5 STAR REVIEW
A Terrific Witty Sci-Fi Novel
British author Anthony Merrydew has served as an electrical engineer, owning an electrical consultancy for such clients as Google, Facebook, and Emerson, and now makes his literary debut with OUR BLUE ORANGE, a novel that surveys a strange region of androids in a manner that seems completely reasonable and possible. Introducing the story is computer programmer Nigel Prentagast, ‘Nigel alone knew the reason why he was incapable of sleeping at night, and he wasn’t about to discuss it with his mother or anyone else for that matter. The burden that he carried was making him ill, and that particular Monday morning, as he sat staring at his ageing monitor with sunken bloodshot eyes, he knew that numerically it was simply a question of time before someone else learned of his discovery…In the half-light of a room on basement level thirteen, deep beneath the ministry, the chromium-plated fingers of a metallic hand flexed themselves with human dexterity. With engineering precision, the motorized thumb and forefinger disconnected a solitary lead from a nearby data port and let it fall to the ground.’
Stepping into the dark (yet very witty) story - ‘When inventor Godfrey Davis arrived at the ministry that Monday morning he had his first experience of the new phenomenon. There was something wrong with the aging android fleet that served the colony. Since when did they ever have names? The president’s visit to his office later that morning gave credence to his earlier experience in the foyer, and somehow his long deceased father now seemed implicated. As Godfrey’s week spiraled out of control the future of the colony was now in jeopardy, and it was all because of him. He should never have left his latest piece of technology unattended. If only he could find his father’s secret invention and turn back the clock then maybe he could redeem himself and save their society. But the past was about to collide with the present and the future now seemed very uncertain indeed.’
Science fiction delivered with aplomb, Merrydew proves a welcome new presence, and his mature writing style creates the hope that this book will be followed by further editions - and perhaps cinematic adaptation! Highly recommended
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About the Author
Anthony R Merrydew was born in Dorking, England and educated at the Andrew Cairns boy’s school Littlehampton West Sussex, where he developed amongst other things his love of English literature. As part of the curriculum he read many classics such as William Golding's ‘Lord of the Flies’, Aldous Huxley’s ‘Brave New World’, George Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’ and ‘1984’, which captivated him at the prospect of persecuting individualism and independent thinking. It was a novel that notably changed his perception of society and those who controlled it. Apart from literature, an early predilection for things of an electrical or mechanical nature soon had him standing in front of the headmaster. Electrifying the playground fence with a hand held generator was deemed unacceptable behaviour especially as the first year students were touching it at the time. The fascination for electricity remained though the generator was confiscated. With the college years came the amazing discovery of alcohol, motorcycles and politics, but not necessarily in that order. After Worthing College there was a period of wandering and the revelation there were actually people living on the other side of the English Channel. Some of who were very political, and liked alcohol as well. Feeling completely at home, he spent the early seventies wandering around Europe visiting Switzerland and Corsica where he lived on the beach in Ajaccio for an entire summer. Later, he lived and worked in Besancon, Dijon and Marseille, France where he wrote his first manuscript ‘Malakoff’, which remains to this day a work in progress. The love of reading and writing continued and over the decades that followed having returned to England and raised a family, he wrote poetry and several short stories mainly for friends and family. His first published work ‘Our Blue Orange’ revolves around a fascination for automation and the world of data combined with a political backdrop laced with dry humour. The novel took eight years to complete in his spare time written mainly in hotels and rented rooms across the world whilst working on different contracts. After numerous re-writes it was published at the end of August 2015. Anthony now lives in West Sussex, England with his partner Sarah, who is actively helping to promote his works on Social Media forums along with his grandson Jack. The story is not yet complete. Anthony has book two in the series underway and hope to publish it in 2023. Thank you for reading.
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