Tuesday 16 April 2019

By The Feet Of Men by Grant Price

Book Title: By The Feet of Men
Author: Grant Price
Genre: Science Fiction / Post-Apocalyptic
My Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
Source: Paperback provided by the author

Amazon UK, Goodreads 

Plot Summary: The world's population has been decimated by the Change, a chain reaction of events triggered by global warming.
In Europe, governments have fallen, cities have crumbled and the wheels of production have ground to a halt.
The Alps region, containing most of the continent's remaining fresh water, has become a closed state with heavily fortified borders. Survivors cling on by trading through the Runners, truck drivers who deliver cargo and take a percentage.
Amid the ruins of central Germany, two Runners, Cassady and Ghazi, are called on to deliver medical supplies to a research base deep in the Italian desert, where scientists claim to be building a machine that could reverse the effects of the Change. Joining the pair is a ragtag collection of drivers, all of whom have something to prove.
Standing in their way are starving nomads, crumbling cities, hostile weather and a rogue state hell-bent on the convoy's destruction.
And there's another problem: Cassady is close to losing his nerve.
What did I think?

I love post-apocalyptic fiction and read this one in go. The prose is straightforward and simple, with no distractions. By The Feet of Men offers a lot of action, and the pacing doesn't let up. Not a dull moment in sight.

Grant Price takes a lot of care to build his characters. Instead of focusing on the world as so many post-apocalyptic novels do, he decided to focus on his characters, and it works.

While the world building is definitely immersive with no info dumps, the apocalypse has already happened, and this is how humanity lives now.  The world is a backdrop, an intriguing one, but a backdrop nonetheless, amidst a varied cast of three dimensional characters.

They're all well developed, well written, and I found myself fully invested in all of them. A ragtag group of people, thrown together in an attempt to do something they think will help the world. They form bonds, work with each other, protect each other and support each other.

Loyalty, friendship, but also working together for the greater good, even though one might not like each other all that much are themes Grant Price examines. Besides the aforementioned, there's the usual: is this shit worth dying for. And really, that last theme will always be interesting, and I'll always love reading about characters who decide they're willing to risk their lives for a cause they believe in.

I recommend this to all fans of post-apocalyptic fiction.

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