Thank you to NetGalley for providing an advance review copy of The Price of Prosperity by Will Webster.

This was a fascinating and thought-provoking read. Dark, speculative, and deeply dystopian, the novel also carries an underlying sense of unease that borders on horror.

The story follows Clade, a young man living in a society governed by a Machine God—an all-powerful entity that dictates every aspect of daily life. Citizens are told what to do, when to do it, and how to do it, and obedience is expected without question. As Clade begins to question the world around him, he finds himself caught in forces far larger than himself, with the Machine God seemingly having plans of its own.

What impressed me most about this book was its ability to provoke thought. Beneath the science fiction setting lies an exploration of belief, authority, conformity, and the reasons people place their trust in institutions and ideologies. The questions raised by the story linger long after the final page and add considerable depth to the narrative.

There is also an eerie quality to the world Webster has created. Some aspects of the society feel uncomfortably familiar, making the story all the more unsettling. The atmosphere is tense and often dark, creating a sense that something is fundamentally wrong beneath the surface.

Clade is an engaging protagonist whose doubts and search for understanding make him easy to connect with. Watching him navigate a world where questioning accepted truths can have serious consequences kept me invested throughout.

Overall, The Price of Prosperity is a well-written dystopian novel that combines science fiction with philosophical questions in a compelling way. Readers who enjoy stories that challenge assumptions and leave them with plenty to think about will likely find this a rewarding read.

It has a blend of dystopian/speculative sci-fantasy, philosophical fiction with cosmic horror undertones with a sprinkle of coming-of-age into one world... so basically it's trying to do a lot of things in under 400 pages - you have divine machinery, eerie social conditioning, philosophical dread, and a society that smiles while quietly consuming itself.

Trigger Warnings
Body horror, death and grief, religious/cult indoctrination, Graphic injuries and blood, social conditioning/coercion, substance use/drug references, emotional abuse/manipulation, references to reproductive/medical trauma, dehumanisation, implied experimentation, claustrophobic/paranoia-inducing scenes, discussions of societal “purity”, cult worship, surveillance/control themes, loss of agency/autonomy.

In Short
The Price of Prosperity follows Clade Miggle, a boy growing up in the utopian empire, where technological miracles, engineered religion, and social prosperity hide something deeply unsettling beneath the surface. As Clade becomes entangled with cultists, philosophers, spies, and the godlike empress herself, he slowly realises that the world he worships may be built on manipulation, sacrifice, and a future catastrophe already in motion.

My thoughts
-It's a concept/world-driven novel than a heavily character-driven one
+If you enjoy layered worldbuilding, philosophical undertones, unsettling foreshadowing, and books that leave breadcrumbs everywhere for you to obsess over later, this becomes an incredibly rewarding read.
-Extremely slow while trying to have everything
-+The world feels 'bizarre'. You have floating cultist architecture, sky-docks, toxic moons, but also biomechanical horror. On the surface you get this perfect utopia, but as the story progresses it becomes questionable.
+You get a lot of foreshadowing and breadcrumbs along the way
-The pacing was just way too slow and at times repetitive. I don’t mind slower books if the worldbuilding or details are rich enough to justify it, but as we get to the middle, conversations start to run long and begin circling similar points repeatedly. The middle especially can feel dense because the book is constantly feeding philosophical discussion, exposition, political ideas, theology, and social commentary into the narrative. If you like speculative fiction, you may like that, but personally, I just found it dreadful to go through.
-The atmosphere of the book is really nice, but I felt at times that descriptions or dialogues continue one beat too long after the point has already been made for the simplest things.

I can't really put my finger on what this book and its language remind me of, but it is a blend of Brave New World, 1984, Mistborn, Dune and The Left Hand of Darkness with several glasses of philosophy.

This is an interesting dystopian book. It’s a little hard to follow but good nonetheless.

It follows Clade who is a 13 year old boy. He lives with his mother Susan. The land is called Volia and is ruled by a machine god who is named Constantia. She tells them to jump and they say how high. Clade as he tries to understand what is happening around him struggles to believe and starts to question. Constantia has destined him to something bigger and he has to follow it.

The book is written very well. It’s just a little hard to follow at some places. I did enjoy reading it and I read it in a day. Im excited to see where book 2 will take it.