The Kind

The Recoverist Quartet #1

by Jule Owen

It is 2472. The British Isles have been transformed by climate change into a desert archipelago. The wealthy and privileged have retreated to high-tech walled cities. Those beyond the walls are known as the Non-Grata. They live a precarious, hand-to-mouth existence, surviving on the “charity” of the cities. In return, these non-people must pay a Quota, a tax paid in human life. Specifically, they give the rich something their money cannot children.Isobel Twelvetrees has been put outside the walls of her city and left to die in the lethal heat for a crime she cannot remember committing. She was saved by someone or something, but when she wakes, the only companion she has is a dog with odd coloured eyes. When she learns the terrible truth about the plight of the Non Grata, she turns into a new kind of warrior. As she crosses continents with the threadbare armies of the Non Grata, in a deadly race against time to destroy the Quota and right historic wrongs, she starts to uncover the truth about herself and what she left behind.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

276 pages, Paperback

First published November 18, 2017

About the author

Jule Owen was born in the North of England and now lives in London. She spent many years working in online technology, latterly in the video games industry and is fascinated by science, technology, futurology and terrified by climate change.

She can be found online and would love to hear from you. Look her up here:
www.juleowen.com

Reviews

[Sarah Connor · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you've read previous Jule Owen books, you'll be pleased to hear we are returning to that world - which is a dystopic possible future of our world - only 5 centuries on. Climate change has happened. If you're British, you'll be interested to hear that Buxton is in the middle of a desert, and you have to go up to Scotland to find a climate where you can really grow stuff. Small towns are dependent on dying domed cities, and a mysterious girl emerges to bring hope.

What Jule Owen does really well is explore the possibilities of AI and she returns to that theme here. The indiscriminate use of technology has stuffed the world, but access to sustainable technology will be what saves some kind of society, and our mysterious girl is part of this, along with her enigmatic canine companion.

It's a well thought out world, it's quite a serious book, and if you're looking for hectic rooftop flights and heaving bosoms you're in the wrong place. If you want to have a bit of a think about how AI might develop, then you are in exactly the right place.

[Pam · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a post apocalyptic story set in the late 21st century in Great Britain and Europe. The author does a good job of grabbing your attention right from the start. Some people live in domed cities, some people live in towns or villages (the Non Grata) and then there is the Kind...they are whispered to be monsters among the Non Grata, but in fact have preserved much of the science and technology lost and forbidden to everyone else. The Kind want humans to survive if possible. The cities take children from the Non Grata (the Quota) because a virus has rendered them nearly sterile. In return, they give the Non Grata barely enough food and water to survive in a hostile world wreaked by war and climate change. This is the first of 4 books according to the author's website. The next book is called Elidir, and is supposed to be published sometime this year. I look forward to it! The characters is this book develop quickly, including Clay, the dog. There are AI's to contend with, and feuding nations such as ATLAS and the Federation. Through all this, Isobel Twelvetrees is trying to remember her past and still is not sure how she survived being put outside alone by her city - or why. The book ends abruptly, and left me wanting more. A good read.

[Ckn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the concept of these books (The Kind & The Boy Who Fell from the Sky). I have rated all the others as excellent, this one is too, but I found the ending disappointing. While it's a great lead in to the next book it makes it difficult to feel like you've "just read a great book" as it feels very fragmented and unfinished.

Looking forward to the next installment.....

[Mike Finn · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The Kind had interesting ideas and a good plot but the storytelling was too arms-length for me and the cliff-hanger ending was annoying.

I loved the start of "The Kind". The title of the first chapter was eye-catching:

the dead girl and the talking dog

The first paragraph made me grin in anticipation:

SHE HAD BEEN DEAD for over an hour. It is one hour and twenty minutes since her breath shuddered to a halt in her chest, her heart stopped beating and her brain, starved of blood, shut down. I am a little late, then, he thinks.

That this-is-going-to-be-weird-but-worth-it storytelling tone is sustained throughout the book and mostly works. It is weird. It doesn't get any less so as the book goes along.

"The KInd" is the first book in a Young Adult post-apocalyptic quartet, set in a far-distant future Britain, remade into deserts and islands by climate change. It's packed with good ideas and clever world-building. I was fascinated to see towns I know like Ilkley and Buxton having become something different but not entirely new, to imagine Wales as a source of renewal and Land's End as an island.

The story is told more as a fable than as a realistic account of fictional events. We get the big sweep of history and a ring-side seat at the events people will write songs about but the characters in the story are more like puppets playing their part in a saga. There's almost no depth of characterisation.

There is a strong plot which kept everything moving and kept me wanting to know how everything would play out. The plot and the world-building mesh well. Every time I thought I knew what was going on, something new was added and the scope of the problem and the solution broadened.

This was interesting but a little too arms-length for me. I wasn't engaged by the characters and had only an academic "Oh-I-didn't-see-THAT-coming" interest in whether they lived or died. There's a huge body count in the story yet no sense of threat or distress.

The book has a cliff-hanger ending, which didn't endear it to me. Even in a quartet, I think each book should end and not just stop.

I won't be reading the rest of the books.

[Marla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who or What Is Isobel?

I found this book to be overwhelming with lots of characters and venue /location changes. It does have an intriguing storyline, and as the first of a series I'm assuming things will become clearer as you go though the series. If you like writing style like Tom Clancy you will love this book!

[Maureen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The horrible, horrible cliffhanger!!!

I was warned, but read it anyway. I'm not sorry because this is a phenomenal post-apocalyptic, scifi, fantasy novel. The characters are great, the world building is excellent, and the plot is engaging. But that cliffhanger...

[Mbhutches · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hard to follow.

[Barbara J Wicks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written by a really creative mind

I've been reading every day for years, and I have never read a book as unusual as this one. It was hard to put it down!!!!! Kudos to the author.