achukareviews

His father didn’t trust anybody. Not really. He had a few friends, gambling mates, but Sol couldn’t think of anyone who… Murder. His father was being accused of killing somebody. It hit home for the first time. Sol couldn’t believe it

Trust is firmly at the centre of Oisin McGann’s impressive dystopian thriller, “Small-Minded Giants”. The projected future world which protagonist Sol inhabits is domed, it was one of the last refuges for those with wealth enough to afford survival following the climate changes. The underlying and largely unspoken sense of desperation that accompanies the novel as the mechanics of this domed-world slowly corrode – literally and metaphorically – creates an atmosphere taut and tense to the point of imminent danger.

The novel opens with Sol and his classmates witnessing a crane car crash on their school trip. News breaks that Sol’s father has committed murder and disappeared, the authorities seek out Sol baying for knowledge as to the whereabouts of his father.

Sol becomes ensnared in the political machinations and inner-workings of the domed enclave of Ash Harbour, and is fast embroiled within plot and counter-plot as the likelihood of The Clockworkers, a presumed mythical organisation to protect the Machine of the city, becomes ever more possible.

Sol’s welfare lies with Maslow, a somewhat mercenary and violent individual in whom he has little choice but to place his trust. Disturbing truths are revealed about Ash Harbour and its extreme capitalist nature in Sol’s chase for ultimate truth concerning his father and what becomes the pursuit of survival…