Reviews

Tropic of Kansas by Christopher Brown

tsharris's review

4.0

Riveting, fast-paced alt history/dystopia that suggests that elements of dystopia are all around us (dystopia is here - just not evenly distributed).

cdeane61's review

5.0

Fabulous! Part alternate history, part present time conditions, all good.

Will certainly scratch your "what if" itch, and have you rooting for the feral hero. If you've ever spent any time thinking about infinite or parallel universes this will not disappoint.

Despite the differences this one still hits a little close to home.

Highly recommended.

mlirwin's review

Just didn't like it. Not great

cristalyne's review

3.0

3.5 Starts. Excellent dystopian (near) future tale, but I think this book tried take on too much. There is enough material here that it could have easily been a trilogy. The characters were constantly rushing about, which was exciting, but also a little repetitive (Sig keeps getting captured and/or hurt; Tania keeps talking her way out of and into sticky situations). I wanted more about the actual state of the world, and the ending was way too fast for me.

scorpstar77's review

5.0

Near-future dystopia where an American President becomes a de facto dictator and the country is ruled by corporate greed and fearmongering. The two main characters are Sig, a young man who has been on the run from...well, everyone...since he was 13 (mostly living in the woods and surviving on his wits, grit and luck) and Tania, a government employee who's trying to change things for the good from the inside (and who grew up with a fairly subversive community that took Sig in for a while when he was a kid and his mom was in trouble and needed a safe space for him). Their stories start to converge and the resistance starts to heat up as the book progresses. Brown envisions a pretty bleak world, but entirely plausible based on our societal trends. The book ends...still a little bleak, honestly. But with a possible better future...? To be determined. A very engrossing story.

funcharge's review

adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Torture, and Violence

rufus666's review

3.0

Like an updated Eclipse series by John Shirley. You have rebellion, fascism, grassroots organizing, counter-cultures, mercenaries, corporations. Focus is only on the U.S. though. Main lead guy is cool.

joosty's review

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

danwilli2012's review

4.0

An interesting portrayal of the United States set in the future after democracy has been hijacked to keep one man in power. The US is not just ravaged by war but also climate change. I thought the ending was a bit rushed.

zekelikes2read's review

3.0

I like the dystopian genre so I was excited to give this book a try. It was an quick and easy read, with chapters only being 3-5 pages each, it felt a bit more like the screenplay to an action adventure movie than an actual novel. The plot developed in a choppy manner jumping between multiple intersecting plot lines and only really came together in the last 1/3 of the book. I would have appreciated a bit more narrative background to help fill in some of the gaps that I had for most of the book, some of which never quite got explained. There was a lot of gratuitous detail regarding combat, violence, and torture techniques, and the main characters seemed to be bulletproof in that against all possible odds they survived until the end of the book. I feel like it was a great concept that could have been a lot better of a book than it was. I still enjoyed reading it and would definitely read another book by this author.