Review: Maxine Unleashes Doomsday

Maxine Unleashes Doomsday by Nick Kolakowski
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the tale of the history of Maxine’s life, taken from old records after the world has been practically destroyed in the Collapse. Global warming and rising sea levels have flooded large areas of the US. Food is scarce, towns are dead and people are scratching a living the best way they can. Various clans control areas and are constantly battling each other for control.

Maxine lives in a poor area, her mother is an addict. So Maxine looks after everything including her younger brother, Brad. She also has an uncle, The Preacher, a well known criminal. She has an agreement with him, that she will finish college before she joins him in his ‘activities’….

But, she decides to do a job of her own…..she gets hurt and her friend becomes paralysed…warned off, she ends up in a job in a convoy…which is how goods are transported….in a heavily armed convoy….

Maxine, is a chaos magnet and obviously things go wrong…she loses an arm and finds out she has cancer…she needs drugs to help and so a big raid is planned and she meets PIG, an AI computer…..will she be cured? Why is her life so interesting to the future world?

I love this book, from its clever little pop culture references, Heisenberg Blue, SkyNet, sick sticks and droogs, (which appeal to the geek in me), to the dystopian world building. Maxine is a strong, intelligent female character, flawed but determined and likeable. A compelling, imaginative, brutal dystopian read and I can thoroughly recommend it.

Thank you to the author, Nick Kolakowski, for the opportunity to read this for free. This is my honest and unbiased review.


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