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Waterline
"Slowly, the air opened over Byte. A clear view of the seawall stretching from headland to headland two streets back from the old esplanade. The sea was thrashing itself white on the breakwaters and the black wreckage of abandoned buildings. Behind the wall the mottled mass of the town was strewn like rubble across the valley floor." Climate change is ever-present in chilling, dystopian novel WATERLINE. Here, in a remote South Pacific nation, coastal settlements are being inundated and families uprooted; Artificial Intelligence controls most human endeavour; social media has run amok; and many have fled from reality to live online. Losing their uninsurable beachfront home to storm and high seas, wealthy nuclear family the Handsons have little choice but to move to Byte, a bleak, southern city run by computerised bureaucracy BORIS and a gang of religious vigilantes. Separated in the move, Brian ends up on the wrong side of the law and is incarcerated, leaving wife Stella and their two teenage children, Mandy and Luke, to fend for themselves. An offer of help from a group of outsiders, living off the land, promises redemption and hope, but at what cost? WATERLINE explores the choices our own and future generations might have to face in our increasingly complex society. It is a dramatic and portentous tale about the decisions we make now and how they might challenge all our values. Darkly humorous, laced with violence and corruption, it also examines the human capacity for change, responsibility, self-determination, and the search for meaning and love.
312 pages, Paperback
Published October 24, 2019
17 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 22, 2020
84 pages in, and I'm done. I just don't care. I don't care about the characters. I don't care about their problems, and I especially don't care for the kitchen-sink, New Zealand literature style of writing. Else has managed to make the future boring, which is something of an achievement I suppose, but not one I'm really interested in. Life is too short to read bad books, so this one is going straight back to the library.
April 13, 2020
Imagine a world 50 or even 100 years from now where all the dire predictions about sea-level rise and coastal erosion have come true and where personal devices run our lives. Such is the tension-filled environment of Chris Else’s imaginative new novel – the ninth work of fiction from this respected New Zealand author. But Waterline is not your average sci-fi thriller. It’s a compelling mix of suspense, black comedy, domestic drama and unorthodox romance, set some time in the future to provide an unsettling yet convincing backdrop to some very familiar themes. While tending towards a literary genre, especially in his often sparse, staccato, conjunction-skipping prose, Chris Else knows how to tell a good story – as he ought, having penned a treatise or two bemoaning the tendency of New Zealand authors to steer away from the art of telling stories.
He has also introduced relatable characters, telling the story from several points of view, but focusing largely on what happens to Brian and Stella when the computerised bureaucracy decides to allow Stella to stay in the bleak, damp city of Byte and deregisters Brian for a trumped-up crime that holds him in a prison cell for a few days. From there, he is expelled to Strawfield, which has an even lower ranking than Byte. Brian tries to make a go of it there, moving in with the accommodating Wendy and using his IT skills to claw his way back up, trying to earn back the high status he and Stella once had in their home city – a city they had to leave when high waves from a massive storm delivered their house into the ocean. The very real threat of the effects of climate change, the constant rain, the menace hanging in the air that there was some other trauma that caused Stella and Brian to flee in such a hurry, creates a constant background tension. It grows exponentially as Stella – left to her own devices with Brian detained in Byte – tries to cope with a semi-derelict rental home, the absence of the trailer filled with their possessions (which Brian was towing), and the immediate need for something to eat for herself and her two teenage children, Mandy and Luke.
Along to the rescue comes Geordie, a man with his own sense of menace, who solves their immediate problems but creates others. Geordie turns out to be the leader of an alternative self-sufficient commune – low-tech, environmentally friendly, riven with rivalries, many caused by their sexual freedom. Their way of life is opposed to the religiously fanatical, technologically-dependent people of Byte, and the two communities are at frequent loggerheads.
Brian repudiates Stella to regain his status (destroyed when hers drops overnight after she moves in with Geordie) and Stella’s sudden arrival as Geordie’s partner divides the commune in half.
And so the scene is set for a dramatic denouement, where future technology adds to the excitement but the events that occur could be relevant to any time or place, past, present or future, where there’s a lot of rain.
He has also introduced relatable characters, telling the story from several points of view, but focusing largely on what happens to Brian and Stella when the computerised bureaucracy decides to allow Stella to stay in the bleak, damp city of Byte and deregisters Brian for a trumped-up crime that holds him in a prison cell for a few days. From there, he is expelled to Strawfield, which has an even lower ranking than Byte. Brian tries to make a go of it there, moving in with the accommodating Wendy and using his IT skills to claw his way back up, trying to earn back the high status he and Stella once had in their home city – a city they had to leave when high waves from a massive storm delivered their house into the ocean. The very real threat of the effects of climate change, the constant rain, the menace hanging in the air that there was some other trauma that caused Stella and Brian to flee in such a hurry, creates a constant background tension. It grows exponentially as Stella – left to her own devices with Brian detained in Byte – tries to cope with a semi-derelict rental home, the absence of the trailer filled with their possessions (which Brian was towing), and the immediate need for something to eat for herself and her two teenage children, Mandy and Luke.
Along to the rescue comes Geordie, a man with his own sense of menace, who solves their immediate problems but creates others. Geordie turns out to be the leader of an alternative self-sufficient commune – low-tech, environmentally friendly, riven with rivalries, many caused by their sexual freedom. Their way of life is opposed to the religiously fanatical, technologically-dependent people of Byte, and the two communities are at frequent loggerheads.
Brian repudiates Stella to regain his status (destroyed when hers drops overnight after she moves in with Geordie) and Stella’s sudden arrival as Geordie’s partner divides the commune in half.
And so the scene is set for a dramatic denouement, where future technology adds to the excitement but the events that occur could be relevant to any time or place, past, present or future, where there’s a lot of rain.
January 3, 2020
The four stars is based on the rating for the premise. This is a futuristic thriller which moves along at a good pace. The concept is sound and the characters are believable. The dialogue is good. I liked the way several of the characters were given a voice with separate chapters. This was done well so that the narrative kept moving.
The Authority network called Boris is obviously a tongue in cheek label and the decisions of the network resound with the flavour of Trump's America. What happens to the main characters and the society therein is potentially terrifying but it somehow lacks the emotional substance needed to make the story powerful. The author presents a really scary concept and the actions in which the characters in the novel are entangled are pretty drastic but they don't really scare or move the reader, well not me anyway. So much more could have been done with this novel. It is climate and societal change on valium....a little anxiety provoking but a little too sleepy to do the concept justice.
Another edit and more development of the drama and the characters' role in the story would have lifted this plot to a whole new level. Billie's role in everything and the connection to Stella fell a bit flat at the end.....and more could have been done with this. Stella's character was only just getting started when the novel ended. It is worth a read for the concept alone, but don't expect to get too excited as the mystery and turning points in the thriller concept meander rather than leave you breathless.
The Authority network called Boris is obviously a tongue in cheek label and the decisions of the network resound with the flavour of Trump's America. What happens to the main characters and the society therein is potentially terrifying but it somehow lacks the emotional substance needed to make the story powerful. The author presents a really scary concept and the actions in which the characters in the novel are entangled are pretty drastic but they don't really scare or move the reader, well not me anyway. So much more could have been done with this novel. It is climate and societal change on valium....a little anxiety provoking but a little too sleepy to do the concept justice.
Another edit and more development of the drama and the characters' role in the story would have lifted this plot to a whole new level. Billie's role in everything and the connection to Stella fell a bit flat at the end.....and more could have been done with this. Stella's character was only just getting started when the novel ended. It is worth a read for the concept alone, but don't expect to get too excited as the mystery and turning points in the thriller concept meander rather than leave you breathless.
February 11, 2020
The dystopian future that provides the setting for this story is all too realistic: sea levels are rising and destroying expensive coastal properties, technology has become a very big part of life in a 'big brother is watching' kind of way, and religious groups are now mainstream with those challenging this established order confined to small, cult-like groups. Against this backdrop, Stella's family is disintegrating as she questions both her relationship with her husband and her established prejudices. I really enjoyed this book (which has a bit of a New Zealand flavour) and found it thought provoking and hard to put down.
March 28, 2020
I really only persevered due to Covid 19 and the fact I paid $40 for this book on impulse. I'm glad I persevered, it was good in the end.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews