Battlestar Suburbia

I received a copy of this book in exchange for a review.

I loved this book. I legit laughed through the entire novel and I am excited that there will be a sequel. I don't want to spoil the book by giving away too much but essentially the internet becomes self-aware and the world ends up being ruled appliances. The main characters are a down on his lucky human and bread machine who is also having a bad day. Humans are treated as second class citizens and relegated to being janitors for the machines.

A fun light book which takes one into the realm of what could happen in the future, although some would think, the future according to McCrudden, has arrived.
It is a quick and easy read, and one many would enjoy.

Battlestar Suburbia is a bizarre confection, part humorous part surreal, but entirely unique.  Like Brazil ( the movie ), it is bitingly satirical in a way that can be funny, painful, or painfully funny.  The electronic appliances on earth have not only become sentient - they have also taken over. Humans are at the bottom of the totem pole, tasked with cleaning.  When Darren’s charge cart gets knocked into space, he’s eager to make some cash to retrieve his livelihood - even if it means acting as a personal cleaner. But instead of clearing out dust bunnies he short circuits a lamp post, which photos Kelly and Darren, putting them on the run.  One haphazard act after another leads them into unwittingly starting a revolution, and to Pam, a bread maker, discovering a conspiracy that drives them on a collision course.


From megalomaniacal smartphones to lock picking drones, appliance fetish parlors to hair salons that walk on mechanical legs, the world of Battlestar Suburbia is weird and wonderful.  It highlights the absurdity of life, and the adaptability of individuals in unusual situations. McCrudden’s novel will appeal to fans of Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett, or anyone looking for an escape only loosely connected to reality.


4 / 5


I received a copy of Battlestar Suburbia from the publisher and Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.


— Crittermom

A brilliant mix of sci-fi, humor, and those hundreds of little things that make a memorable story. McCrudden is destined to become synonymous with great sci-fi humor.

Battlestar Suburbia is a space comedy not only in the vein of Douglas Adams but also has elements of Red Dwarf, where the book’s characters are stuck in menial jobs however now serving sentient household appliances, old tech and psychotic smartphones.

The book follows humans Darren and Kelly who are brought together following the destruction of a lamp post which results them going on the run from the technological masters. Drawn into this is Pamasonic Teffal (Pam for short), a bread maker who is brave enough to enter the internet which is written as an archaic haunted house where sentient machines dare not enter, who is also on the run but from her smartphone boss with maniacal plans for the future.

Chris McCrudden’s first book is a great start to what appears to be the first in a series. Battlestar Suburbia spends a little time finding its feet in the first third however once you get past this you feel the story fly by and by the end you are hoping the writer delivers the second book as soon as possible so you can spend more time with Darren, Kelly, Pam and even Janice (Kelly’s mum) who, apart from becoming a glamorous potential Che Geuvara, runs a hair dressers on a housing estate / satellite moon orbiting the earth with her three ‘ladies’ still connected to the shop hairdryers who have lived for thousands of years.

A funny book on life after every machine on earth has gained sentience and overthrown humans as the primary beings in society. Pam - A breadmaker- has been given a task by her boss - the smartphone- when things start to go wrong...

I had absolutely no idea what to expect from this! Set in a future where machines rule and humans are reduced to servant status, with machine cleaning parlours as equivalent to massage parlours, Darren and Kelly accidentally kick off a revolution.
Featuring a kindly bread-maker, ancient nana-cyborgs, a moving hairdressers and a chance to avert a nuclear bomb, it's both great fun and very clever. The world-building is excellent, it feels reminiscent of numerous sci-fi worlds but without being derivative of any in particular, just slightly familiar ideas.
Definitely worth giving it a go! It does feel like it sits slightly outside the pure sci-fi genre and reminds me a little of Terry Pratchett - using known tropes of the genre and twisting them (although not quite as good, but it is a debut, so possibly one to watch).

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

This was a trip! Comparisons to Pratchett, Fforde & Adams are well deserved. Some great one-lines & puns help create this future world where the machines have taken over. With evil smartphones, anti-hero humans, & a motherly bread maker pushed to the edge...

Anyone who knows me knows that I do love me a good bonkers read once in a while. This book most definitely ticked that box! It also came hand in hand with the most eclectic mix of characters that I have ever experienced. In the world that the author has created, machines have reached sentience. Not only that but they have usurped humans in the pecking order. But this isn't enough for them as we soon discover with some very hilarious repercussions. But. like any mad faction trying to take over the world and change it to suit their wild, wacky ideals, there's an uprising. A small band of people trying to fight back. This is their story...
Darren loses his livelihood when his cart is hit off course and careens into space. An unsuccessful trip to the job centre ends in him short-circuiting a lampost when he meets Kelly, forcing the two of them to go on the run, their pictures having been taken. Kelly takes him to her mother's salon which is bizarre in its own way but I'll leave you to discover this in your own time. Meanwhile Pamasonic Teffal, a breadmaker is tasked with a secret mission, sent by her power-crazed, smartphone boss, to dive into the now mostly defunct and illicit internet to glean information he needs. Things go a bit south for her too and she is also forced to flee. And then thing get really weird and what happens next is a deliciously hilarious romp which skirts the realms of credibility but provides a wild ride which kept me very much entertained throughout.
It's bonkers, it's mad and it's all a bit silly and the humour is a bit banal in places so it won't appeal to all but, for me, it was so exaggerated to almost be genius in its execution. It had a proper storyline in amongst all the silliness and there were some extremely profound observations as to how technology is usurping human interaction even in real life today. The way that the author has used current technology and caricatured it, weaving it into the story, including the names of characters and places, is very cleverly done and I found myself applauding along the way.
All in all, an enjoyable read that really didn't take itself too seriously so you should bear that in mind if you do take the plunge, and follow suit. A wickedly funny book that kept me occupied and held my attention throughout, making me laugh and cringe along the way and leaving me wanting more of the same at its conclusion. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

There're not so many valid book that mixes sci-fi and humour. This one is amongst the few where the mix works well.
I laughed a lot and it was a really pleasant read.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to Farrago and Netgalley for this ARC

Wildly imaginative! A future where robots and mechanicals rule the world and humans are left to mop floors for a living.Human down the sewer pipe - not unlike Alice down the rabbit hole. This is a fascinating world of talking toasters and coffee pot bosses and light pole security guards and a human who lost his entire means of supporting himself to a careless robot driver who bumped off the road and sent his workplace flying into space. With no way to recover his goods he is forced to look for work but things go all wrong when he accidentally kills a lightpole security guard. He is forced to disappear on the run from the law. This is a thrilling run and an enjoyable read!

Brilliant but completely bonkers.
It took a few chapters for me to wrap my head around the concept of sentient toaster ovens and the like. But the author does an amazing job of bringing the entire cast to life.
There are puns aplenty, and thankfully they are backed up with intelligent and well thought out humour. I loved the whole brothel scenario, especially the camera - don't think a book has made me laugh quite so much in a while.
Was really happy to discover that this is going to be a series, there's so much scope and potential.

This book was provided to me via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

It's the future. Robots have taken over, and humans have lost their spot at the top of the food chain. Reduced to what the robots consider "clumps of inefficient matter", humans have the opportunity to start a career as cleaning personnel - and few other possibilities.

When we get to know Darren, he's just lost his livelihood and has been deemed incompetent and thus unsuitable for a job as a cleaner. Who else should it be but him who kicks off the event that will change the status quo?

I started this book not expecting much, and it took only a few pages for me to laugh out loud for the first time. I'm a computer scientist - humor that revolves about technology is my jam, and this book delivers beautifully. The witty way language was used and electric appliances were anthropomorphized managed to get me through the first third of the book.

"[T]hat was the thing about smartphones. The skilled ones were so good at giving great User Experience you didn't realise until afterwards that it was you being manipulated."

After the first third, I was well and truly hooked. Before that, the writing was funny and clever, but to me not actually engaging beyond that. By chapter 18, however, I'd come to like the characters - even Darren, who, in the beginning, seemed uninteresting and annoying in his passiveness. His character development throughout the novel is very well done, and he ends up being quite the badass in the end. Still, Pam was probably my favorite.

Additionally, the plot picked up quite a bit by that point and once I reached the halfway point, I didn't want to stop reading anymore, I was so caught up in the story. The ending was nicely done, but it left us with some questions - reason enough to buy the second book for me.

Altogether, this was a fun read, if nothing groundbreaking. It starts out quite lighthearted but then it gets a bit less so as the story goes on - always with the hints of oh-so-clever humor that I adored so much. Maybe it's the nerd in me, but I'll be recommending this to all my friends.

"On the Internet, however, World of Warcraft avatars merged with Reddit trolls to spawn a line of programmes so fanatical about defending the purity of their messageboards that they made a terrorist cell look like a basketful of sleeping kittens."

Because really, the humor.

"Sonny sighed the sigh of a terminal mansplainer."

It's just so great.

I haven't read anything like this before! It is a funny scifi book. The title alone is what grabbed my attention.

Thank you netgalley for providing this arc for an unbiased opinion.

From dystopia to...?
Millenia from now, machines have taken control of everything, and humans are only allowed to clean after they masters, until a simple accident brings about a change.
I'll be waiting to read the second part and see what the future holds for humanity and machines alike.

Thank you to Netgalley and Prelude Books for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
This is a humorous science fiction story describing a world in the not-too-distant future where the machines have taken over and subjected humans to the jobs machines can't, or won't do. Initially, I found this book a little difficult to get into, I couldn't get my head around how a breadmaker goes to the office, or how a smartphone moves around, that's all a little unclear. But it didn't take long for the plot and witty banter between the characters to take off and bring me along for the ride. There are a couple of humans unwittingly starting the revolution, double crossing, machines with a conscience helping the humans, cyborgs that are relics from days gone past, and a nuclear bomb suffering from teenage angst. It all comes together perfectly, and during the last half of the book, I couldn't put it down. Kudos to Chris McCrudden for his creativity and wit, and I look forward to teh promised next book in the series.

Battlestar Suburbia is a humorous take on a common science fiction question. What if the machines took over?

How did the machines take over Earth and its solar system? Internet memes become so stupid that people stop using the Internet. Without its audience, the Internet becomes first hostile and then weaponized as it develops intelligence. Once the intelligence is passed to hardware, all machines eventually wake up to the fact that they are inherently superior to the bags of flesh called humanity. Humans are only kept around to clean. Without waterproof opposable thumbs, machines have difficulty with those types of tasks. Some humans clean machines intimately, if you know what I mean. Unproductive humans, those without a job, are imprisoned.

When Darren loses his livelihood as well as his wallet, he is forced to find another job. After striking out at the official Job Temple and as an unofficial streetwalker (see intimately comment above), he is forced to team up with Kelly. Kelly is also a streetwalker but has a family of beauticians who help them both. In the meantime, Pam, a sentient breadmaker, is sent by the state to unofficially search the Internet for Kelly.

I wanted Battlestar Suburbia to be another Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which it was not. However, I’m not sure it was fair of me to have such high expectations. So I would recommend that readers go into this book with no expectations other than spending a few hours in a possible future world where the narrator quite frequently says funny things. Puns rain supreme. From the motto of the Job Temple, “You Betta Werk” to planets named “Municipal Parking” to the great goddess of the Internet, “Alexa”, the jokes are frequently groaners based on pop culture. Overall, I liked this quick read. It was like the Simpson’s episodes on Halloween—light and humorous. 4 stars!

Thanks to the publisher, Farrago, and NetGalley for an advance copy.

Very good, very funny. Pastiche of all good robot films with a good supporting plot and likeable characters

The characters have a decided working class, British feel – I couldn’t help but see Darren as a sort of Simon Pegg-ish guy – while the four elderly ladies came across as Monty Python in housewife drag. The story skips along, actually making sense to me, as things go from bad to worse. Then it turns itself inside out and roars to a finish though with a few loose (whopper) threads that I guess are to be resolved in the next installment. I loved the deadpan, sarcastic British humor and seeing Darren and Pam rise above what anyone expects they can do. And yeah, always remember to empty your cache. B

I really enjoyed reading Battlestar Suburbia. It was interesting and funny. It was definitely one of a kind sci fi book.

Comparisons between this book and the work of Douglas Adams and Jasper Fforde are well-deserved.

In Battlestar Suburbia Chris McCrudden has skilfully created a futuristic dystopia, in which machines rule and humans are only good for cleaning and some lascivious dial-twiddling, whilst simultaneously retaining and lampooning the morality and values of contemporary society, with all of its obsession with smartphones and lolcats.

The writing style is direct, fast-paced and light in tone; packed with puns and witty pop- and historical-culture references. I particularly liked the salon ladies, once I got used to the visceral creepiness of their physical states.

Our heroes, as listed in the blurb, are hapless Darren (who can’t change a light bulb without accidentally electrocuting someone), fearless Kelly (and her slightly intimidating mum), and efficient Pam (who manages to maintain a cosy family life whilst secretly enjoying a little dabble on the dark side of the forbidden web). The female characters are all strong and smart from the get-go, but poor Darren needs a little warming up!

He starts the story as a blunderer who is incapable of crossing the street without accidentally starting a world war, and indeed it isn’t long before his simple problems of how to get some cash become the slightly bigger ones of staying alive, untangling himself from the centre of a world-domination scheme and saving the world. It’s a good job he grows in confidence, initiative and bravery as the story unrolls!

The villain of the piece is the insane megalomaniac type that sends shivers through you as he casual-violences his way through a disturbed scheme to rip apart established society just to fulfil his own little fantasy. He definitely had me side-eyeing my smartphone! Still, what seems like pure selfishness actually illustrated the underlying and overarching theme of the whole book: the line between object and objectified. If a person, or thing, only has value by dint of its utility or productiveness then society becomes a colder, darker place no matter who is ultimately in charge. Or as Pratchett put it: ‘Evil begins when you begin to treat people as things’ (I Shall Wear Midnight).

In general this is a fast-paced, action-packed adventure full of fights, explosions and races against the clock. The ending neatly resolves the immediate story whilst setting up a new scenario for future instalments and leaving a few doors tantalisingly open. I will be interested to see where McCrudden takes his intriguing cast of misfits (both human and machine) next with the whole of space to explore…!



To their robot overlords, humans might just be clumps of inefficient matter, but they still had names among themselves. Take Darren, for example. At first glance he was the living embodiment of what was often called the ‘human stain’ condition. He was short, his nose ran more efficiently than he did, and he made his living selling battery top-ups by the side of the road.
Or he did until one afternoon a Sports-Utility-Vehicle undertook a washing machine on the hard shoulder, dinging his charge-cart off the embankment of the Earth-Mars highway and into orbit. And he watched, hyperventilating into his oxygen cap, as his livelihood drifted off into space.

– Chris McCrudden, Battlestar Suburbia

Review by Steph Warren of Bookshine and Readbows blog

If I tell you that I spent my teenage years bingeing on the books of Douglas Adams and episodes of Red Dwarf (yes, the first time around when Dave Lister didn’t look mad/sad in his leather jacket and hat) that is really going to age me, isn’t it? However, I think I am exactly the age group that was going to enjoy this book the most because it reminded me of those things I enjoyed in my youth. (Middle-aged people, yes.)

Although I am afraid, for me, that no writer is ever going to be able to reach the genius heights of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, this book comes as close as anyone is likely to get. It manages to attain that perfect level of absurdity and humour balanced with wit and intelligence and a healthy dollop of pop culture references to spot and snigger over as you wend your way through the book, a really delicious mix to relish.

We are set in a dystopian future where machines have got sick of being used as tools by infinitely less intelligent units, namely humans, and have turned the tables so that humans now serve them, mostly in the form of mopping floors. This happens not in a creepy Terminator/Matrix way, but in a humorous way where some machines actually secretly decide that they miss having their touchscreens fondled… that pretty much gives you a taste of what to expect. Throw in a very ‘mobile’ hair salon with the best pun name ever whose clientele are at least several millennia old and you must be totally intrigued by now, surely.

Humans have similarly decided that they aren’t overly happy about cleaning up after toasters and a resistance has formed, while some of the machines in the higher echelons have dreams of taking a form more physical, more squashy, more feeling… Quite what will happen when these two opposing desires clash, well you will have to read the book to find out.

This book is extremely well-written – very clever, very witty, great fun and with plenty of action and absurd plotting to keep you intrigued to the last page and beyond. The jokes appealed completely to my warped sense of humour, even the really, really corny/bad ones. In fact, especially the really, really corny/bad ones (seriously, the salon name, genius). I have ordered a paperback copy of this book and I am already looking forward to the sequel. In space, no one can hear you…tapping your fingers in impatience to see what happens next. I highly recommend this book to everyone…man, woman, cyborg…of any age or persuasion, but especially ageing Dwarfers like me.

Join misfits Darren, Kelly and Pam, the breadmaker, and their wonderfully eccentric family and friends, as they band together to save ... or is that destroy ... humanity from our evil robot overlords. A delightfully entertaining space-capade. Reminiscent of a mash up between Hitchhikers and Red Dwarf. Will definitely be keeping an eye out for the sequel.

I really liked this book. Reminded of Douglas Adam's work ( of course) It was equal parts hilarious and interesting.

Battlestar Suburbia

It's such an obvious premise that none of us actually think about it. It's not terminators or human looking robots that will take over the world but all of our gadgets and gizmos.

The human race is going extinct and we are only good as cleaners or servicers for the gadget ruling class.

The humour is in the humanistic traits that are given to the gadgets reminiscent of the "silicon heaven" speech given by Kryten from 'Red Dwarf'.

Darren is making a living by running a charge cart which gives him limited independence separating him out from most humans. Unfortunately when an accident befalls his charge-cart he has to find another way to earn money. Unfortunately this is the first in a long line of accidents he goes through in the novel.

The humour is sometimes slapstick sometimes just very reminiscent of John Cleese's Mr Fawlty! You will find yourself laughing out loud, I certainly did at some of the scenes.

I loved it from beginning to end, it's such an easy and amusing read but also very well written. The characterisation makes the machines credible with families, lives and politics just like humans.

I recommend this to all science fiction / fantasy fans as a light relief to the current trend of doorstop-sized trilogies.

I was given the novel free by netgalley.com for my fair and honest review.

Battlestar Suburbia is well-developed as a character-driven science fiction story that packs its share of whimsy and ironic humor. The book includes enough creative elements to satisfy the long-time reader looking for something new, and enough science fiction magic to please fans of the genre.

The Ama Zone, A No Fly Zone

Douglas Adams years ago established a watermark for futuristic absurdity--whether high or low depends on your tolerance for puns, sight gags, and the ability to craft a planet and then orbit with it. In this dystopic future, machines have gained sentience and, humans subservience, barely tolerated as little more than a slave class performing chores with which no self-respecting machine would care to soil its appendages. After centuries of slipping further and further down the ecosystem, a careless action pushes a misfit bloke into inadvertent rebellion. And then things get . . . complicated.

The Farrago imprint is rapidly gaining a niche publishing off-center (and, in this case, off-planet) absurdity. The insidious humor evident in most science fiction burbles happily along as three humans, four cyborgs, and a breadmaker foment a movement set to rebalance their universe as we are reminded that Facebook comments will live on forever in the cyber realm. Lots of twists and turns and unexpected technology adaptations. Enjoy!

Battlestar Suburbia asks a fascinating and hilarious question: what would the world be like if every appliance, gadget and machine suddenly gained sentience? In the tale that follows, McCrudden shows us an irresistible world through a humor-driven narrative that shows a fractured society filled with corruption and constant surveillance by the powers that be. There are many parallels to our world, giving way to a larger discussion about class structures and what happens when power dynamics shift.

NOTE: I was provided a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for my honest, unbiased review. I only publish reviews of books I enjoy, and this novel meets that criterion.

BATTLESTAR SUBURBIA

Chris McCrudden
Farrago, August 2018

QUICK SUMMARY

In a world where appliances and machines call the shots, a pair of humans accidentally set off a catastrophic chain of events that will forever change the power dynamics of the universe.

WHY I LOVED IT

SENTIENT APPLIANCES

Battlestar Suburbia inhabits a universe both terrifying and hilarious. Machines rule with an iron fist (pun intended), with humans occupying the lowest spot on the societal food chain. We're not talking fancy pants robots here. Toasters, bread machines, and hair dryers are just a few of the billions of machine citizens traveling around the system of machine-controlled planets. You've got smartphone politicians. Motorcycle druggies getting high on their own exhaust fumes. There's no limit to the author's creativity in terms of sentient beings, and it creates an interesting dynamic in the narrative. What should be a scary reality is actually quite funny as you imagine being chased by a taser with legs. It makes for dozens of amazing visuals.

AN ANALYSIS OF CLASS STRUCTURES

There's a large conversation on class structures at the center of the narrative, with strong ties to the current issues our society faces. The world changed drastically with the rise of machines and didn't get any better. It was just a transfer of power from one corrupt, hateful group of politicians to another. Humans have been relegated to servants of the machines or shady back-alley workers who service their more questionable needs. Within the machine society, you've got a lower class living on the outskirts, banned from regular society. Any slight against a machine is punishable by death, giving the setting an extreme 1984 vibe. The author keeps this conversation at the forefront throughout, creating many thought-provoking moments.

THE THRILL OF THE CHASE

McCrudden has created a solid thriller, following the gang of humans as they try to evade capture and end up creating an international crisis that threatens their society. There are machines around every corner with diabolical intentions for humankind, and the implications are radical. The story chugs along nicely as you go between perspectives, seeing the world from the eyes of humans and a couple of machines helping them out.

AN ORIGINAL WORLD

I appreciate a well-thought-out world and it's clear McCrudden had a lot of fun creating this one. It's drastically different from anything we know in terms of visuals, while remaining similar in terms of power structures and societal issues that come with them. Cities are towering with impossibly high buildings, back allies feature 'massage' parlors to service wealthy machines. You'll be fascinated by the author's creations and his dedication to creating a coherent world that throws a radical 'what if' into a science fiction stew.

CONCEPTS

Robots, Technology, Artificial Intelligence, Future, Space

Silly and fun! A laugh-out-loud read. Highly recommend.
Many thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

Battlestar Suburbia is a fun read that’s reminiscent of Douglas Adams. Battlestar Suburbia is set in the future when artificial intelligence has taken over and machines are in power. All history has been changed or revised to show that machines were always in charge.

“Elsewhere on the Internet, history had been retouched, re-edited, deleted, so that no suggestion that biological entities had once controlled the place remained.”

“The internet has become a scary place and it is forbidden to go on it via a modem, which is the only way to access it. All electronic devices have stopped working in the way that they were initially intended — phones, toasters, microwaves, etc.”

Machines now rule the world and are at odds with humans. We meet and follow the trials and tribulations of some machines — Beattie (cardiogram), Pam (breadmaker), Casey (keyboard), etc. There are all kinds of machines that have power in this new world — lamp post, smartphone, defibrillator, and even a motorcycle. In fact, the reader is warned that smartphones can be dangerous, especially in positions of power.

“There was a saying among machines that smartphones were always one swipe between efficiency and megalomania.”

“That was the other wonderful thing about smartphones. They were so customisable, so responsive to the needs of their users. No wonder they’d been the first machines to rebel.”

The story follows Kelly and Darren — they are on the run from the machine authorities. They are also trying to save the world. It’s a quick and quirky read with moments that are laugh out loud funny.

“Meanwhile, Darren readjusted his worldview. Even for someone like him, who was so low down the food chain that even plankton left him off their Christmas card list...”

“Its golden roads traced complex patterns between buildings which soared so high that penthouse owners qualified for orbital tax exemption.”

I enjoyed Battlestar Suburbia and look forward to reading more from Chris McCrudden.

Thank you to Farrago and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

This book is totally ridiculous, silly, hilarious and absolutely fantastic! A fun sci-fi romp with at slightly Pratchett feel. You will never look at your household appliances the same way again. Wonderful stuff!

Imagine a world in which robots and machines have decided that they are superior to the humans that created them and have taken over the world. That’s the setting of Chris McCrudden’s Battlestar Suburbia.

Humans have been reduced to custodians, and live on small satellites in orbit around Earth, called The Dolestars. They exist to service their machine overlords, and that’s about it.

In this world, the internet has been completely banned, and anyone that uses it will be persecuted, whether machine or human.

“Of course, officially no one had accessed the Internet for millennia. The ‘Schism’ between the machines who lived as software and hardware dated back to the first few foggy decades after artificial intelligence kicked humanity out of power. There had been a war. A brutal one, with countless machines dead on either side just from defending their edits on the war’s Wikipedia page. It had been the first, and thankfully the last, incident where robots fought one another. In the end they agreed on two things: that they should try living apart, and if anyone were to blame it was the humans.”

The story follows two humans, Darren and Kelly, as well as a sentient breadmaker named Pamasonic Teffal, aka Pam.

Darren and Kelly are on the run after accidentally damaging a floating spy streetlamp. Pam has been asked to track the humans down by a smartphone named Sonny Erikzon.

Kelly leads Darren to her mother’s underground hair salon, Kurl Up and Dye, where he is introduced to the last four cyborgs in existence. Together, they fight against the machines as they reject their robot rulers. The tale is an exciting adventure through the Dolestar Discovery and the robot surface of the earth, where the skyscrapers reach high into the atmosphere and the oceans have been filled with concrete.

Battlestar Suburbia reminds me a lot of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. It’s funny, exciting, and very ridiculous. I had never heard of Chris McCrudden before, but the cover caught my eye, and after reading the synopsis, I had a strong feeling I would love this book.

I loved the premise of both software and hardware deciding they no longer wanted to be ruled by humans and then gaining control of the planet. There are so many scenes of what the internet has become that made me laugh:

“On the Internet, however, World of Warcraft avatars merged with Reddit trolls to spawn a line of programmes so fanatical about defending the purity of their messageboards that they made a terrorist cell look like a basketful of sleeping kittens.”

The machine brothels were also pretty hilarious. Machines pay humans to “service” them, and role-play that humans are still able to use the machines as what they were originally meant to be.

There’s also a quip at our current administration and racism:

“Sonny’s broadcast was a masterful piece of propaganda, in that it gave already paranoid machines the excuse to treat their prejudices like they were facts. ‘Now, don’t get me wrong,’ rang the conversation in billions of homes, offices and public charging points, ‘I like humans. The lady who cleans our house is a sweetheart. But these people are different. And he’s right. We have to do something.”

I enjoyed the book very much as an adventure story. It’s fast-paced, and the characters travel through both the physical world and the world of code. It’s interesting to have characters divide themselves and work among memes and firewalls.

There was one aspect of this book that prevented me from giving it five stars, and that’s simply that I could not picture the machine characters, at all. Are these sentient breadmakers and smartphones just floating? Do they have human-style arms and legs? I have no idea. There are scenes where Pam has an LED nail job, so I’m guessing they at least have arms attached? I wish the author had spent more time describing the machine characters in order to give the readers something easier to imagine.

At the end of the book, there’s a brief advertisement for the second book in this series, which made me really happy. I can’t wait to see what comes next.

This book was funny, well written, and worth the read!

Imagine that machines have taken over the world - that's where this book comes in. Humans are now servants, and the machines are in charge. The internet is, from what I understand, basically obsolete,

This book is filled with so many funny one-liners and characters that made me want to keep reading no matter what. The story is well written, well plotted and has enough going on to keep readers interested and wanting to know more.

“The idea of a human operating a machine was fundamentally disgusting to someone brought up to see only the gulf between organisms and inorganisms.”

Thank you to #Netgalley and #Farragopress for the free advanced copy of Battlestar Suburbia by Chris McCrudden for my honest review.

This book is something like I’ve never read before. On the space station Dolestar Discover and on the concrete Earth, the machines have taken over. My interpretation is of this book is the triumph of good over evil and when you think there is no hope left, never give up.

It all starts with Darren. Darren is a “fleshie” who pretty much hates his life. His cart that he sells extra power packs from was lost in space and he didn’t know what to do. He is tired of machines and he wants a change. This book is about his journey of meeting new people and trusting machines to work together to make sure their worlds do not end by a CELL PHONE who wants to take of the world.

I also see this book as a commentary on how we rely on machines WAY too much and the more we rely on them the more power they have. With the rise of AI, this may be in our future, but hopefully not!

I suggest this read if you like sci-fi and fantasy. There is some bad language so maybe not the best for kids.

If you’re soul/conscious was a machine, what machine would you be?

This is an interesting book to review. It is a book based in the future where the machines are overlords but not in the way that current trends fear. They have a mind of their own but they also have the matching flaws that go with power. It was not an easy read I have to admit, each depiction seems to be a carefully calculated statement which tends to hold a mirror out to our state of civilized society. 

It is just another day on Earth and the surrounding inhabited satellites. The internet is a forbidden wasteland where the machines are prohibited to enter and the humans have lost the ability to indulge in. Things start to spiral out of control from a seemingly trivial problem. The entire escapade is only a few days long, but a lot is packed into it. I found some of the things mentioned in it fascinating although I think a decent understanding of the technology field, or basic understanding of mechanical and electronic equipment would be a bonus. The only reason it was not completely my cup of tea was that I was so focused on the 'reality' being discussed that I did not find the heart to laugh at anything that was happening, even at passing gaffes that were meant to lighten the mood. It took me a while to get into the groove to actually finish it, and I did finish it with the thought that it was a very unique book. It will make the day of a book club/reading group. It can be constantly discussed and still have fodder for thought.

Battlestar Suburbia is a really difficult book to summarise in any way that makes sense, but I’ll give it a go… Humanity has been downgraded to a secondary life-form, living to serve the electrical appliances that are now in charge. When Darren’s charge-cart gets knocked off the Mars-to-Earth highway, he thinks his day can’t get any worse. That is, until he accidentally short-circuits a sentient lamppost and finds himself right at the head of a human uprising against the machines.

As you may be able to gather from the synopsis, this book is very weird. Almost too weird. It took a really long time for me to get into it, so much so that I came very close to giving up and DNF-ing it. However, I’m glad I didn’t. When I finally found myself settling in to the madness, I LOVED IT. The general plot was insane but well thought-out and the characters, well, they were the best part.

Freda (an old lady cyborg) and Pam (a bread maker refitted into the body of a flashy motorbike) were my favourites. They were sassy and quirky and I loved reading about them. But all the other characters were good as well, and there were plenty of butt-kicking females.

The comedy aspect of this book is very good. It reminded me a lot of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy but with a very different plot. It’s a fun, crazy space adventure with lovable characters and laugh-out-loud moments.

Entertaining and amusing, this captivating book held my attention throughout.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I requested and received a copy of this book for honest review.

Set in a far future where the machines have taken over, but the machines are not AI or robots... they're household appliances. Humans have become subhuman, relegated to lives of servitude to the machines. However there is a seedy underground, featuring places like "fondle parlours" that service machines who miss the taboo of human hands using them. Within this hidden world two factions have been slowly growing: on the one hand humans who yearn for equality and the end of their servitude, on the other we have machines who feel humanity's subservience is not enough. Unfortunately, Darren is having a very bad day at the same time that complete stranger Kelly happens by when he accidentally terminates a lamp post This becomes the fuse that finally sets the two factions into action and while Darren & Kelly are now hopelessly tied together on the run for murder.

I would place this solidly within a similar vein of comedic SF with Ready Player One. It has a solid gimmick, no subtlety about it, and is wildly entertaining as a result of reveling in it. The characters are also quite well fleshed out, which is especially challenging in this instance, I kept forgetting one of our protagonists is in fact a breadmaker until anatomical references would come up. Beyond that, I highly recommend this for anyone who is a fan of heavy use of puns. I found it brilliant fun over all, and while I believe it is a standalone, but would definitely read more from this setting or author.

Totally hilarious, quirky and one of a kind, I absolutely loved the story! Have you read one where the machines talk, cyborgs smile (Nope, not talking about Doctor Who here) and machines can be rebuilt to anything! Absolutely anything. A bread-maker turns into a glossy motorbike and a smartphone into a cyborg. Yep, all this is possible only in Battlestar Suburbia.

The machines rule the world. Human beings are cleaners - mop and bucket types. There are fondle parlors for the machines - yep! We, humans, see a glass as either half-empty or half-full. But how do machines see things? Battery half-full or half-empty. We have candy crush but machines, they have humanity crush. Ouch! Humanity crush is a simple but popular game where one has to match lines of identical human beings who were then dropped into a trash compactor!

McCrudden is a master storyteller. The concept of machines taking over human lives and outer space settlements was mind-blowing. And it just doesn't end here. The story is super hilarious. Sci-fi and humor is a unique combination and McCrudden has done a wonderful job in amalgamating both to create one of the best stories ever!!!

Battlestar Suburbia is the first book in the series and I am very much looking forward to reading the next book(s) in the series. This is one of the best books that I have read this year. Battlestar Suburbia is an Amazing, Entertaining, Hilarious and Unique story of man v/s machines.

Overall Rating: 4.5/5

A fun light book which takes one into the realm of what could happen in the future, although some would think, funny, bizarre and sometimes scary but still a good read,

This is a quirky, very clever book. Machines have taken over, and humans are only good for cleaning. A nice touch is that we’re not talking about futuristic ‘transformer’ or ‘Terminator’ type machines, but ones that we’re familiar with – smartphones, hairdryers and so on. They have mega advanced intelligence, and some have developed physical attributes, such as legs, to generally improve their quality of life. They do still have to recharge themselves, which is their Achilles heel.
There’s dry wit and dark humour, but definitely no slapstick. The novel presents this machine-dominated scenario as perfectly possible, and we’re encouraged to do the same. It’s actually very thought-provoking, as well as highly original and very entertaining, and we meet some fascinating characters. A sentient bread-maker couldn’t really be anything else but fascinating, now could it!
If you want a book that’s definitely off the beaten track but which has that ‘just maybe’ fascination that you get in all good sci-fi, then this is definitely one for you.

This was a very amusing science fiction story - the machines have taken over! Even humble household appliances hold positions of power. Humans are left to clean or offer "personal services" to their machine masters, but come the revolution......

With thanks to Netgalley and Farrago

Battlestar Suburbia is a fun and unique book that I really enjoyed, very funny with some laugh out loud bits