The Visionary: A Dystopian Sci-Fi

Tion

by J.C. Gemmell

At the beginning of February 2060, Mount Erebus erupted, the first of a chain of Antarctic volcanoes that forever changed Earth’s future. Within days, sea levels began to rise, until sixty metres of water claimed coastlines worldwide.

Twelve-year-old Xin-yi and her mother fled their home, surviving amongst a community of rice farmers. A year later, a chance conversation with international census officials prepared her for a new life.

Now fourteen, Xin-yi commences her training as a visionary. It is her task to imagine a new Earth, rising above the drowning waters. Thousands of young people strive to design a world in which the displaced millions can live, and engineer a solution that will take a millennium to populate.

But Xin-yi’s challenges are more personal: coming to terms with the loss of her brother and unexpected feelings toward a friend. She has to choose between working to benefit humanity and her internal conflict with love.

Set over three decades after the 2060 flood, The Visionary combines dystopian, future and science fiction, and introduces J.C. Gemmell’s Tion series.

Genres: Dystopia

146 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 8, 2021

About the author

With scientist parents and steady exposure to the original Star Trek and Asimov’s boundless imagination, J.C. Gemmell was always surrounded by sci-fi stories. Despite the lure of fantasy sagas—Eddings, Tolkien and then Donaldson—a battered copy of Logan’s Run made him realise speculative futures were where the best stories lived.

Fast-forward a couple of decades, and he was deep in the world of computer science, riding the wave of technology before it was cool (or at least before it ruled the world). Eventually, he bought a home computer (for fun) and, instead of doing anything sensible with it, unleashed years of pent-up creativity.

Now, J.C. Gemmell crafts rich, unsettling visions of the future, blending intricate plots, diverse characters and profound moral dilemmas. Drawing on his career in Research & Development, he brings authenticity to his speculative fiction, particularly in how technology shapes society. Living on the south coast of England with his partner and two Maine Coon cats, he spends a lot of time watching the sea and dreaming up the futures we all might face.

Find out more about the author at jcgemmell.com

Reviews

[Kelly Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a difficult time evaluating a book like this. On the one hand, I found it to be creative, so I applaud the author for that. On the other hand, I did not enjoy many things about it. The writing style is very much telling rather than showing. I have been told that in certain types of fantasy and/or Sci/fi stories, this style of writing is usual and even expected, but I'd much rather be shown what is happening through action and dialogue. However, the telling is done in a skillful way. It just illustrates that readers have different tastes and this one did not happen to suit mine. However, I believe it would appeal to other readers, those who prefer sci/fi and fantasy.
Each chapter progressed a Chinese year in the story; it's an interesting method that I had not seen done before. Unfortunately, this did not allow for much development of relationships between the MC, Xin-Yi, and others in her life. When we meet Xin-Yi, a 12-year-old girl living in China, she lives with her mother, brother and father. We see her interact with her brother and mother. I would have liked to see more of the sibling relationship in particular, but Xin-Yi and her mother are soon separated from her brother and father due to a sudden flood.
As the years pass, Xin-Yi becomes part of an international program to develop the intellectual skills of bright young minds, tasking these "visionaries" to devise plans for human survival under this new world ravaged by global warming. All the young people chosen for this task have a "mark" to represent their inner mind. In Xin-Yi's case it is a beetle that crawls all over her body and talks both to her and to the marks of the others. For me, this aspect detracted from the story. At one point, we learn that Xin-Yi loves a peer, but since there is so little interaction shown between them, the only reason we are given for this emotion is that the young man is handsome.
On the positive side, I found the descriptions of the devastation that global warming, as well as volcano eruptions, has caused throughout the world to be compelling and well thought out. So for me, this was a mixed bag, but I encourage lovers of Sci/fi to give it a try.

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

The visionary is a fast paced dystopian sci-fi. Set in the future, a huge volcanic eruption melts the polar icecaps sends the world into disarray. We follow a young girl, who flees with her mother to higher ground and tried to make a life for herself. The whole world, and it’s governments have collapsed and there is a real sense of despair. But then a team comes and takes the MC to become a ‘visionary’ - someone who literally envisages the future and dreams up solutions to the worlds problems.

There’s a lot going on in the first few chapters, and I think things could have been fleshed out a little more and better explained.
The author crammed so much into this story- but it’s only short. It covers so much ground in such a short space of time that I think it may have worked better as a longer piece where the plot points were fully fleshed out and we could see more character growth and development.

There are a lot of themes touched upon- religion, class, manipulation, control, ethics, and more, but these could have been explored more deeply. I feel like we just touched upon them and then moved onto something else.

I didn’t care much for the main character. She was difficult to warm to right the way through. I had little to no emotional connection with her- something that is vital to keeping me hooked into a story. None of the characters really stood out to me, I couldn’t tell you what any of their personality traits are with any degree of certainty.

I thought the way the author showed the passage of time with the chapter titles was really great and something a little bit different.
All in all I enjoyed the interesting and imaginative plot, and the writing/editing was well presented, but I would have liked to delve deeper into the characters and the themes of the book.

[Feather Chelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short dystopian sci-fi

This was a short, dystopian sci-fi story like no other I have read. The ice in Antarctica has melted and covered much of the world. Young “visionaries” are recruited to solve the dilemma with futuristic technology. A new end very interesting society begins to form. The author is very imaginative and talented. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys either of these genres.

[Gabrielle Olexa · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Lot Under the Surface

There are so many different levels to this book. A lot happens in so few pages. Maybe a little too much. We dabbled in an array of topics - family, religion, government, global warming, science, technology, the near and new future, just to name a few - but never really followed them all to their true depths. I felt there were many opportunities to go farther with some, but we stayed on their periphery - given glimpses of a much bigger picture. And the ones that were on the forefront, there was still so much I wanted to learn and understand because it was intriguing. It felt like a true possibility in my life. I guess what I’m trying to say is this could have easily have been a 400 - 600 page book if more time was spent on those moments. I would have read it.

In the way the world rebuilds itself, as computers and technology reclaim the world, I could see all of that in a Black Mirror episode.

I thought the title chapters were creative and did a good job showing the passage of time.

Tej, along with the other marks, gave the book a cool a sci-fi vibe.

Xin Yi was an interesting and complex character.

Overall, it was a good read, but I was left wanting.

[Joshua · Rating 3 out of 5]

The prose and descriptions of this short post-apocalyptic fiction were beautiful, some of the best I've seen from self-published work. However, the structure and pace of the story just didn't do it for me. In 77 pages we cover a span of nearly 50 years, which doesn't give the characters time to develop and makes hypothesized future events, such as the building of concentric spheres above the earth's surface to replace land, or the creation of artificial consciousness seem crazier than they already are. Maybe I've been reading too much energy non-fiction and collapse fiction, but I have a hard time believing in these techno-optimist futures anymore. The events are also rushed, so it is difficult to really get a a sense as to what is going on globally in the time period of each vignette. However, it was a quick read, and I would be excited to see more longer fiction from this author.

[Harmony Kent · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick and easy dystopian read on the possible effects of global warming.

I haven't read this author before, but I shall be sure to check out more of J C Gemmell's books.

"A dragon is coming for us." From this compelling opening line, we meet the main character, Xin Yi, who we follow over a period of decades. Each chapter covers a particular Chinese year, and there can be a leap of quite a few years from one to the next.

I found the characters a little wooden in places but on the whole real enough. The word building and scenarios were entirely believable, and I loved the idea of the visionaries and their inner selves made real. I would love to see this story written as a full novel rather than a novella, which would allow the characters to come more fully alive without the gaps of time the reader is presented with here.

The writing is compelling and creative, and here are some lines I loved ...

"The water seemed slow enough to outrun, but it was as terrifying as the Antarctic dragon."

And ...

"Tej was his own person whilst being part of me at the same time. I had to listen to him because I was him."

Sometimes I found it difficult to identify who was speaking due to a lack of dialogue tags and/or beats. At times, the tense kept switching between past and present. Apart from these glitches, the writing was done well, and the story is engrossing and all too realistic. The Visionary gets a solid four stars from me. Go read this book!

***

NOTE ON RATINGS: I consider a 3-star rating a positive review. Picky about which books I give 5 stars to, I reserve this highest rating for the stories I find stunning and which moved me.

5 STARS: IT WAS AMAZING! I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN! — Highly Recommended.
4 STARS: I WOULD PULL AN ALL-NIGHTER — Go read this book.
3 STARS: IT WAS GOOD! — An okay read. Didn’t love it. Didn’t hate it.
2 STARS: I MAY HAVE LIKED A FEW THINGS —Lacking in some areas: writing, characterisation, and/or problematic plot lines.
1 STAR: NOT MY CUP OF TEA —Lots of issues with this book.

[Anselm Patey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a difficult one to review. On the one hand, I appreciated how the author has obviously very intelligently executed a particular tradition of science fiction that gives equal priority to exploring certain ideas and telling a story. On the other hand, I also have to admit that it's a tradition I personally don't find that compelling to read. 'The Visionary' left me with the same feeling I remember having after reading 'The Mold of Yancy' by Philip K Dick: accutely aware that I'd just read something very creative, intelligent and possibly insightful, but also more than a little confused and only somewhat entertained.

The essential premise is a very original one, and the view the book takes is a very wide one describing grand projects, events and passages of time. There is a degree of character development and interraction, but I didn't find it interesting enough to talk much about. It's a short work and I listened to the audiobook in an afternoon at work, and it was intriguing enough that I was still glad I invested the time.

Two things I will say: Firstly, I've seen this categorised as "Teen& Young Adult" and for ages 14-18. If your 14-18 year old reads Isaac Asimov, this may be true, but on the whole I really struggle to imagine anyone in this age band enjoying this. Secondly, the narration for the audiobook is good, but the reader has some very strange and stilted pronounciation for the accented dialogue, especially the German and Icelandic and I found is rather jarring at times.

Overall, it's a worthwhile read, especially if you're into very introspective, philosophical science fiction or any of the authors or works I've mentioned.

[S.A. Adams · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Visionary is a story about Xin-Yi, a Chinese farmer in the future where global climate temperatures are rapidly rising, along with the encroaching sea.
At first, I thought the dragon angle would be the crux of the story, but it wasn't. I then thought perhaps the "dragon" might be a metaphor for the carbon/fossil fuel industry. (Perhaps it still was meant to be?)
In any case, this theme takes a back seat in the second half of the novel, in which Xin-Yi becomes a "visionary," a select few people with extraordinary abilities. I liked this aspect of the story, it was creative, and the world-building was excellent.
An example is when one of the boys in her village offers to become an apprentice tanner. Human beings have been reduced to learning trades. This is just one example of how well thought the dystopian future the author has created.
However, I do feel the novel shifts gears so dramatically, you wonder whether it is almost two different stories. The dragon just "goes away" and the real threat becomes a quantum computing world where "The Company wants us to cheat death. To create an afterlife that has nothing to do with your god." ---What? How did we get there so fast? Not to say these two themes aren't connected, it was just such a leap.
This minor gripe should not detract anyone. "The Visionary" is superbly written, and the author clearly has a great understanding of the subject matter. Because of this, I thoroughly enjoyed the book and would recommend it for any fellow hard sci-fi fans. I doubt the Bonn Supercomputer Unit could have written this better.

[Amanda Sheridan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Visionary by J C Gemmell is a fascinating short novel set in the not-too-distant future when Mt Erebus erupts in the Antarctic, setting off a chain of super volcanos and subsequent tsunamis around the world. But that isn’t the worst part.
The eruption caused the ice caps to melt and resulted in worldwide rises in sea levels to the tune of sixty metres. The continents are changed forever and this is permanent.
The planet is changed forever and the population that survived have to adapt to their new lives.
Xin-ye is twelve-year-old girl in China, orphaned and alone, when this happens. She is taken in by officials and begins her training to become a visionary, tasked with imagining the technology that is required to repair civilisation.
Although a short book, only 146 pages, I loved it and thoroughly enjoyed it. I loved the characters and the science, although most of it went over my head, is interesting.
The concept of how humanity moved forward is mind-blowing.

[Ray Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow

A very interesting book about the future. I would have never thought of this type of future. A great read and interesting tale.

[Elizabeth Montano · Rating 5 out of 5]

How an author can cover so many important topics (natural disaster, global-warming, belief-systems, family, relationships, the new normal) and weave them altogether in a riveting novella about a futuristic society ruled by technology is confounding. Yet, that's exactly what J.C. Gemmell has managed to do with The Visionary.

The worldbuilding is phenomenal, character development is outstanding and the writing style is easy to read. And his prose, while not flowery, is thought-provoking and compelling. For example:
"We speculated what the world must have been like before the plastic poisoning of the food chain, how incredible it must have been to walk into the sea and catch dinner."

While The Visionary is completely its own imaginative story, the overall tone and quality of work reminded me of George Orwell's 1984. Yeah ... it's really that good. If you're a fan of this genre, this book is a must read! I recommend it even if it's not your typical genre of choice. I will definitely be reading more of this author's work!

[Bogdan Tăbușcă · Rating 3 out of 5]

So, the book starts out okay, there is a palpable sense of panic being communicated and the constant switch towards the great Erebus, the metaphorical dragon was nice, containing many subtleties, or at least I hope it does.
The problem starts to appear soon after, when things have calmed down a bit, but the story still feels in a rush. The confusion is captured well and the first person perspective was done well, but then serve to hinder the story as it goes on. The characters are not likable, other than Xin-yi's mother, and they certainly don't behave and act the part. The most laughable example of this is when little Xin, who is like twelve years old, meets with Herr Bauman. She is like "What's the status?" and the census guy is like "Governments haven't collapsed yet..." Idkn, but I don't think a grown up adult would just unload like that on a child.

After this, the story becomes hard to follow, characters and locations are quickly changed and very little is explained. My main complaint is the envisioning process itself, since it is key to the story, yet it is very waved off. Like does Xin-yi just imagine something and Tej just spits out plans of how can someone achieve that? Are there limits? What if it requires things not yet understood by others? Questions that you will never be able to find answers to in this book, despite their prevalence.

Oh and the plans to cool down the earth are some of the most extravagant and dumb I have ever heard, no offense, but a high school boy who regularly attends his physics classes would be able to tell that. I get that it is a fantasy, but the book is still based on the real world setting, meaning it has to abide by real world natural laws or at least invent some magic mcgufin that explains why those physics defying projects would even be possible.
I am glad that at least in the end we get to see one of the more 'plausible' ones put into action.
In the end, the book becomes a little bit more concise and the twist is genuinely interesting. I must say I've enjoyed it a bit, but alas this very hazy book.

The main problem of the book I would say is its pace and lack of descriptions. Everything feels unclear and it leaves you trying to piece things together (not in a good way). I get it that is short, but there are plot points and fluff that could be very well removed and used to just explain things, add transitions and add details that flesh out the scenes.

For me personally the book was saved by its ending and I would have given it a 2/5 if were not for the dirt cheap price tag of of free that the book had for me, which is hard to argue against.

[Christopher Denton · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Little Unfocused

The Visionary is a complex post-apocalyptic dystopian adventure that reminded me very much of Son of Heaven from the bestselling Chung Kuo series from the nineties but with some later elements feeling more like Black Mirror.

The Opening

The first chapter is full of action and offers a great hook. However, the first few pages are written in a very telling fashion, being general and not specific in the moment. It didn’t ground me or make me feel like I was there.

The biggest problem I had with the opening was that it felt ambiguous. I wasn’t clear on whether Erebus was an actual dragon or simply a fanciful way of describing the actual volcano in Antarctica most famous for the plane crash in the seventies.

At first, I read the opening as if Erebus was an actual dragon, some kind of homage to popular Japanese tales of monsters climbing from the depths of the Pacific Ocean to destroy civilization. As the novel developed, I began to understand it was simply an over emphasis on the metaphor.

Thankfully, the narrative becomes more shown as the story develops. Sadly, it didn’t really immerse me because of the fast-forward nature of the prose.

The Characters

Xin-yi is the main protagonist from Guangzhou. On a personal note, this made me chuckle because I have a niece from Guangzhou called Xin-mei. Different xin, mind. The problem with Chinese is that it’s full of homophones. The xin in the story refers to “heart” while Xin-mei’s xin means “new” as in “New China”, a common poetic reference in Mandarin and a family in-joke since her father is called Great Wall and there’s a famous poem about a rose symbolizing China at the Great Wall.

Anyway, that’s all irrelevant to this story except to note that I’ve been to the places described in the story and know them well. I’m also aware that Xin-yi’s surname Shi means stone in Mandarin, which has interesting connections with the protagonist’s personality.

Xin-yi is a sympathetic character from the outset because of the events that overtake her as modern society collapses. However, I didn’t feel she was a proactive protagonist. All the way through this novel, she mainly reacts to events as they happen rather than being proactive. Despite the fact that she is “the visionary”, most of the major plot development happens without her, and it feels like she’s just on the sidelines, watching.

Instead of being responsible for getting things started and setting her own agenda, other characters manipulate Xin-yi and put her into positions where she creates what she creates.

Grimur Rafnkelsson is a much more interesting character. He actually is proactive, and you get the feeling he is much more in the know than Xin-yi, much closer to the center of events, and more of an active participant in the important changes in society. As the story continued, I wondered why he wasn’t the viewpoint narrator. The story would be far clearer and more interesting seen through his eyes.

Michelle Takahashi is singularly the most interesting character in the story. Sadly, we see very little of her despite the fact that she’s actually the most proactive character and almost everything that happens is because of her and her dreams/vision. She is the true visionary, but we don’t get to see her achieving her vision.

The Plot

The main plot conflict relates to the changing environment. This story is all about how Xin-yi and her colleagues fight against nature to create a new world.

As the story continued, I soon made connections with the Son of Heaven from the bestselling Chung Kuo series I first read in the nineties. The vision that Xin-yi initially has is quite similar to the setting of the older book. However, her final vision is more in line with some episodes of Black Mirror and technology seen in many popular sci-fi stories today, such as Old Man’s War and Upload.

While this story is interesting in some ways, it didn’t really feel like there was a plot. What I mean is that typically you have a protagonist and that protagonist has a goal, something she really wants. The conflict of the story then is whatever prevents her from achieving that goal.

Xin-yi never feels like she has any goals. That’s part of her lack of proactivity. Her only real goal is to find her brother, and that never feels like a serious endeavor. She soon forgets about him when reconnected with civilization. Instead of having goals, other people push goals onto her, especially Michelle Takahashi.

So, while I really enjoyed reading this story, it never felt like it was going anywhere. Xin-yi is simply reacting to events as other people push her into new jobs, going where they say and doing what they ask her to do. I couldn’t grasp what the story was really about, where it was headed. It just felt like a prequel to the Chung Kuo world.

The resolution didn’t satisfy me. The main part of the ending relates to the fate of Grimur and Xin-yi’s brother, but I can’t say more without introducing spoilers.

The Setting

As I’ve already mentioned, much of the setting felt similar to that found in the Chung Kuo series and in Dark Mirror.

Unlike in Chung Kuo, the structures created didn’t feel plausible. In the way they were described, plate tectonics and continued volcanic activity are completely ignored, though I’m sure there was some mechanism for dealing with them over the long term that was left out to keep the narrative easy to follow.

The marks were an interesting novelty. However, they were introduced in a confusing way. Because Xin-yi didn’t know what they were, neither did this reader. Later, their role becomes clearer. But Xin-yi must have understood what they were pretty soon, so I’m unclear why the reader had to be kept in the dark for so long.
The Prose

The prose is clear and easy to follow. However, it often becomes telling and didn’t really engage me.

My Opinion

There are a lot of positive elements to this novel. It has an intriguing setting and some originality in the marks used in the story. The changes happening to the world and to society are also interesting, and I enjoyed reading about them.

However, I frequently got the feeling that I’ve read it before. This is mainly because I read the Chung Kuo books many years ago, but also because of the viewpoint character.

If we had been in Michelle’s head or Grimur’s, we would have been in the middle of the action and seen where things were going. Instead, I just felt like I was somewhere on the sidelines throughout the story.

I’m going to rate it as 5 out of 10, which will translate to 3 out of 5 on Goodreads and Amazon. There are some good elements to the story, but it was too ambiguous and not focused enough for my tastes.

[Pippa Hoover · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Visionary tells the story of Xin-yi, a girl coming of age during a global climate crisis that causes widespread flooding. After being separated from her father and brother, she is recruited by an international organization to become visionary. Visionaries are elite young people charged with imagining solutions to the flooding crisis and all the problems that have come along with it.

From the first sentence, I thought this book had a lot of promise. I liked the setting, and I liked the simple, straightforward prose. There were also some creative ideas in the story, such as animated tattoos that can communicate with their humans and with other people’s tattoos and solving climate change by sending water into space.

As the book progressed though, I found myself wishing it were more fleshed out. There wasn’t a lot of character development, and there were a few moments where it was a little confusing how the protagonist got from one scene to the next. I think slowing the pace and including a bit more detail would have made the story easier to follow and given the characters more depth. Also, I thought the themes of religion/faith versus atheism and humanity versus technology were a little too obvious and heavy-handed. It might have been easier to make this theme emerge more naturally in a longer story.

Overall, it was an interesting read with some fresh ideas that could have used more development.

[Martin Slidel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I believe this novella is a precursor to a trilogy. If outside my usual genre, I feel encouraged to read on. In comparison with Moorcock’s ‘future fiction’ (excessively imaginative) JC’s writing despite touches of Surrealism appears Realistic. If characterisations are not extended to the fullest reach of emotive response it serves to ground them. It is to engage the reader who does form attachment and recognition despite being placed in a world unknown. As another facet of a post-apocalyptic scenario, it provides further dichotomy with the rise of AI, alongside climate change, no longer unreal.

This is clever and successful writing. The slightest glitches, I cannot revive. ‘Visionary’ is not as brutal as Nation’s or Eyres’ ‘Survivors’. Or as horrific as McCarthy’s ‘The Road’. But nevertheless stands in its own right. Very well-considered, and succinct, an achievement in its field. I could not help but envisage the story as a Ghibli animation. This reviewer loves short fiction and a single criticism is again a contradiction. It is that its narrative arc/timescale may not best suit the lifespan of the protagonists. IMHO, an expanded edition would hold very well.

A four-star book which merits a wide audience. So, five stars for that. And for originality. And because its quiet pathos, wisdom, and underlying social comment linger.

[Andrew Baltasar · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Visionary offers a unique take on climate fiction, following a young girl named Xin-yi as she grows up in a post-flood world and is chosen to help reimagine Earth’s future. The story begins with a powerful image—a volcanic eruption in Antarctica that triggers catastrophic sea-level rise. From there, we follow Xin-yi over the span of decades as she trains to become a “visionary,” part of a generation tasked with saving humanity.

The premise is compelling and timely, especially with its focus on climate change, technology, and global collaboration. I liked how the story explores ideas like displacement, loss, and hope through Xin-yi’s eyes. Some elements, like her connection to a mysterious beetle that guides her visions, felt more symbolic than literal, but they added a layer of mysticism to the science fiction.

That said, the book sometimes leans more toward telling than showing, and I wish we had more time to explore Xin-yi’s relationships, especially with her brother and the people around her. The jumps in time are ambitious but can make it harder to feel emotionally anchored.

Still, this is a thoughtful and original novella with important messages about our planet’s future. If you’re into speculative fiction with a philosophical edge—and don’t mind a more reflective pace—it’s worth checking out.

[Lauren Eason · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a book with so few pages, it definitely had a lot to say! In fact, I thought this book could do a little better with being longer as there was so much happening.

The story follows a woman named Shi Xin-yi who finds herself separated from part of her family after a tsunami hits her city in China. The book is set in a post-apocalyptic world where the melting of the glaciers in Antarctica leads to the awakening of a long, frozen dragon. This dragon then continues to thaw the ice caps leading to rising sea levels that take over coastal cities, driving the people inland, and in turn, causing more catastrophic events which lead to humans having to find another way to survive.

Xin-yi is chosen to become a part of this new society where she’s trained to work as a visionary. This is where the story becomes a little muddled because I don’t think it gives enough detail to fully explain what visionaries do. In fact, there’s a section in the story that says if you come to understand how visionaries work, then you’re no longer one - which to me seemed like a way of saying that no one was supposed to understand how they work in the first place.

From what I gathered, visionaries would dream up solutions of how to solve problems affecting the world like the sea levels and then people known as engineers would come in and build those visions. Each visionary received a mark which set them apart from others as this mark was like an internal sidekick that mimicked their subconscious to help them problem solve.

This story had a very complex plot that I don’t think fully delivered with each task presented. Some of the solutions dreamed up by these visionaries seemed scientifically impossible to me such as having straws draw up the contents of the ocean via suction into space - but even this couldn’t be accomplished without first destroying the moon to create the suction. That seemed a little of a stretch, in my opinion.

I rolled along with it though and thoroughly enjoyed the second half of the book where Xin-yi worked on a program that redesigned the consciousness of a living person into a computer program so that they could have their own version of Heaven, living out their days as an algorithm if they wanted while still being useful to the world by retaining their knowledge. That was pretty cool and gave me Matrix vibes.

However, this part was short and I, honestly, felt like this book could’ve been 300+ pages on this concept alone. I understand there are more stories about Tion from this author, so I may check those out to see what else there is to learn about this new society. The book hit on so many different, and some would say, controversial topics, like politics, segregation, spirituality, government influence, etc.

The only thing I would say about this story was that there was a lot going on, but we didn’t get to see a lot of the moving parts. Chapters were sometimes spaced over the course of years and in between that time we were only given a brief taste of the progress society had made. I didn’t feel very connected to any particular characters because they were brief besides for Xin-yi. But even then, she seemed emotionally detached from everything around her.

Overall, I thought the concept was cool, but it was a little hard for me to understand. I’m not as adept with science fiction stories, so it may be due to my own ignorance towards this genre.

[Valinora Troy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting ideas which deserve a longer book
The Visionary is set in the decades following a volcanic eruption in the Antarctic which causes much of the world to be flooded. In the chaos of people fleeing their homes, 12 year old Xin-yi and her mother are separated from her brother and father as they leave for refuge in the mountains. The story then follows the rebuilding of the world and the role Xin-yi plays in it.
Told in first person by Xin-yi, each chapter concerns events set at different times over the course of three decades. The author is clearly very imaginative. I loved the animated tattoos, and how, by using their minds, the visionaries could conjure up solutions for engineers to build. However, it is a very short book, with lots of high concepts, and I struggled to visualise how any of this actually worked. I feel a longer book is needed to explore these ideas further or provide enough detail to suspend my disbelief.
The author writes well and Xin-yi’s voice is strong and consistent throughout the story. While I liked the structure of the story, the chapters became a list of things that Xin-yi accomplished or conversations she had. This gave a diary-like feel to the story, I felt outside the story rather than immersed in it.
The story is about the rebuilding of the world and the role the Xin-yi plays in the re-imagining. It is not an action or character driven story, there are no twists or turns of the plot, no goals or high stakes, no conflict or antagonists, so while written well enough to keep me reading on to see where it was going, it didn’t seem to be going anywhere.
Xin-yi is quite a passive character, seemingly content in doing her work. Although she talks about looking for her brother (and he, real or visualised, plays an important part), she doesn’t make any serious effort to look for him. She has some insecurities and regrets but they are skimmed over, again due to the length of the book. Although she starts as a twelve year old, and by the end of the story is in her 40’s, she doesn’t grow or change. I felt quite distant from her, there was no emotional hook for me. Her character could have been fleshed out and developed in a longer book. The only other character we spent much time with was Grimur, an Icelandic Lutheran, kind of mentor to Xin-yi. I am not sure on what his role is in the story. I suspect it related to one the themes the book lightly touches on, God versus Man, Christianity versus atheism, caring for others versus manipulation, ethics and morality. Unfortunately, these themes are not explored in any depth.
This book is the first in a series, and I think fans would enjoy reading how the rebuilt world (definitely a dystopian nightmare) came into being. For me, however, while the prose is polished and the story imaginative, due to the lack of character, plot and theme development, I couldn’t engage with it so it is a disappointing 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3 stars for Amazon and Goodreads.

[Jen R. · Rating 3 out of 5]

The cover and synopsis of this book caught my attention and I was fascinated by where this story would take me. The book centers around the main character, Xinyi, a 12-year-old girl residing in China during the year 20148. When Mount Erebus, a volcano in Antarctica erupts, it results in a chain reaction of other catastrophes around the world causing flooding and global warming. It becomes so severe that governments are subsequently collapsing or on the verge of falling. The internet and power grids eventually fail. As the water levels quickly rise, Xinyi and her mother flee to higher ground with their church and begin cultivating rice. Xinyi’s father is presumed to be safe at his job location but no one knows for sure and Xinyi’s brother Sheng is separated during the evacuation process. When there is no word of their welfare, the worst is presumed. Amongst this chaos, a team of “Global Experts” show up in a van and proceed to tell the group of farmers, including Xinyi, that they don’t represent any government but are only trying to restore and improve humanity. Xinyi becomes fascinated with them despite their cult like, anti-democratic, self-righteous, globalist, and communist world views. Two months later, the group returns and Xinyi elects to join the group when she is selected and abandons her mother. Once she completes her indoctrination, her job is to simply come up creative ideas to fix global problems. She is told the super computers will be actually figuring the mechanics and laborers will be doing the actual hands-on work. I didn’t understand why Xinyi, being only 12, was selected out of the entire group of people and I found it hard to believe that she would actually leave with a group of uncanny strangers after the loss of her brother and father. Moreover, as the story progressed it seemed like many of the solutions Xinyi came up with were unscientific and completely impossible (i.e., using straws to empty the oceans into space). Even with this idea, Xinyi didn’t want to merely remove some of the excess water, she wanted to completely rid the entire world of oceans. Finally, instead of focusing on the storyline, it seemed like the main goal of this book was to check off and glorify every single politically correct topic imaginable. Initially it was an irritation, but as it continued non-stop it became unbearable. This story had great potential with interesting characters that could’ve been developed but it did not deliver for me personally.

[Rob The Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fascinating science fiction novella by J.C. Gemmell that explored a lot of heady concepts about environmental destruction, loss, classism, digitization, and the future of humankind.

One would think that these are too many topics to cover in a single novella, but author Gemmell proves you wrong. The author's background in computers clearly shows here and it's to the story's strength. Every solution to that cataclysmic environmental destruction is very clearly thought out and quite inventive. These proposals (especially the utilization of cell phones for their processing power) struck me as inventive and I admired the work for that.

The main character, who I'll refer to as Xin goes through quite an arc here and this for me is where the story hits its negative points. I was very invested in Xin's character at the beginning. Gemmell has a talent for rooting you in the mundanities and intricacies of a disaster in a very compelling way. Looking for her missing father and brother could easily have dominated the whole work, but to its detriment it did not. For once the reconstruction and design of the 'spheres' comes into play, particularly with the creation of a mechanical/insectoid sentient tattoo (that's about as much as I could glean), the finer points of the technological leaps strain credibility. Furthermore the execution of these solutions was baffling. I found it quite difficult to understand what was going on, save for the digitization of people and the replication of class structures.
I was hoping to rely on the previously strong characterization of Xin to guide me through these hurdles, but the author chose to portray her evolution as becoming less emotional. I couldn't relate to her feelings after a certain point, which might have been the point.
Given the author's skill at laying the groundwork and the emotional beats this story starts and ends with, it's a little confusing how it loses these elements in the middle.

This Visionary story is the setup for a series, but the conclusion to this story is satisfying in its own right. However, as well written and clever as its premise was, I am not motivated to seek out the series. So for me, it's a mixed feeling.

Should you read this?
If you're looking for strong character work, know that it'll start strong and end strong.
If you're looking for heady ideas about the future of the human race, then the Visionary has it. I hope you can grasp the concepts.

[Sal · Rating 3 out of 5]

An impersonal read with hit-and-miss elements

The Visionary by J.C. Gemmell has a forward-thinking bent to it, encapsulating natural disasters such as hurricanes erupting alongside the perils of climate change far into the future. There is an inescapable bleakness to the book throughout that made it hard for me to fully enjoy.

That said, it is a well-told, interesting story that begins in Guangzhou City in China, where rice paddy fields abound. The protagonist is twelve-year-old Xin-yi, who is smart and brave and longs to leave her homeland to save the world. Early on in the story, she is separated from her brother, Sheng, and spends decades of her future searching for him. Sheng’s separation from his family was the result of bad timing and the disaster of the sea level rising at an exponential rate. Nonetheless, it seemed to me that Xin-yi and her mother could have perhaps done more to try to find him before leaving the city themselves.

Gemmell packs a lot of information into the prose. As the chapters move forward, so do the periods of time, often at what seems like a speedy rate. I think The Visionary might have been better if the tale would have been more spread out and contained a less robotic feel.

As I read the book, my interest in the story piqued and waned. I found much of the plot to be too fantastical. I’m also starting to think that the accompaniment of an animal or bug alongside the protagonist is becoming an overly used cliche in books like this. In this story, a beetle that resides inside Xin-yi’s clothing and sometimes her inside wrist is what gives her treasured “visionary” status.

I liked the conversations about religion in the story, and how China seems to be a freer society in the future, given that access to info in the country is regarded as “the most important of human rights.” I sensed animosity toward America in the book, though some of the most important discoveries in Xin-yi’s sludgy career occur during her time in California. However, that’s also around the time I started having a harder time staying focused on the story. The part in the book that referred to “the European lockdown of 2021” was a clever touch.

All in all, The Visionary is an interesting book that I see, based on reviews, appeals to many. Though it’s not my cup of tea, I respect the writing and the effort.

[Matt Hazel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book takes place in the not-so-distant, but in a dramatically different dystopian future. Volcanic eruptions in Antarctica have melted the polar ice caps flooding the earth and submerging coastal towns and entire nations.

The premise for this book is original and the fast-paced action in the opening chapter engage the reader. Our main character must flee the quickly rising waters with her mother while sadly her brother is left behind to fend for himself. My major objection is that it moves too quickly and doesn’t properly introduce major concepts and themes.

One of those is our main character’s development into a “Visionary”. Government officials identify her during a routine census and begin her training, but I felt this whole process wasn’t adequately explained. How many people have these skills? Were they brought on by the volcanic eruptions or were they always present? How are individuals even identified?

The rest of the book spans several decades as the “Visionaries” work to imagine a new world under the supervision of several Corporations and Conglomerates, while construction begins on various spheres that will eventually house the global citizens above the ocean’s waters. They also develop quantum computers with the ability to store people’s spirits/souls for eternity – somewhat reminiscent of The Matrix. This is another concept that wasn’t fully explained. The reader is never told why these souls are being stored – to reduce the world’s population? Are these souls a potential energy source?

Visionaries also appear to have psychokinetic abilities as they’re able to summon or create “marks”. Again, an interesting concept that I felt wasn’t properly explained to the reader.

This book has a lot of promise, but its length is what prevented it from being remarkable. At only 77 pages, I felt it was just too short to fully hash out the characters and plot, and it made it difficult for me to get immersed into the story.

The author J.C. Gremmell has the skills, imagination and abilities to be a top-quality science fiction writer, I just wish there was more. I will seek out his work in the future, because beyond a doubt, the potential is there.

[Kit Derrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novella manages to successfully combine concepts of dystopia, climate change warning, hard Sci-Fi, and philosophy into one, and Gemmel does a fantastic job in this, as it blends seamlessly and coherently, despite the low page count. Ostensibly a near-future story of a young Chinese girl growing up the time of cataclysmic environmental disaster, and learning her path as an architect (Visionary) of humanity’s future, it is perfectly timed and pitched for a modern audience. The tech at the beginning (‘smartbands’ and the over reliance on data) is believable, as are the culturally-led allusions to the ‘dragon’ which caused the catastrophe, and the exploration of a world where philosophy and religion are at once central and apart from the needs of society.
Using Chinese, American and Icelandic characters who I could accept as genuinely being from those actual backgrounds, working together (and against) each other both supports the one world philosophy around the creation of ‘Tion,’ a new home for humanity, and avoids some of the more usual homogeneity of a multicultural team defined by little more than names. If anything, I would have enjoyed a little more of this, as the jumps in the timeline mean the transition of Xin-yi from a very localised Chinese province to Bonn, for example, isn’t really explored. The world-building is wonderful, but sometimes slightly overshadows the characterisations for me.
The style reminds me a little of Jack London’s The Iron Heel, which I also love, with a narrative that doesn’t really know or understand how people lived before ‘The Flood,’ and high-concept queries around the existence and death of God, and there is more than a hint of Orson Scott Card in places.
This is obviously a prequel and setup to the much larger ‘Tion’ sequence that comes after, and does the perfect job of making you want to see what happens next, although it is to the author’s credit that the book stands equally well on its own.
It's been quite a while since I came across a book so refreshing in blending different and quite specific genres, and doing it so well. The rest of the Tion sequence will be added to my (admittedly huge) ‘to be read’ pile.

[Aubrey Cleeves · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Visionary by J.C. Gemmell is a science-fiction novel set in the not too distant future. It features a dystopian world caused by a cataclysmic event, and it follows the story of Xin-yi as she and others try to rebuild earth in a new and better vision.

The story opens with the wrath of Erebus, the first of the volcanoes that destroyed the planet’’s climate and changed the entire world. This to me was fascinating to read as someone who is worried about the effects of climate change: the cause may have been different to what we expect but the effects that Gemmell describes are exactly how I picture future problems. Rising waters leading to lost agricultural land, unpredictable storms and unprecedented droughts. It is a subject often talked about but seldom acted upon, and the author does a great job in holding a mirror to the world and saying ‘is this what you want?’

The story is well crafted and rounded. Xin-yi’s actions make sense in relation to her character, as she is curious and thoughtful, as well as eager to help mankind. It was great hearing of her origins and how she grew to become a visionary. I did, however, feel that she took a back seat in many instances and would have liked to see her driving some of the action. That said, the plot is easy going and engaging and the small cast standing along Xin-yi have well thought-out and relatable relationships. The writing is clear and crisp, making complex ethical, moral and social problems into something easy to understand. The Visionary is certainly a book that makes you stop and think.

I think Gemmell got across everything he wanted to say, but I did want to know about what happened in the in-between years of Xin-yi’s life. The time jumps can be quite vast and it felt to me like we were looking at the same young girl at many points. Surely she would have grown as a person, learnt something new, or changed her perspective on life? Maybe some would consider this padding though, but I would have sure found it interesting.

The Visionary is a great concept with an important message. If you are curious about what could happen in the future or are concerned about socio-economic decline, then this is a book which will interest you. I look forward to reading more

[Al Lemon · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Visionary accomplishes what a good cli-fi book does best – capture the dramatic scale and devastating impact of climate change by writing about the small details. I enjoyed accompanying Xin-yi, a young girl in China, as she lives with the impact of a climate disaster, growing ever older in each chapter.

Her family is initially shattered by the flooding and rising seas due to the Antarctic shelf collapsing into the ocean after a series of volcanic eruptions (personified as the Dragon Erebus). Xin-yi adapts to her new life as a rice farmer in a collective, stripped of her electronics, school, friends, and care-free childhood. Chapter by chapter the reader gains a glimpse into how the climate has altered her lifestyle – no more centralized government (outside the corporations anyway), subsistence farming to survive, community collectives, until eventually she is tapped to join a think-tank set on taming the Earth and restoring humanity. This is where Xin-yi is gifted a bionic implant that can speak her subconscious. Xin-yi is able to manifest her departed brother into the implant, which becomes the animated tattoo beetle-creature Tej. Because Xin-yi is able via Tej to bring her deep thoughts to the surface she is considered a Visionary, and becomes of great utility to the think-tank. No spoilers here, but the common good collective think-tank isn’t all it’s cracked up to be - the money-less society devolves into a caste system.

I really enjoyed the read. Gemmell does an outstanding job bringing cli-fi to the average reader by maintaining a lovable character at its core. The climate science setting is augmented by the whimsical village upbringing of Xin-yi (the disaster is referred throughout as the Dragon Erebus), as well as the cool future-tech. I enjoyed the think-tank’s space-age solutions to the crisis, though some readers may be bothered by how off-the-wall and beyond science they may seem. Regardless, I highly recommend The Visionary.

[Anita Dow · Rating 4 out of 5]

A dystopian story with a hint of hope 4.5 stars.
Intelligent and believable, this first book in the dystopian 'Tion' series begins in 2060. A chain of volcanoes erupt in Antarctica, sea levels rise, causing flooding around the globe, and millions die in the rising waters. Communities have to adjust to doing things very differently as technology as we know it is lost. Being set relatively soon in Earth's future makes the plot disturbingly real. The story is told through the experiences of a twelve year old Chinese girl and we see a new way of existing on Earth emerging out of necessity. The next thirty years of evolutionary change are seen through her eyes in a world that is unrecognisable. Author Gemmell gives the reader much to think about in terms of the way we live now and how that must change if we want to have a future that is sustainable – and desirable. Xin-yi reluctantly accepts her new life, and as she matures into her rather unique role we gradually realise what we take for granted on our planet, and how very fragile our existence is.

Gemmell writes with finesse and hints subtly at where our technological know-how might take us in future. In his story the technology and AI, which is later developed on Earth, is intriguing and surprising, yet seems perfectly believable. I have not read many dystopian plots and I found this one thought provoking rather than disturbing, with hope for humanity's future if we make the right sort of choices while we can. The end was satisfying and beautifully done, and I felt primed to anticipate the next books in the series with a sense of positivity, notwithstanding a real concern for the new world that could be thrust upon us following a similarly cataclysmic event.

[Anneliese Dahl · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Visionary by JC Gemmell is an amazing, dramatic tale of incredible scope that builds upon a natural disaster triggering climate change to create a complex vision of the future. Some might see this future starting out as a utopian dream, but in reality it becomes a frightening dystopian possibility of science gone to extremes.

Xin-yi’s family is torn apart in the flood that occurs from the melting of Antarctic ice after the volcanic eruption of the “Dragon” Erebus. We see everything from the perspective of Xin-yi, who is believably unusual and suitable as a “Visionary”, those destined to shape the future. Though her selection is not explained, her personality itself (perhaps an unreliable narrator lost in her own mind) often seems to see things in a somewhat inhuman way, further fostered by the unusual life she leads in which a bionic implant is the greatest influence in her life. The changes proposed, and implemented, for the world are grand and spectacular, taking humanity into an amazing direction of potentiality. However, true to human weaknesses, it ends up being a grandiose way to create an amazing future for the wealthy elites of the world who can live immortal in the heavens of a newly-reformed earth.

I enjoyed this book tremendously, the writing style with the running internal monologue of Xin-yi, the mind-bending concepts of world reshaping, and the inhuman decisions taken on as natural progressions of a utopian plan. And Xin-yi herself seems to straddle the boundary between human and inhuman, though we love her enough to hope that perhaps she will eventually achieve her full humanity. Gemmell does an amazing job with this story.

[Liane Mahugh · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is the year 2060, a not-too-distant future. A dragon has awakened and melted most of the Antarctic polar icecap, causing massive flooding around the world.

Told through the eyes of a young Chinese girl, each chapter jumps us ahead months, or years. The girl is recruited along with many other young people to come up with ways to fix the world, including reducing the amount of water on the planet, or rebuilding infrastructure and restoring the power grid. The story spans approximately 30 years.

The MC, Xin-yi, is a visionary. She is supposed to be some kind of saviour for the planet, but the true visionary in the story is a beetle that lives under her clothing and peeks its head out now and again to tell her what to do. It seems to be as much her conscience as her collaborator. If it flies away, she is just an ordinary girl again. Her personality is flat and not terribly likable.

Going into this, I thought it was going to be a story about dragons. The problem is we’re never quite sure if it’s a real dragon or just a metaphor for volcanoes. The first chapters do a good job of setting the tone of desperation and dark times. . In the end, the story is more about saving people and giving up on the world around them.

The book could have been longer, giving us more detail and insight into what is going on. The conclusion is a depressing vision of what we might become.

Overall, it’s a frightening allegory of where we are going if we don’t correct the mistakes we have made on Earth. Well-written, the author does a good job trying to teach us a lesson about what our future could hold if we’re not careful. A recommended read for everyone.

[Agnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sci-fi readers likely to enjoy

The Visionary follows the story of a girl, Xin-yi, from age twelve through to forty. Following a volcanic eruption in 2048, from Mt Erebus in Antarctica, the world floods, and Xin-yi ends up being part of a team that look to rebuild.

The concept is well done, with immediate catastrophic effects from the southern polar ice caps melting. At the start, I was very excited as I thought Erebus was a dragon and this was going to be a fantasy / sci-fi book, but it was a dragon metaphor for the volcano.

As the inhabitants of Earth rebuild, the story becomes a little darker, and has elements of Upload incorporated, with the dead resurrected through computers. I found the killing of the living for upload, particularly disturbing, despite their willing participation.

At the start of the book, each chapter is set one year later than the one before, so the twelve-year-old Xin-yi grows up quickly. She is recruited as a visionary, with a job to imagine a future where everyone feels fulfilled. She moves from China to Europe to America. There is some fantasy in the book, as visionaries have ‘marks’, that are like a personification of their sub conscious. Xin-yi’s mark is Tej, a beetle, and is the character other than Xin-yi that we see most of. At times, I didn’t feel that connected to Xin-yi, or the other characters, possibly because of the jumps in the timeline, but it did mean the story covered a lot of ground.

Overall, I think sci-fi fans are likely to enjoy this well-written read, and it works well as a prequel to the Tion series.

[Tracey · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The destruction of the Antartic ice-pack has done more than destroy the world's cities; it has saturated the sky."

"I don't want to give up my smartband because it is the only way Daddy will find us."

This young adult fiction is based on a young teen in China during a future time where climate change is causing catastrophic devastation to the earth.

You are taken into a world where our future may lie, rising sea levels causing a ricochet of events that are quite possible... like no power for the electronic devices we are so attached to. The collection and distribution of goods containing precious metals and a redistribution of food stores.

Religion is brushed up against in a way that does not pressure the reader and the ethics of individuality and obligation are reason for thought and pause.

These are issues all of us would struggle to deal with under those circumstances, but how much more so a vulnerable young person who is only just learning how her drastically changing world works and dealing with confronting and unpredictable things like dirty water and giant bugs gushing out of the drains as the water levels surge forth.

I enjoyed the writing style and story telling, the author is clearly intelligent and articulate, and I appreciate that his words flowed nicely and the sentences were easy to digest.

A great shorter style futuristic book about a future of environmental collapse. It provided much food for thought.