A teen Science fiction action adventure in borrower scale. ‘Cities Will be Silent’ by Steven McCready is the start of The Shrinking World Series. To avoid an environmental apocalypse and the problems caused by human overpopulation, Tinificaton, a process where humans are shrunk and to smaller than an average pencil, has been invented. Soo and her daredevil stunts introduces us to the world of the Homo minimas through eyes filled with adventure and courage in the face of obstacles and danger. Meanwhile as we are introduced to Aiden, we discover the greater threat to the whole project, as he witnesses an attack on his father, the inventor of the minimising technology. When their paths meet, they both work together, with their animal counterparts, to track down the attackers and try to save the future of the project and the human race. Once nine centimetres tall, they face even more challenges in order to stop full sized adults from compromising Tinification. The plot and the idea of shrinking the world’s population to reduce the impact of humans is a unique concept. The characters seem well placed to uncover more about the working of the project. I enjoyed Aiden’s interaction with his monkey Bohol, their clashes over Bohol’s “lack of training” in contrast to Ardent and Soo’s seamless teamwork adds jeopardy but also humour. It would be great to have the ages of the two main characters confirmed, I think they are 15/16, but I did find myself looking for confirmation as I was reading. I think that there is plenty of scope to expand this story in future books. I would have liked to see the antagonist Arni’s story fleshed out a little more, we hear from him in the prologue two years before the main plot and then as he appears in the plot, but we don’t really learn what happens in between, what has made him so anti-tinification. Extra details to flesh out the NHSO I think would help to make them a more integrated and sinister antagonist.
Charlotte Walker, A LoveReading4Kids Ambassador
| Primary Genre | Indie Author Books |