Very enjoyable read

This is a review given in exchange for a free download.
I found the book very enjoyable despite it being a bit predictable from the start. It was quite scary how believable the story was and how vulnerable we are as a civilisation.
Characters were very well portrayed and I particularly enjoyed the AI Jackson and his development.

I wasn’t that impressed with the narrator. It just felt a bit stilted at times and not quite as natural as most others I have listened to.

I can imagine the book would be better read rather than listened to.

Generally a good read and well worth reading.

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Wow

i have all of roger audio books all of them are very good 5 out of 5 for them all

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Absolutely brilliant

This book is a prequel to the Harry Lampeter books but is completely different. When I finished the book I wanted more as the characters were so engaging, I could have done with a complete new series based on them - they were so good and interesting. The stories were brilliant - I loved the ending especially (dont want to spoil it) but you will know when you get to it.

Oh and the narration, what can I say, just brought the characters to life.

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The Riley Bug

Having listened to the other three books of Harry Lampeter made the digital meltdown that much more enjoyable, loved listening about Rileys family and Mary's story and I'm glad they went back for Jackson,

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Fabulous

This is a fantastic story so well written and thanks to everyone who helped to narrate it it’s very enjoyable

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Engaging

Engaging plot & well described characters. Highlighted by the great narration.

Thanks for the complimentary copy.

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Different to the others - but good nonetheless.

NOTE: I was given a free copy of this book to review. This has not influenced the honesty of the review.

I enjoyed this prequel to the Harry Lampeter series very much and it answered a number of questions that the original series left unanswered. It explains how we get from where we are now to the state of the world of Harry Lampeter.

It is quite a different style to the main Harry Lampeter series, but enjoyable none-the-less.

The narration was generally good. No complaints worth writing about,

I would definitely recommend reading this before starting the "main" series.

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Plenty of food for thought

This is not a funny book, it has moments of humour, but it's not a Harry Lampeter novel. The Digital Meltdown is a prequel to the Harry Lampeter, it provides the backstory to the Age of Steam and establishes the context in which Harry Lampeter operates. We already knew from the Harry Lampeter books the bare facts of the Digital Meltdown, but here we meet the people involved in and affected by the Meltdown. As expected Roger Ley peoples the story with believable characters brought to life by Craig Bowles's narration. Some of these characters don't have happy stories and all live through events that demand more than some can give. At times I was quite moved.

The book is plausible and doesn't demand any suspension of the reader's beliefs. It rather raises questions about the the world in which we live and how we live in in it. It shows the fragility of all we think we know. I really enjoyed the way AI is portrayed and the possibilities it raises. Although the book visits some dark places, it is ultimately hopeful and optimistic. I enjoyed it and felt satisfied at the end.

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Prequel to Harry Lampeter

This book is a prequel to the Harry Lampeter books, describing in detail how the collapse of our civilization happened. It goes into detail about the origins of the Riley bug which did all the damage, and is a sombre commentary on messing with gene editing, causing uninteded consequences (as outlined in the Lampeter books). It is a much more serious book than the Lampeters which was a bit of a shame, very little humour, but a well thought out story with plenty of supporting science, although a few of the scientific explanations were a bit 'iffy'. The narration was good, but a few of the accents missed the mark somewhat.

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A real gem! Worth buying

This was a bit of an unexpected and most welcome find for me, that I would strongly recommend to anyone.

It's a 'hard sci-fi' set in the near future, so it's credible enough to make you think this could happen and it's got some really touching and thought-provoking scenes, which stay with me.

The book itself is a stand-alone story, but it is also the pre-equal to the Harry Lampter series. You don't have to have read this, but it does add to this, not least because a lot of what drives the tension at the start is an awareness of what will happen at the end. The story however is quite different from the tone of wide-boy/spy Harry Lampter, it's still got Roger Ley's rye sense of humour and lots of quips on the present, but it's a slower build and a more thoughtful end. What I liked most about this was whilst in most books the drive comes from preventing some world ending disaster, in this one we know the disaster is going to come and so instead Ley switches to the human stories which felt like a refreshing and very powerful change.

I loved this story. I give a few stories five stars, but there are much few that make me think - "gosh, I wish I could write like that!" or which stay with me after I've finished it. Fun, funny, thoughtful, gripping in places, haunting in others. A great surprise and a real find, I definitely recommend.

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