Review: Project Hemisphere by T.S. Simons
4 Horsemen Publications
December 2020
My Quick Take: I was delighted to discover this post-end-of-the-world novel with light sci-fi elements and some well-developed characters and interesting plot points.
I reviewed this as an Avid Reader for the 2024 Canadian Book Club Awards (@thecandadianbookclubawards). I’m reading all the 2024 submissions in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy category and helping to select the three finalists. These awards are judged by Canadian readers, but can be submitted from anywhere in the world; must be in English; and published in the last 6 years. They welcome traditional, hybrid and self published books. I'll be posting my thoughts for these books as I read between March-August 2024.
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“After a global outbreak that threatens to decimate the planet, Australian scientists select a group of highly skilled young people to establish a sustainable island community built on the modern values of equity, diversity, and inclusion.”
T.S. Simons has written a genuinely interesting novel that follows main character Cam Mackintosh, one of several people between ages 20-30 who have been selected to set up a small community under a rain-proof giant dome on an island after a water-borne plague wipes out the entire human population. It asks questions of its characters and us as readers: given a new start with basic material to support a small community and members chosen to compliment each others’ abilities, what form of society will people choose? Given our knowledge of how societies go wrong, can these people choose differently?
Simons explores different forms of community, but this is only one part of the reading experience. The other is a pretty decent story about Cam and how he manages his survivor guilt and his anxiety. I really liked Cam, because he felt well-developed and very real. He has significant social anxiety and panic, which were nicely explored; the first person POV really helped with this and worked well. There is also a light sci-fi element to the book, which I will not spoil here as it adds a key world-building element.
I was pleasantly surprised by the depth of this book, and the characterisations: The community members felt like genuine, flawed people. Romance played a small part but didn’t take the plot arc that I expected, another positive.
The novel was generally well-paced with a decent balance of plot-advancing action and interesting descriptions of basic community survival. The third quarter felt slower, and though I was interested, the story flagged a bit. Fortunately, it picked right up again until the end. There was the occasional overly complex sentence and a few errors in the ebook like missing quotation marks but these were not common. Simons chose to use fewer contractions than normal in dialogue, which lent a bit of formality to speech. Noticeable, but it didn’t detract.
This will appeal to someone looking for a post-end-of-the-world story that’s a tad too hopeful to be truly dystopian, with some sci-fi elements. It fits the New Adult novel classification, but I think it will appeal to all ages. And if you like it, you’ll be happy to know that it’s the first in a five book series!
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About the Author from her Bio at TSSimons.com:
She holds Bachelor's and Master’s degrees, post-graduate qualifications in governance and management, and is an accredited company director. Tanya is an Australia Reads Ambassador and enjoys reading, traveling, mythology, and snow skiing while attempting to live sustainably with her partner and children. They are owned by a standard schnauzer, a fox-red labrador, and three rescue cats who co-manage their household.
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