Alpha Is The Beginning by local author Sarah Robinson, is the second instalment in the Project Code-X trilogy, and the prequel to her first book, Beta to Psi.
A high concept thriller, the first book dives straight into the action of World War Three, while the prequel sets forth the chain of events that brought the world to its knees.
The novel takes a fresh look at the dystopian futures envisaged by George Orwell in 1984 and Ray Bradbury in Fahrenheit 451.
Set towards the end of the 21st century, while the physical world may look the same from a distance, it encompasses a society changed from all recognition.
Instead of a diverse range of nations and territories scatted throughout the globe, the world consists of just five superpowers; Yuropia, Aziana, Ozan, Ameron Major and Minor, and Afrikana.
The story revolves around Rebeka Taft, a talented young scientist who has joined a top-secret project for the Yuropian government called Project Code-X.
Under the watchful eye of the junior governor, thousands of scientists work on the project, designed to be a revolutionary new healthcare device that will detect instantly, any illness or disease in a human and remedy it.
Through careful propaganda, the promise of Project Code-X is lauded throughout the nation of Yuropia.
Described to Rebeka as a microchip that will ‘reprogramme people’s minds to make them happier, healthier and more productive people’, she contributes greatly to the development of the product.
However, as Rebeka slowly begins to realise, Project Code-X hides a darker purpose, one designed to make society ‘less aggressive and more submissive’.
Battling with a crisis of conscience and worried about the future for her two children Nathaniel and Kassandra, Rebeka steps back from her role in the project and seeks to undermine it, disturbed by the reality of the project she had once worked so hard on.
“I believe that if we hand over all the things that make us feel human to robots; then we’ll end up becoming robots ourselves. There’d be nothing left to distinguish us from them,” she tells her children.
With the help of her husband David, a member of the Yuropian Military Army, as well as other family members and a group of underground protestors called Freedom Fighters, Rebeka attempts to bring society back from the brink of a truly dystopian, subservient world.
Set in 2088, SJ Robinsons creates a world where science has progressed beyond recognition, where literature, art and language have been suppressed and left behind, where nature is being steamrolled to make way for greater technologies (carbon dioxide converters have done away with the necessity of trees), where genetics allows for couples to ‘design the perfect baby’, and where limits of children per family are set at two.
Whereas in Orwell’s idea of the future in 1984, where even the mildest display of protest to the status quo and the hierarchy – be it a physical act or simply a thought – can result in imprisonment and death, the open presence of protestors and dissenters in the nation of Yuropia gives rise to Rebeka questioning everything she knows, or thinks she knows, about Project Code-X and the Junior Govenor, and her attempts to take it down.
With a fast pace, interesting characters and a chilling impression of where society may be headed – be it through the rise of a totalitarian government or simply through the unrelenting evolution of technology – Alpha Is The Beginning is an absorbing and curious read, with an ending that packs a punch.
Perfect, especially for young adults, as a summer read, the second book in the trilogy is available to buy from Amazon.com.
