Alpha Omega

by Nicholas Bowling

Stranger Things meets Black Mirror and Ready Player One in this unsettling, near-future science fiction standalone.

Something is rotten in the state of the NutriStart Skills Academy

With the discovery of a human skull on the playing fields, children displaying symptoms of an unfamiliar, grisly virus and a catastrophic malfunction in the site's security system, the NSA is about to experience a week that no amount of rebranding can conceal. As the school descends into chaos, teacher Tom Rosen goes looking for answers - but when the real, the unreal and the surreal are indistinguishable, the truth can be difficult to recognise.

One pupil, Gabriel Backer, may hold the key to saving the school from destroying itself and its students, except he has already been expelled. Not only that - he has disappeared down the rabbit-hole of "Alpha Omega" - the world's largest VR role-playing game, filled with violent delights and unbridled debauchery. But the game quickly sours. Gabriel will need to confront the real world he's been so desperate to escape if he ever wants to leave...

Genres: Science Fiction, Dystopia

416 pages, Paperback

First published June 21, 2020

About the author

Nicholas Bowling is an author, stand-up comic, musician, and Latin teacher from London. He graduated from Oxford University in 2007 with a BA in Classics and English, and again in 2010 with a Masters in Greek and Latin Language and Literature, before moving to his first teaching job at Trinity School, Croydon. While writing Witchborn, he also performed a solo show at the Edinburgh festival, and has co-written, recorded and released an album and two EPs with soul-folk singer Mary Erskine, Me For Queen. Witchborn is his debut novel.

Reviews

[Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Different in all the right ways: future, past, tech, and dread. If optimism wasn't the goal then it definitely delivered.

[JasonA · Rating 2 out of 5]

The summary describes this book as a cross between Stranger Things, Black Mirror and Ready Player One. It kind of is, but a better comparison would be to the tv show, Lost. It starts out really great with a few storylines and strange things going on. Then it starts to drag a bit and you're waiting to see how the storylines connect and an explanation to all the weirdness. Finally, you get to the end where a couple of things are explained but most of it isn't. If I were reading a physical copy, I would have checked to see if someone had ripped out the last few chapters of the book. I'd say at least a third of the book consisted of dropped plot threads.

Maybe the author plans for a sequel where everything is explained and/or some resolution to the story is added, but at this point, I just don't care any more. The book had a lot of potential but kept failing to deliver over and over again.

[Rachel (TheShadesofOrange) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars
This near-future science fiction was so different than anything I have read before. Others have compared this book to Black Mirror, Stranger Things and Ready Player One, yet I thought Alpha Omega was something quite unique. 
 
Told of multiple perspectives, this story weaved together VR reality and elements of horror within a futuristic school setting. Personally, I really enjoyed the commentary on the commercialization of the education system. At times, the narrative read like a satire, but often the story just felt weird. While I liked a lot of individual aspects of the novel, I didn't feel that the individual storylines came together in a fully satisfying way. 

I would recommend this one to science fiction readers looking for a fresh and somewhat bizarre story.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher, Titan Books.

[Kelly Van Damme · Rating 3 out of 5]

The blurb got me hook, line and sinker just by mentioning Black Mirror. I always thought I was not a sci-fi fan at all, but that was before I discovered dark near-future science fiction, a subgenre I can’t seem to get enough of. Heather Child and Blake Crouch had me covered last year, and I’d hoped that I’d be able to add Alpha Omega to my list of awesome Black Mirror-esque novels, but alas…

We were off to a great start though! I felt myself gleefully tumbling down the rabbit hole with various storylines blooming before my very eyes: a boy who finds a skull, a girl who gets an extreme nosebleed and is subsequently shipped off to God-knows-where, an archaeologist who is lamenting how little she’s allowed to work out in the real world, a gamer at the top of his game who is confronted “In World” by a faceless man. I was properly intrigued by the story and its setting in this brave new world, and dying to find out how it would all come together.

And then I got lost. My attention wavered. What was supposed to be a quick read at less than 300 pages seemed to drag. I’m not sure what happened. I won’t deny that I have the attention span of a goldfish at times, so it’s entirely possible that it’s me and not this book, but I got confused, I got turned around, I didn’t know what was what anymore, nor what was the point of anything.

While Alpha Omega raises a few valid points and is quite thought-provoking in some aspects, I would have liked it better if there had been more world-building, and if more of my questions had been answered. Instead I feel like I’ve been left in a bit of a muddle with a frown line edged into my brow.

If a mix of Stranger Things, Black Mirror and Ready Player One is music to your ears, then by all means do not let me stop you. Alpha Omega didn’t quite hit the mark for me, but it may work for you.

[Fanna]

May 31, 2020: Y'all mention Stranger Things & Black Mirror in a book blurb and don't expect me to get super hyped already? Huh.

[Paige · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a copy of this in exchange for an honest review.

I saw this described as Ready Player One meets Black Mirror, and actually, this is an incredibly apt description, and probably the best way of describing the vibe you get from this book.

So you follow a few point of views. You have Gabriel, who has been expelled from the school and is the 'gamer' of the book. Essentially he spends most of the book in the VR world and while he does interact a tiny bit with the main story, he ultimately has his own plot that runs parallel to the main plot. I'm not entirely sure how it intersects and I kind of wish he had more of an impact on the main plot, as the blurb seems to hint that he is super involved with the plot in the 'real world'. And also, he's pegged as the central character whereas I saw him as more of a supporting character.

There is who I think of as the main character and that is Tom, a teacher at the school. He is the one who begins to piece together the plot and who brings various other characters together. So, I think the story more focusses on him and his interactions with the school and the main plot.

This book is freaky. You can completely see how this could be a world in which we live. Schools and neighbourhoods run by sponsorships, tablets replacing pen and paper, and a VR world that almost everyone is a part of. It's a fascinating thing to read as you can see this happening, and it's a little close to home.

The author doesn't hold your hand during the plot. You have to piece together quite a lot of it and it took me until the next day to really figure out the ending. But it's one of those great books where you have a revelation about it a few days after you're finished, because it sticks with you. Yes, you'll have to work a bit hard to put two and two together and to work out what exactly is going on. But, if this sounds like your kind of book it's 100% worth reading.

[Sania · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like a lot of readers in the review section, the blurb was what got me interested in this. I thought maybe because it was being compared to Ready Player One and Black Mirror, Alpha Omega would be somewhat similar to Sword Art Online. I think I was too excited about the VR part of the story that the rest of the blurb went over my head.

It was fine though, I need to read more out of my comfort zone and I used to love reading science fiction.

The start was captivating. Boys find bones on the school ground, which is insane to say the least, what is even more insane is that one of them took the bones with them, just chilling with a skull in his bag! Then the girl who got the nosebleed which didn't seem weird at first until she was being ushered into a car and was then completely erased from the school records? What really got me hooked with this book however was Gabriel, who had been "kicked out" from NSA. His whole behaviour was unsettling, the way he treats his mother, how much he spends on the VR. I wanted to see how his story would play out.

It took a long time. The book seemed to stretch. Everything that happens within the book takes around a week and there is a lot of stuff and a lot of people to keep track of. It go confusing at times. I liked how brands and advertisements played a huge part of the education systems but I with there had been some more worldbuilding because there was a lot of terminology that we as the reader would not know straight off the bat, such as Meninist and Masculist which I don't even know if it had any relevance to the story now, maybe to build Gabriel's storyline? There was definitely a need for some introduction to the world because it kept me confused for a good half of the book until I kind of understood what was going on.

It's an interesting read and has huge potential, but I don't think I would recommend this book. Too rushed and too heavy with unexplained details. Also EXTREMELY disappointed with Gabriel's ending, very unsatisfied as I wanted to understand his thought process. His whole behaviour was so dangerous.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stranger Things meets Black Mirror and Ready Player One - well I have only seen one episode of Black Mirror and that was the one with the freaky robotic killer dogs, there wasn’t any of them in the book that I could see, so I’m thinking Stranger Things meets Ready Player One meets Grange Hill. That reference might be lost on my readers who don’t live in the UK - Google it, you are in for a treat.

Anyway I digress, Alpha Omega is a satirical look at a world gone mad, set in our near future, kids are attached to electronic learning pads, tech companies are taking over and people are telling us what to eat - actually that sounds exactly like 2020, but imagine it ten times more sinister.

The book is told from the POV of several different characters, Tom the disenchanted teacher, Alice the archaeologist, Gabriel the expelled student and avid gamer, his blind mother Stephanie and Alex a young boy whose sinister discovery kickstarts the book. The setting is split between the real world and the world of Alpha Omega an online universe where you can do anything accessed with VR headsets.

Alex and his pals attended the Nutri Start Skills Academy, a school where literally everything is monitored by their pads and cameras watch their every move. Alex manages to evade them and explore a building site where he discovers some rather grisly objects - a skull and two skeletal hands, being a boy he doesn’t leave them behind, he shoves them in his backpack and sneaks back to school. Things start to go rapidly downhill, are the bones cursed somehow?

Kids start to bleed profusely from their noses, their ears, Tom the kindly teacher is worried, more so when the creepy headteacher doesn’t really seem to care and escorts the children off the premises. He has every right to be worried as more and more kids start pouring with blood, acting strangely and eating things they definitely should not be eating, the school is hiding something and when an ill organised security update goes badly wrong the school descends in to bloody chaos.

Whilst this is happening Gabriel who was expelled from Nutri Start is lured in to working for Alpha Omega, his version of the online universe bends and shapes itself to his every sick wish, but he quickly tires of being a hamster in the Nutri Start wheel and questions his paymasters motives.

Our protagonists find their lives intertwined and they slowly come together to try and find out what the hell is happening at the school, the book is not merely a science fiction explosion its also a bit of detective story too as our cast of characters delve in to the murky underworld of Nutri Start and Alpha Omega.

Just reading this back, the book sounds bonkers but it is bonkers fun, it does not take itself too seriously and there is a definite Britishness about it. It brings together a great cast of characters and they all play a vital role. The book is scary too, is this type of future coming closer to us? Most likely but hopefully with out all the blood and craziness!

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Dale · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn't finish this. I tried, but I kept drifting off when reading it - it was just becoming a chore. No time for that!

[Sarah Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5. It was unnecessarily graphic and had a rather unsatisfying ending.

[Alannah Nelson · Rating 1 out of 5]

had 100 pages left and physically couldn’t finish it. 😭

[Bamba · Rating 1 out of 5]

Really wanted to love this book but I think it just aimed for weird and got incoherent instead.

I loved the dystopion feel and the way that schools were owned by brands and were basically adverts and how everything was streamlined. I wish we had learnt more about how this worked and the different brands and different schools.

I wish we had also learnt more about the world as a whole and how everything connected.

If you are going to create a whole new world and have so many varied ideas...they need to be properly explained and introduced to the audience properly. Ernest Cline did this in a breathtaking way in Ready Player One but this is where Alpha Omega failed for me.

Lots of terms were thrown at the reader like Alpha Omega, Nutristart, Meninist, Masculist etc but absolutely none of them were explained. For any kind of enjoyment for this I think we needed some basic introduction and if the writing style choses to throw us in at the deep end (which I can usually get on board with) then this needs to be unraveled gradually and with a sense of satisfaction. Neither happened here. Information was thrown at us and the reader either understood it or didn't but nothing was actually explained.

I love dystopian fantasies and have read so many amazing ones but this one set the world up and it seemed futuristic and horrible and interesting but then the authors didn't explain it to us at all. There was so much here that was interesting but nothing that helped to make it real and I was very disappointed with that. There was so much time describing to us like the characters of Tooley and Barren..but why? What did those descriptions ultimately lead too? And where did that fit in?

Am I being hard on this book? Absolutely and I apologise...but the reason why...is because this book had so much potential and could easily have been up there with the great dystopian thrillers had it done any sustained world building or explanation at all.

As it was we were rushed from one weird scenario to another...none of which made any cohesive story or any sense at all.

The ending was so disappointing and ended so abruptly that I actually read back and forward a few times to ensure I had actually got the last few chapters.

Gabriel was also such a vile character that I nearly couldn't bear to read his thoughts...but I did in the hope that this would lead to some understanding or revelation of where all of this was leading....but unfortunately I did not feel rewarded by the end

There were some very clever ideas here but unfortunately nothing that made it into an actual engaging story...maybe a short story would have worked better here?

Maybe I just didn't 'get' it and if I didn't then I'm happy to hold my hands up to that...but then...I've never had this problem before...so if I did here then that also speaks volumes or maybe I am just the wrong audience entirely but again that raises questions as to why am I?

Thanks to the authors,publisher and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Doreen · Rating 4 out of 5]

At about the 70% mark, I realized that Alpha Omega could slot very easily into the universe of The Matrix, serving as an entirely convincing origin story, so to speak, of that cyberpunk dystopia. The comparisons drawn between this book and Ernest Clines' Ready Player One are poor: Mr Clines' novel is a Spielbergian adventure with a young hero triumphant, and AO is very much not that. But it's deeper and more rewarding in the end, in my opinion, tho there is a fair amount of chaff to get through before then.

AO is ostensibly the story of Gabriel Backer, a 15 year-old school shooter in the making who was kicked out of the expensive, prestigious Nutristart Skills Academy for irrepressibly hacking their computer systems. Since his expulsion, he's spent most of his time "In World", as being online in the vast virtual game world of Alpha Omega is known, to the chagrin of his sight-impaired mother, Stephanie. When he's approached by someone claiming to be a game dev offering to pay him for playtesting new areas, he's all in.

The majority of the actual story revolves around Tom Rosen, an English and Media teacher at the NSA who's become increasingly disaffected by the school's model-corporate-citizen policies. His breaking point comes when one of his students becomes violently ill, is hustled out by school authorities to a waiting car, then promptly falls off the face of the planet. Another student, Alex "Peepsy" Pepys, is convinced that the weird illnesses befalling the NSA students is a result of his stealing the undoubtedly cursed human remains newly excavated by builders looking to erect an impenetrable security wall around the campus. He, Tom and Gabriel become unwitting partners in figuring out what is happening at the NSA and exposing it to the world.

It's not exactly a spoiler to say that corporate greed is at the bottom of all the shenanigans. It was, however, a shock even to my jaded system to see how Nicholas Bowling so brutally yet elegantly extrapolates from current trends to paint a vision of a corporation-run hellscape dotted with several flavors of misogyny, where people flee to the virtual reality of Alpha Omega for not only entertainment but an almost necessary comfort. It's a bleak, unsettling portrait of a near-ish future, featuring strokes of mad hilarity and the occasional veering into uncomfortable edgelord territory, that also happens to be an ambitious and ultimately successful send-up of Shakespeare's Hamlet.

In all honesty, I wish there had been about one third less of the beginning and one third more added to the end of this novel. While AO ends in a liminal state both haunting and wry that hints at a better future, I really do want to know what happens to our characters next, especially brave, resourceful Maggie. This is a subversively smart novel that starts slowly, builds almost neurotically, then ends in a grand explosion that leaves the reader wanting more in the best way possible.

[Tony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alpha Omega is a fascinating change of direction for an author who is known for writing historical fiction, with a supernatural twang who I met at a book event not too long ago. I have read both his previous novelss and am delighted to see Titan releasing a YA novel which is clearly set in a British school (NutriStart Skills Academy), which uses UK terminology and avoids the American mannerisms you often get with this sort of fiction. I love seeing authors doing something different or unpredictable and Nicholas Bowling certainly does that here.

Part of its effectively is the fact it is set in a very convincing 'near' future, 95% of things are the same, but the story is built around the 5% which if different, particularly the stuff surrounding the school. I think the author works as a teacher, it shows, because the school scenes were incredibly convincing. The action opens with the discovery of a human skull on the fringes of the school, children displaying symptoms of a bloody, unfamiliar contagion, and a catastrophic malfunction in the site’s security system, the NSA is about to experience a week that no amount of rebranding can conceal. The story takes in both teachers and pupils as everything escalates and the school spirals out of control, with the AV game being increasingly influential. Alpha Omega is high quality speculative fiction, which has much to say about social media, mental health, and the impact of digital technology on teenagers. Well worth checking out and I have already bought it for my library. AGE 12+

[Amelia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up this book because I really enjoyed Bowling’s other novel The Follower. They are completely different but equally rich in world building and that pervasive uneasiness. Honestly I read this in two days. I thought each character was really well conceived and I especially enjoyed being the mind of Peepsy. Maybe the most jarring aspect was reading kids live out my corporate reality, the way corporate jargon can destroy language and codify experience at an increasingly granular level is rather depressing…

Throwing in the archaeology provided a really nice juxtaposition and Alice being unable to answer questions of ‘real’ experience and ‘real’ information/data in any meaningful way and her frustration at that raises the big question we’re all facing heading toward the meta verse.

All in all I love the concept and the world, even though (especially because?) it gave me a tickle of an existential crisis.

[Rosy · Rating 2 out of 5]

So I read this and it was a bit confusing for me. I am a teenager and it is an adult book, so that might explain it but I don’t usually have trouble grasping harder material. Like someone else said, I never really got attached to the characters. (Mr. Rosen had to be my favorite though) It was an interesting world concept and had real ideas to think about, but I feel like it could have been more clear and more connected. The ending was also not very satisfying and left on a cliff hanger. Lastly, I thought it would more be a sci-fi distopian type thing but it turned supernatural which didn’t really seem to fit the atmosphere
Likes: Interesting concept, cool world / ideas
Dislikes: execution of plot, pretty confusing, ending

[Heidi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to love this book... The blurb intrigued me and the reviews likening it to Black Mirror persuaded me to request it. Although a YA book, the dark humour and satire were amusing and appreciated. Unfortunately, I wasn’t gripped and I didn’t really care what happened to the characters. I’m not a massive fan of VR so perhaps this is why I lost interest and just skim-read the last third of the book.

Don’t let me put you off though! The other positive reviews sum the book up perfectly and if this is up your street, it’s very well written! Just not for me.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC :)

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

After finishing Aloha Omega the best I can give this book is 2.5 stars. When I picked up this novel I was excited to dive into an interesting plot with a really great concept however after finishing the book, I’m rather disappointed. My biggest complaint is simply how confusing the writing was. As I went further into the story I continued to become more confused and less interested. I found it really hard to get a good mental image of the setting/events going on in the book. Overall I would say if you are very detailed oriented and patient reader this may be a better book for you but if you enjoy descriptive characters and settings that flow with the plot I wouldn’t recommend.

[Bron · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a mediocre near future science fiction. It tried to develop an dystopian depiction of education systems but overlaid that with 'what if Second Life could steal your soul'. The combination of troupes made some of the book feel a bit out of date and overworked.

There was a brief point at about the 2/3 point in th book where it was flowing well and I thought it might just be a slow starter. Unfortunately it floundered again towards the end. I did finish it so I'll give it a second star.

[Liz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay, so I found this book at a fancy Dollar Tree that sells books for $1.25. I love some dystopian skewering of late stage capitalism so I figured why not? (And of course, the title made me giggle.) Well, unfortunately this was a bit of a disappointment. The author actually did an amazing job maintaining numerous plotlines and character POVs, but when I got to the end it was kind of like... What was the point of all that? An unfortunate fumble after 400 pages.

[Nadia Zeemeeuw · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think my reading experience with this book can be described very briefly like "what have I actually read just now"? It felt like reading a very raw TV-show screenplay which started promising then finished like Lost. I got my copy from a ABC Booklover Science Fiction box - and it was only reason I brought myself to finish it because of some unhealthy duty.

[Kale · Rating 1 out of 5]

Fantastic premise, absolutely terrible execution. It built up to nothing. I'm honestly not sure if my copy was missing pages at the end because it felt like the author just hit a deadline and gave up. So disappointed with this book.

[Hikewriterepeat · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unreadable. I gave it over 50 pages. Too cryptic and so slow-moving, it was not enjoyable waiting for something to happen so I could figure out what was going on.

[Antonio Fernandes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great book but a terrible ending. Was so hooked until the last 10 pages. Left with so many questions about the story line!

[Jenn The Unicorn · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.75⭐️

[Payton · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn’t even finish. I had no idea what was going on the entire time.

[Francesca Vignazia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this book with every inch of my being… right up until I realised it was nearing the end and nothing had actually been resolved or explained. 🥲
I was extremely disappointed by the ending (or lack thereof), but the vibes and the story for most of the book were so strong that it’s still a 4/5 from me. It was SO CLOSE to being perfect.

[TBHONEST · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alpha Omega is a fascinating and immersive read, which is extremely topical given the global covid-19 pandemic, eerily so in parts that it gets a little freaky. Well worth a read.