Doomsday

2099 #1

by John Peel

Packed with suspense for the next millennium, this new series combines science fiction, humor and attitude. Tristan Connor lives in a completely computerized America. His clone, a genius named Devon, has programmed a computer virus that is about to blow the entire system apart. Doomsday is coming. The End is near.

Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction, Young Adult, Dystopia, Middle Grade

320 pages, Unknown Binding

First published September 1, 1999

About the author

John Peel is the author of Doctor Who books and comic strips. Notably, he wrote the first original Doctor Who novel, Timewyrm: Genesys, to launch the Virgin New Adventures line. In the early 1990s he was commissioned by Target Books to write novelisations of several key Terry Nation Dalek stories of the 1960s after the rights were finally worked out. He later wrote several more original Daleks novels.

He has the distinction of being one of only three authors credited on a Target novelisation who had not either written a story for the TV series or been a part of the production team (the others were Nigel Robinson and Alison Bingeman).

Outside of Doctor Who, Peel has also written novels for the Star Trek franchise. Under the pseudonym "John Vincent", he wrote novelisations based upon episodes of the 1990s TV series James Bond Jr..

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

I need to re-read it, but I remember thoroughly enjoying this series.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first book of 2026!

This was a promising start to a series, and I'm looking forward to finding out what happens next!

[Stephen Schueler · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's an interesting book about multiple people with entwined lives. Read the series!

[Joe Kessler · Rating 4 out of 5]

A neat teen sci-fi thriller that I can just vaguely remember reading in my youth. Since the series was written in 1999 and set a century later, I thought it would be entertaining to revisit now that we're a quarter of the way there, to see where author John Peel was maybe on the right track.

And for the most part, I think he did a pretty good job! Way before the advent of smartphones, he was predicting news drones, an always-online media landscape accessible by wearable tech, and the use of holographic telepresence to virtually attend work, school, vacation destinations, and social gatherings. (In some ways, it's a scaled-down version of Pixel's futuristic homeworld in the same writer's Diadem novels.) The only element that really rings false to me is the visual aspect of the computer programs that the various hackers deploy; they're built to look and act like literal dragons and dogs and worms and so on, which is such an unnecessary design step that the whole thing feels a bit silly. But Peel totally nails the vulnerabilities of a global digital ecosystem to such creations -- wiping out bank records, causing planes to malfunction and drop out of the sky, and so on -- even if he doesn't know to use modern terminology like the Internet of Things to describe them.

But anyway, we obviously shouldn't judge a fictional work like this on its predictive power, when that was never supposed to be the point of it. Luckily it's a solid story too, and a great launch to the wider premise, following four individuals as a catastrophic virus gets unleashed upon the world amid an Orphan Black-like cloning conspiracy. There's Tristan, a 14-year-old who discovers he's adopted and has no apparent genetic relatives anywhere in the available databases. There's Devon, the kid who shares his appearance and DNA but is also the sociopath who created the doomsday weapon at the behest of his mysterious handlers. There's Shimoda, a police inspector trying to find the culprit, and there's Genia, a streetwise girl two years older than the boys who gets caught up in the conflict while running an advanced virtual pickpocketing scheme.

The plot is a little disjointed and aimless at first, but as events lead those characters to cross paths, it locks in and becomes considerably stronger. And even early on, the throwaway worldbuilding details are worth the price of admission alone. (Who knew that Leonardo DiCaprio would direct the beloved 2032 masterpiece I, Clinton? There's still time for this one to come true!) Overall it's a quick fun read that has me excited to continue rediscovering the remaining volumes ahead.

[Content warning for gore.]

Like this review?
--Throw me a quick one-time donation here!
https://ko-fi.com/lesserjoke
--Subscribe here to support my writing and weigh in on what I read next!
https://patreon.com/lesserjoke
--Follow along on Goodreads here!
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/6...
--Or click here to browse through all my reviews!
https://lesserjoke.home.blog

[Brian Heid · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember loving this book when I first read it in 5th grade, but never got around to reading the sequels! I'll admit that I've thought about this series a bit over the years, but hadn't been able to remember what they were called until I randomly stumbled onto them again recently. I definitely think I might be up for a re-read of this. :)

[Evan Lindhout · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hacker vs hacker vs hackers clone! End of the world wowza! Not as fun as it seems.

[Aanchal Singh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolute nostalgia. This brings back the Scholastic fairs to mind where I first picked up this book. A good book with a complex world and characters.

[Jenn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm a person who likes very descriptive settings so I don't feel like John Peel's style is really my thing. I was reading it for inspiration in a y.a./middle scifi novel I'm writing for NaNoWriMo, but it didn't have much to offer in the way of inspiring voice or style, really. I'm a little intrigued by the plot now that I've finished the book and so much was left unexplained. I didn't like that it ended so abruptly, but I suppose that's what a kid series does.

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting start to a teen dystopian series that takes place in 2099. A time in our future when the world relies so completely on the Net that its destruction causes world ending catastrophe.

This first book introduces us to the main characters as well as leads up to the release of the Doomsday virus that starts to destroy the Net.

Looking forward to the rest of the series.

[Takoda]

not done yet

[Lukas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this series utterly captivating when I was younger.

[Andrew Cornelius · Rating 5 out of 5]

ohohoh