
I was attracted to Pride and Post Apocalypse: A Regency Dystopian by Lauren M Flauding by the words ‘Post Apocalypse‘ although the sub title, A Regency Dystopian, had me wondering how you could have a Regency dystopian. After all, most dystopian novels are science fiction. One classic example is 1984 by George Orwell (which was in the future when he wrote it).
Turns out like this – there’s been a major EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse) in modern times so nothing electrical works. Chaos ensues in Great Britain until a dictator called the Badger takes over. For some reason, wealth is now decided on the number of books people own and distributed accordingly. Oh, and women can’t work and can’t inherit books. A touch of the Taliban there. And the Badger wants everyone to adopt old-style manners and customs. Which they do. So far, so rather implausible.
Mr Darcy it turns out is part of a rebel group that is plotting to overthrow The Badger. However, this isn’t as important to the plot as you might think.
Style of Novel
It’s also a mash up novel which is where roughly 80% of the novel is the original text & 20% is new text that fits the genre it’s supposed to be. I like mash ups if they’re well done. I love Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Graham-Smith, and Pride and Platypus by Vera Nazarian.
The novel starts out well but then you read several chapters at a time before there are any changes to the text or plot. I wanted to have some changes to the text in every chapter.
I did like the Bennets having a car that is pulled by a horse. That made me laugh.
Summary
I don’t want to be too harsh, the author obviously spent time and effort on it. But I felt there were some missed opportunities in it.