Rating: 3.75 stars
Buy Link:
Amazon | iBooks | Amazon UK
Length: Novel


Ten years ago, the world ended following a cataclysmic volcanic explosion. Those who survived have had to go on the best they know how. Despite everything, Callum Ingram lives a relatively normal life. Until the day comes when his reality begins to shift. Confused and on the run, he finds himself a guest of Denizen 1, an underground shelter and military base. In the blink of an eye, Callum must accept that the life he had and the world he knew is not as it seems.

Gideon has dedicated his life to saving a special group of children, called the Kine. The Kine are being manipulated and controlled by the quasi-governmental group, Xenocon. The Kine are incredible and vulnerable, capable of destruction on a global scale and equally capable of helping to rebuild the world that was. Gideon knows that Callum can help him save the Kine, but a terrible secret could doom everything they’re trying to achieve.

Wow. Gideon is a doozy. It is a sci-fi on a serious level and, as a result, it takes a serious amount of patience to untangle. Think Inception or The Matrix meets … well I don’t know what. Because things get down right crazy at times and while I’m not sure the story ever really makes sense, it’s a heck of a ride. Gideon has some excellent world building and, from the start, it’s obvious the author has spent a lot of time creating this wild arena of androids, telekinetic children, and global disasters. The scale of it is impressive and laudable. The problem is that things are so complex that despite the author’s best efforts, I never fully understood what was happening. I found that more than a bit maddening, but it didn’t fully detract from my enjoyment either. Once I accepted the plot was bonkers and that I wasn’t going to have every question answered, I was actually able sit back and just enjoy the action on the page.

It’s pretty hard to call what’s happening between Gideon and Callum a romance. Neither of them is fully developed as a character and, while they aren’t caricatures by any means, they do become victims of the occurring plot chaos. There’s no evolving relationship, rather we’re given brief blips of interaction that theoretically represent their affair. I think we’re supposed to despise Gideon or dislike him at the least for his past actions, but the entire book is filled with a lot of moral ambiguities so I didn’t find him any more or less relatable as a result.

Gideon is a bit nuts, to be honest. But I give the author full credit for being original and trying to create something so wildly complex. It doesn’t always work and I feel a lot more time could have been spent on character development, but if you like challenging sci-fi plots, then give this one some consideration.