From Goodreads
Dawn breaks over Vancouver and no one in the world has slept the night before, or almost no one. A few people, perhaps one in ten thousand, can still sleep, and they’ve all shared the same golden dream.
After six days of absolute sleep deprivation, psychosis will set in. After four weeks, the body will die. In the interim, panic ensues and a bizarre new world arises in which those previously on the fringes of society take the lead.
Paul, a writer, continues to sleep while his partner Tanya disintegrates before his eyes, and the new world swallows the old one whole.
My thoughts
I gave this a 3.5 star or 7/10. I liked it and enjoyed what I read. I picked this up from my local Library after reading the blurb on the back.
Adrian Barnes was brought up for part of his life in Blackpool, which isn't too far from me. He now lives in Canada though.
From reading the blurb above the reader rightly assumes that they are about to enter a dystopian world, were there are those that have the ability to sleep still and there are those who can't.
The story starts out like that and you feel as if those that don't sleep are almost zombie like in nature. It is never really explained how this all came about. Whether it was biological or environmental reasons. There are some passages that talk about mushroom clouds and make you wonder if it's due to radioactive and nuclear reasons. Can you tell that I am clutching at straws a little, trying to come up with the reason that this all came about. If it was explained then I do apologise, but I honestly do not recall the reason.
One thing I can say about the story is that it is different in so many ways. I feel that the Author has written an interesting debut novel. Whether he will write anymore only time will tell, that will all be down to his health and how he copes with what hand he has been dealt.
The link below will take you to the last few pages that are printed at the back of NOD. As I was reading the book I got the impression that the story whilst it appeared to start off as a dystopian sci-fi style read appeared to morph into one that the Author was in some ways experiencing himself. It almost felt like it was hallucinatory in some ways and might have been from the side effects of drugs almost. Just my opinion. The Author explains that there are some similarities between him and his character Paul, I could relate to this.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/10/11/my-cancer-is-as-strange-as-my-fiction.html
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