Published: June 17, 2011
Words: 69,950 (approximate)
Language: English
ISBN: 9781458018823

Short description

Meet Kego O'grady. He is the bastard son of a god like virus, although that is the least of his worries as the Munich Virus has wiped out humanity. This science fiction book will make you question many of the foundations that have evolved around us all. it is illuminating, frightening and occasionally very funny.

Extended description

A superbly dark, funny and entertaining romp through the universe with the last survivor of a viral epidemic as our guide and an un-named virus as our narrator. This story begins with the Munich Virus, which wipes out every known population of humanity across the universe, leaving Kego, our schizophrenic nine year old navigator, to fend for himself and return to Earth with the Frozen, those who were lucky enough to be in stasis when the virus struck. We follow Kego on his journey through the cosmos as he stears the Solstice back to Earth to re-establish the human race.

Narrated by an unknown and un-named virus of indefinate age, wisdom and sarcasm who gives his somewhat unusual yet strangely enlightening views on Kego's, and utlimately humanity's, journey, as obstacles are met, faced and hurdled, this is more than just a story. It is a romp through the history of mankind as viewed by one who has not been subject to 'civilised' influences and has gained his knowledge through The His.. (Read more) A superbly dark, funny and entertaining romp through the universe with the last survivor of a viral epidemic as our guide and an un-named virus as our narrator. This story begins with the Munich Virus, which wipes out every known population of humanity across the universe, leaving Kego, our schizophrenic nine year old navigator, to fend for himself and return to Earth with the Frozen, those who were lucky enough to be in stasis when the virus struck. We follow Kego on his journey through the cosmos as he stears the Solstice back to Earth to re-establish the human race.

Narrated by an unknown and un-named virus of indefinate age, wisdom and sarcasm who gives his somewhat unusual yet strangely enlightening views on Kego's, and utlimately humanity's, journey, as obstacles are met, faced and hurdled, this is more than just a story. It is a romp through the history of mankind as viewed by one who has not been subject to 'civilised' influences and has gained his knowledge through The History itself and by another who was there as an outsider looking in.

Somehow this book manages to cover every subject from religion to politics, using life, death, peace, war, love, hate and humanity as its stepping stones, without burying the story or bombarding the reader with endless details. Instead Merrick has created a post apocalyptic science fiction tale set in a future that seems possible even today, that will make you both laugh and cry, feel compassion for each and every character at some point while hating them in the next and leaving you wanting more when you reach the end.

The review above is reproduced courtesy of Sams Reviews at goodreads.com
(Less)

Adult-content rating: This book contains content considered unsuitable for young readers 17 and under, and which may be offensive to some readers of all ages. For more information, see the Support FAQ.

Tags

love, death, family, journey, space opera, science fiction, redemption, grief, atheism, stars, quantum, space travel, salvation, starlight, survivor, virus, survival, dna, humanism, beyond, extinction human pandemic, science fantasy, science of mind, science ficiton, science and technology, rna, love and sex, survival against all odds, science and religion, science and atheism, atheism and religion, atheism freethinker secularism humanism christianity islam religion reason, love human and divine making sense of the world, love and adventure, science fiction ebook, virus outbreak, steve merrick, kego ogrady, balad, double helix

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Reviews

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Review by: Steph Bennion on April 01, 2012 :
This is a very interesting read, full of ideas and with a highly-unusual narrator figure to provide a god-like point of view. Other reviews have outlined the story so I won't go into details, but the tale was refreshingly different and the main character Kego was imagined well. Some of the humour was a bit hit and miss (the 'comical' names of some of the people mentioned didn't fit well with the general style) and it did often seem as if the robots had more personalty than the humans - though I accept the author did deliberately play on this theme at times. If this had been properly edited, polished and proofed I would not have hesitated to give it a solid four stars; unfortunately it isn't, so I can't. Having said that, the story and the philosophies within were strong enough to keep me reading despite the distracting typos, so credit where it's due.
(reviewed within a month of purchase)

Review by: Ecowitch on March 05, 2012 :
A superbly dark, funny and entertaining romp through the universe with the last survivor of a viral epidemic as our guide and an un-named virus as our narrator. This story begins with the Munich Virus, which wipes out every known population of humanity across the universe, leaving Kego, our schizophrenic nine year old navigator, to fend for himself and return to Earth with the Frozen, those who were lucky enough to be in stasis when the virus struck. We follow Kego on his journey through the cosmos as he stears the Solstice back to Earth to re-establish the human race.

Narrated by an unknown and un-named virus of indefinate age, wisdom and sarcasm who gives his somewhat unusual yet strangely enlightening views on Kego's, and utlimately humanity's, journey, as obstacles are met, faced and hurdled, this is more than just a story. It is a romp through the history of mankind as viewed by one who has not been subject to 'civilised' influences and has gained his knowledge through The History itself and by another who was there as an outsider looking in.

Somehow this book manages to cover every subject from religion to politics, using life, death, peace, war, love, hate and humanity as its stepping stones, without burying the story or bombarding the reader with endless details. Instead Merrick has created a post apocalyptic science fiction tale set in a future that seems possible even today, that will make you both laugh and cry, feel compassion for each and every character at some point while hating them in the next and leaving you wanting more when you reach the end
(reviewed the day of purchase)

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