In my search for new science fiction novels, I stumbled upon Alex Drozd's recent novel called A Glitch In The World. Its premise and artwork seemed suitably dark, and the author calls himself a writer of philosophical science fiction, which immediately had me thinking about Philip K. Dick, which as a point of reference for me is a good one.

Whilst not in the calibre of most of PKD's material, A Glitch in the World is a still an enjoyable read, and an interestingly dark story. Stuart is a teenager living on the recently colonised world of Janus. He was born on this world, and lives with his parents who had immigrated out to it through the incentives offered at the time. As this new society goes through its own struggles and adjustments as it grows and matures, so too is Stuart finding it difficult coping with the mundane repetitive nature of life on Janus.

Stuart is more of a loner, finding fault with both himself and most of the world in which he lives. In fact it's life itself that seems to be what bothers him the most. The grinding, repetitive nature of the school day, and the monotony of family life eventually lead Stuart, together with his one friend, Dwayne, to partake of a hallucinogenic substance called HSP. Their experience seemed to go off with out too much happening, leading them both to dismiss it as being ineffectual, and Stuart feeling still very much stuck in his black thoughts about life.

Until the next day at school when something happens to Dwayne. Completely out of character, and leaving Stuart confused as to what he may be missing about his friend, he eventually makes a new friend, a girl in his English class named Alissa. Except she isn't what she seems.

Without wanting to give too much of the plot away, the story delves into matters both psychological and cosmological. It flips between the inner world and the outer world, whilst paralleling this with the forces of matter versus anti-matter, and how the two may be at loggerheads with each other. And somehow Stuarts mind seems to have become a contact point between the two. And then there's the question of what role did the drug HSP play, if any?

It leads up to a fast approaching finish, with an equally dark twist to cap it off. I was reading fully aware that a wrap up of the story was imminent, but the actual ending took me by surprise. And I love it for that alone.

There are parts of the writing that feel a little underdone, but the author has still produced a riveting story, with the parts all holding together and hitting their mark, or close to it. Even Stuart came close a couple of times to being too much of a winy teenager, challenging me to still like the character, but again I think the author found the correct blend of realism, and reader connection. There was no point when I wanted to put the book down and move on, and that I think is the ultimate test. I got through this in a little over a day, so it was a great escape and sufficient blend of dark and light subject matter to keep me entertained.

Published in December 2017.

Find more information at GoodReads and Amazon.

I give A Glitch In The World 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Cover image source. Other images sourced from unsplash.com.

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