With modesty I record my first review - I'm so relieved it's a good one. Amanda Craig in today's Times looks at it in the context of other titles about technology and children.
Hybrids is reserved for the highest praise.
Comparing it to Kevin Brookes'
Being she writes: "David Thorpe's
Hybrids takes the cyborg idea even further, with a stunningly clever novel that won a nation-wide competition run by its publisher, HarperCollins, and Saga magazine.
"A dystopian version of Blairite Britain is drawn with economy and wit.... Johnny's cynical, off-beat narrative voice, and Kestrella's hopeful, tender naivety are both well done."
For her it has "a disappointing climax" (I guess critics have to complain about something - I wonder what she expected?) but "Hybrids will get boys (and girls) talking and thinking about a brave new world without technological stimuli". I hope so.
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Read the full review.
Book signing Thursday May 10 Aberystwyth
Before it was announced that Hybrids had won the Saga/HarperCollins competition, some local teenagers including my son Dion wanted to turn it into a podcast.
Dion recorded and edited half of the 26 chapters and produced them, including writing the signature music.
Now it has won, HarperCollins are advising us to postpone the podcast, but the actors are doing readings at signings. The next one is:
Aberystwyth: Waterstones, Great Darkgate Street, 10 May at 5.30-6.30pm.
The actors:
Kestrella Chu is read by Izzy Rabey:
Johnny Online is read by Peter Horne:
Dion Thorpe, the producer:
Izzy is acting in King Lear at the Aberystwyth Arts Centre later in the evening.
