison, as it has the job of illustrating society in 2060, building this world up and demonstrating how neons are now an integral part of this dystopian society. It does so thoughtfully, like with the development of Vellum, which is low powered electronic paper. It also uses this time to do character building on the part of Colin and his eventual abolitionist allies.

As Colin wakes up to what the neons represent and his family’s legacy in creating them, his role and that of his family take on much more significance. It builds up and then hits high gear as the abolitionists take on a much more active role in the plot and Ives tries to track them down. As they try to free a couple of neons from their servitude, their work will have important ramifications for the rest of the novel.

There is one massive twist that I would not have foreseen at a crucial part of the novel. This twist is so pivotal and so unexpected that it left my jaw agape as it played out. I was wondering how the novel would continue after that, but it expertly used this moment as a way to push the novel into its final and action-packed finale. It also gave other characters to come to the forefront and give them more active roles in the novel than they had before.

The use of neons is an innovative one, growing fetuses and using conditioning to accelerate their growth and development. I’ve read much science fiction over the years and this one is a common idea, the ideas of humans being slaves. However, their use here is refreshing and different than what I’m used to, which is one of the many things I enjoyed about this novel.

The different applications for neons, from construction, menial labor, farming and more is also an interesting one. The way society is impacted by their presence in society is also engrossing and skillfully integrated into the novel. Especially since they are being bred with red-tinted skin, which makes them stand out in a crowd. There are also darker implications for neons as well. With their enhanced strength and agility, they also make for scary soldiers with no moral compunctions about taking lives.

What happens when two neons are freed from their enslavement by abolitionists and what happens to them after that is startling as well. Both of them take divergent paths and their exploration of their emotions makes them both beings to be pitied and to be sympathetic towards. But they are also terrifying in their desire for revenge against Ives and the Workman Program.

Thomas’ original vision for the Workman Program, how Ives has warped it and the ethics of doing so are also emotionally explored, not just by newly freed neons, but by the abolitionists as well. It presents a look at both sides of neons, both as a necessary evil in a society starved of resources and as an example of how society at large will do whatever it takes without considering the morality of doing so.

In the process, it also demonstrates how far society has fallen in the wake of being decimated and doing what it takes to survive. On a deeper level, it’s also a narrative that explores themes of authority versus rebellion, science against nature, technology against natural development and slavery versus freedom.

Ray Porter, the audiobook narrator, does an excellent job with this novel. He’s quickly becoming one of my favorite narrators with the talent and skill he displays here. His voice conveys a certain gravitas with each character he gives a distinctive sound to. With one character, he makes it sound like a perfect impression of television/movie actor John Goodman to me. The pacing and flow of his narration only make the story that much more compelling and enhances the novel that much more.

Having read the majority of this author’s stories in the past, I can tell you that this his most ambitious novel to date. He excels at creating intriguing universes, interesting situations and examining the human condition through the lens of robots. With this, he uses his storytelling style, previously used in other stories to talk about different aspects of robots and then admirably uses those skills that to look at neons, essentially human robots, and how they operate. He also uses those differences to splendidly explore how society’s future depends on them.

All these different ideas and characters are expertly woven together into an imaginative novel filled with clever plotting, family legacy thought-provoking ideas and terrific storytelling. This is one of the author's best stories to date, brought to life with bold ideas, refreshing takes on common sci-fi tropes and a strong, well-written style.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

Authority Was Fascinating

I’ve been jumping into books sight unseen more than I usually do. I only “judge” them by their cover. I like seeing if the cover matches the story at all (or gives me the right “vibe“). This one gave me a little bit of what the story was going to be about – but at first glance it looks a little bit like aliens (the red hue) (which is ironic due to a major plot point I didn’t see coming). What I didn’t expect was basically three different and distinct stories.

The first story is of the invasion – that one totally surprised me. I’m sure if I’d read the synopsis I wouldn’t have been as thrown off by this. But the beginning of the story sets the entire story up as a dystopian future. We don’t really learn too much about the main dystopian-like “Authority” as much – but we do know of them.

The second story is one of learning new things, both about the world and yourself. This story featured one of the few main characters (the son of the inventor of the main technology being used in the story). His story arc was (maybe a slight spoiler, sorry) – was a bit shorter than I expected. I actually thought it was a gutsy move.

The final story was one of what to do with new found freedoms. It has a nice back and forth of different viewpoints and allows for some really interesting introspective looks as well. It’s really hard to write about the final section of the book because it’s all one big spoiler, but know that you’re in for an interesting sprint to the finish.

Now, saying all of that – it’s not like it’s three distinct short stories or anything. It is one main book, but these three different parts all fit into the larger arc of the story pretty nicely.

I don’t always read reviews before writing mine, but this one I was up in the air about a few things and wanted to see what others thought. The main points that I saw from others was that they didn’t seem to like that it was a really interesting beginning and then fell a bit short at the end. I disagree with this, mainly due to the fact that I was able to pick out three distinct stories (that all form one major story arc). Where the first and second story, as mentioned above) were a really interesting dystopian introduction – the final stretch of the book was sort of a revenge story meets a “what does it mean to be alive” narrative. I thought it was really well done and brought home the message of the entire book.

Well, if you’ve made it this far I’ll reward you a bit. Authority reminded me a bit of old school dystopians like 1984 and especially Brave New World. But it also had the feel of a few other newer sci-fi stories. Especially, The Island (in my opinion Michael Bay’s best movie) and a little bit of some others that I cannot, at the moment, nail down. It was an interesting book that I really enjoyed. One that I felt like was going to lose its way a few times – only to come back stronger.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

So much potential but just felt hollow.

let me start y saying as always Ray Porter was amazing and probably the only reason I kept going past the 3/4 mark.

This book had SO MUCH potential and started off with everything I like in a book as a scifi geek. Unfortunately the last quarter of the book and the ending just seemed really hollow like the author stopped trying.

have you ever read/listened to a book and half way through you just feel like they are setting it up for a series and then the book just abruptly ends and your left feeling unsatisfied? That's this book unfortunately!

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Good buy

Good story
Characters were believable
Seams like alot went unexplained
The world was supposedly in the position due to an alien attack but you never get the story on the aliens or how the war went besides knowing that humans won. Could have just left alien avenue out of the story and stayed with a post apoplyptic story

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Really Great SciFi

I really enjoyed this story. It was very unique especially for a scifi. It had clear messages and the writing was very meaningful. Multiple story lines that are all meaningful and bring life to this dystopian future. I highly recommend this book.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful