By Steve Augarde
In the aftermath of a global flood in which animals and humans are equally effected food, medicines, tools and all other resources have become very scarce. In the middle of what used to be England, the Ecks family – Preacher John and his two sons – have established ‘The Island’, their own private domain, and with a salvage boat and some scuba diving gear, they turn a tidy profit trading tinned foods they recover from the submerged shops and supermarkets with whatever the remaining survivors can offer. This, along with a ruthless and vicious temperament and the only loaded guns for miles around, makes them all-powerful.
The one bright light for most is that young boys, especially small ones, can occasionally get to go to the island to work. As long as the parents can exchange something of real worth, they can send their kids to a place where they’re guaranteed decent meals, a decent bed and a better life than scavenging on the mainland. For Baz and his Father, struggling to survive, it’s the best way out of their situation so when Baz gets chosen to go it seems perfect, but the reality of life on the island is very different to the dream.
End-of-the-world stories are a perennial favourite, not just for the young adults at which this is aimed, but for all of us. I’m not sure why, but my guess is that we all like to think that in the wake of the coming apocalypse, whether it’s due to zombies, aliens, disease or floods we’d have what it takes to survive but the problem is that they tend to be very samey. It’s to X-Isle’s credit then that it takes a post-apocalyptic setting and does some new things with it.
I’ll start with the boys. Not big strapping lads, not strong, but small for their age, wiry and chosen by the Ecks specifically because of it, because they’re not fighters. And while on the surface they are typical young lads, farting loudly, cussing and larking around, underneath they recognise their plight, sticking together and bonding because they have to to survive. Sure their a fairly standard group, the jock, the brains, the kind one, the fat kid, the black kid etc. but they’re well written with strong individual voices and of course the group dynamic works well for the story. Even the two Capo’s, Steiner and Hutchinson, older teenagers who’ve carved a niche for themselves as the Ecks’ foremen, watching over the boys as they work, bullying and strong-arming them as they see fit, have two distinct personalities – albeit both pretty nasty – and at times are genuinely scary characters.
The second cool thing is that these boys actively plot to escape their situation themselves. There’s no relying on adults to do the heavy lifting for them, there aren’t any, and if they’re going to get away that means coping with some pretty adult decisions, something that some struggle with and others are pretty gung-ho about – in the talking. As the plan progresses the camaraderie between the boys grows but equally, as the religious fervour of Preacher John reaches dangerous levels and his eldest son, Isaac plots to overthrow the old man by any means, the boys are increasingly caught in the middle of a bad situation that’s getting worse. True to form though, they think their way out of it, using brains and ingenuity rather than some ludicrous strong-arm way of fighting back.
X-Isle is a great read, well paced, tense in places, laugh-out-loud funny in others with a couple of shocking reveals at the end that, while I didn’t see them coming, made perfect sense. The selfishness of the Ecks and the ruthless way they protect their situation, while unpleasant to read, are so perfectly believable that it’s possible to despair of humanity if a situation like this were ever to arise, and while the ending is upbeat, it’s by no means perfectly happy, which is exactly how it should be in such an uncertain world.
I’ve not read Steve Augarde before so I came at this with no pre-concieved notions or expectations. What I found was a genuinely creative and compelling storyteller and right now, I’m hoping there’ll be a sequel.
X Isle is published by David Fickling Books and is available from Play.com, Blackwell and all good book stores.