The Scorching: Just Press Play, by Nick Snape
29 Aug 2024The Book
Synopsis:
A dying world, a terrorist uprising, and standing between humanity’s last hope and the end of the world is one cop, his sardonic humour and a modded partner.
On an Earth devastated by The Scorching climate event, the Drathken land their giant plantships with the promise of healing the planet. Joshua Nkosi, a sea-cop, vlogs and jokes his way through an easy life guarding a deep-sea mining operation while watching old vids. That is, until he and his tentacled MARC Unit get caught up in a plot to steal radiation rich materials from the seabed, fuelling the terrorists’ plan to destroy a Drathken plantship, and ultimately end the alien/human alliance.
Nkosi and MARC are forced to enter the Burnout Zone, and with the clock ticking, come face to face with humanity’s stark future when the hunt for the terrorist’s lab takes a devastating twist of fate. Temperatures soar, and conspiracies deepen as Nkosi forges into a dark journey of discovery—one humanity desperately needs to listen to.
The planet is pleading for help, but who is there left to listen?
“…staggeringly original and timely release from a masterful voice in modern sci-fi.” SPR Review
My Review
The Scorching: Just Press Play is a sci-fi thriller novel written by Nick Snape, which will be part of a series of standalone novels set on a post-apocalyptic Earth; a fast-paced story following a sarcastic sea-cop and his tentacled buddy MARC, in a race against time to stop the terrorist conspiracy that threatens to destroy the fragile alien/human alliance.
Joshua Nkosi, an underwater sea-cop, is tasked together with his modded cephalopod buddy MARC, going to the surface and work to stop a terrorist group which has been stealing enough radioactive materials from the seabed to explode a Drakthen plantship. If this happen, the alliance between humans and aliens will be broken, and the recovery labour of the Earth that the Drakthen are doing. Well, Nkosi dreams of becoming an internet celebrity might have evaporated, but at least he's deep into action. But definitely he didn't expect how dark this will end being.
With this premise, Snape throws us into a neck-breaking story, super fast paced and that will take us to different places on The Scorching, a post-apocalyptic version of the Earth because of climate change; only the collaboration with the Drakthen seems to be helping. But not only the operation implying Nkosi will be a breaking one, but Nkosi's own metaphorical journey will take him through really dark places that he will only be able to withstand with his sarcastic sense of humour.
While the plot is relatively simple at the start, Snape slowly takes advantage of how we are getting involved in the story to make it more complex, taking some turns that definitely will surprise you. The prose is really clear, simple, allowing us to devour the book, really adequate to the thriller subgenre.
The Scorching: Just Press Play is a great sci-fi thriller novel, a world with potential that you can devour in two-three days; Snape nails the pacing, and definitely, I would love to return to the Scorching.
The Author/s
Nick Snape
Nick Snape has been steeped in Science Fiction and Fantasy since his friends first dragged him from his schoolwork and stuck a book under his nose. Lost to the world of imagination he became a teacher by accident, though he thoroughly enjoyed developing the joy of reading and writing in his pupils. Having retired after thirty years he thought it was high time to practise what he preached.