A strangely gripping and curious tales about an apocalyptic world after an event known only as 'The Change'.

Howard wakes up with no memory of who he is and what's been happening on Earth. Finding a friend in Hubcap, he is taken to a group of bikers, where trouble soon follows. I liked the friendship between Howard and Hubcap, but I didn't feel that they actually knew each other for long enough for them to be risking their lives for each other. But the plot was interesting and it makes me want to read more.

However, this book leaves me with so many questions, which is my main issue with this book. It's very brief and it doesn't tell you anything. What was 'the Change'? Who were the creatures that appeared? What do these creatures look like? Why is London such a bad place to go? Is Howard his real name? Why does Howard have amnesia? Who names their child Hubcap?

I'm looking forward to book two, to find out.

This is the first in a six part novella series and certainly puts the reader straight into this strange, post-apocalyptical world. The lead character awakes on a road surrounded by stationary vehicles and can’t remember who he is, anything about his life or what has happened - he can’t even remember his name and doesn’t recognise his reflection but he does know everything has changed. In his coat pocket he finds a notebook and assumes it belongs to himself so takes the owner’s name - Howard Phillips - for his own. He needs food and water so sets out to explore his new reality. . . .

Get ready for life as we know it to have changed dramatically. There are killer pigeons -reminiscent of scenes from the Alfred Hitchcock movie, ‘The Birds’ - together with monsters defying description and horrors galore in this fast paced story. Howard does get to meet other survivors - some of whom don’t survive for much longer! It is a dark story, with danger all around the grim setting but there is also a sprinkling of humour throughout, especially in the banter and nicknames of the bikers he meets. Hubcap is the person who introduces Howard to the bikers group and terror follows. . . .

This is a short but action packed near future story written with a mix of suspense, humour and horror. It is a page turner and I really want to know what happens in the sequels! My favourite inspirational quote from this is:
“People die. A lot of them these days. The only way to deal with that is to work hard at living …. So sod off out of here and get on with it!”
Sounds like a positive philosophy for life! Make the most of your life and enjoy living :)

I requested and was given a copy of this book via NetGalley and this is my honest opinion after choosing to read it.

I thought this was a great post-apocalyptic read for boys. Some of the descriptions were quite graphic so probably older 10+ years.
A boy wakes up to find himself in a broken future with no memory of his past or what happened to the world. He is taken in by a motorcycle gang who are trying to survive in this terrifying new world.
As we get to see the world through Howard's eyes we are introduced to characters as he would see them and feel the fear of uncertainty.
There is plenty of action and enough mystery to keep you reading til the last page.
It is part of a series so be prepared for cliffhangers.

Loved this book. YA at its best. I love that its not similar to any other book in the genre. I find others I have read in this genre like The Hunger Games Series, Divergent Series and The Testing Series can be similar from book to book. This definitely had no similarity.

The book was short but it threw you straight in without to much world building, so you could get into it faster. The only thing I would of liked is more. I was left with questions like what happens to the main characters after the end of the book but loved it still.

Would recommend this book and the rest of them in the series as they were that good.

I received a copy from netgalley for review

There should be a warning on this book which reads, 'Do not start unless it's your payday and you can buy the next two books immediately afterwards'! How I love a good bit of dystopian YA and Guy delivers this in chunks. He doesn't hold back and his writing is never patronising but be prepared for some pretty nightmarish places and descriptions.

You couldn't bottle this writer's imagination, it is so boundless and limitless. There are freaks and geeks, wolves and sheep and everything in between. I can't begin to describe how much I love these books. I have one criticism - we need more books. Excellent, wonderful stuff.

I quite enjoyed this book and am currently reading book 2 (6 in total so far?). If I am honest I am not keen on reading novella serial type books and would rather read the books altogether as 1 book with chapters switching between the different locations and characters. If works as a stand alone book however, feel that we will come back to these characters further along the series. Quite a good read, creepy, mysterious and at times quite humorous.

This book was weird. The story was enough to last a novel, but instead it was written as a novella, which added to the intrigue and curiosity. Needless to say, I went on to read the next and the next, hoping to find out more. It's not for the faint of heart or the easily shocked, as some scenes were pretty graphic.

I didn't initially know whether I'd like this book or not, but when I saw it was Read Now on NetGalley, I read the synopsis and thought I'd pick it up. It just turns out that this is one of the most brilliantly described and clever books I've ever read!

The level of description within this book is completely amazing. Every single scene was described in so much detail that I could perfectly imagine exactly what was happening at the time. Not only was the setting described well, but the description of the monstrosities that followed The Change, such as the awful creatures that came to exist, and the awful situations people were put in were horribly brilliant. I was disgusted in the best way, I felt like I was completely in the story. It was amazing.

The chapters including the monsters perspective were such a welcome addition, and really helped to give you a different view of the story, and show just how 'feral' the monster was by referring to humans as 'the meat'. The use of language was extremely clever!

The characters within the story were also hilarious and full of depth, and the friendship between Hubcap and Howard was so unique, and such a welcoming happiness in the novel. It contrasted the darkness of the overall story so well, and made me smile the whole way through!

This book is a short story that definitely packs a punch. In only a short amount of pages Guy Adams makes you fall in love with characters, immerse yourself in the deadly world after The Change, and amazes you at the way his writing completely takes over every sense. It's filled to the brim with everything you could want for a horror, and is definitely one to watch out for!

I think my main problem was I wasn't fully in the mood for this. But it was so short I didn't think it would bother me that much. Maybe if it was 200+ pages I could of enjoyed it more.

This graphic novel series, far better when taken as separate parts to a greater whole, are beautifully written with very appealing art. These are the perfect graphic novels for someone is skeptical about attempting the medium for the first time.

I definitely want to read more!
I look forward to finding out what happens to Howard and Hubcap.

<I> 'People call them 'Gods', the creatures that appeared. They call them that not because anyone would pray to them or build a church for them, they call them that because it's the biggest word for a thing people know.'

This Steampunk dystopian hybrid novel focuses on strength, friendships and being brave enough to trust in yourself and others. Refreshingly original - it captured and held, my hard - to - please 14 year old son's attention from the first paragraph.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2092147453

I really enjoyed this first novella in the change series.

I loved the concept behind this series, creates that change the world into something dark and dangerous; butterflies with teeth, cannibal birds and machines that are hungry. I thought this concept was very original. Some parts reminded me of the novella The Mist by Stephen King.

London Orbital is well-written, engaging and disturbing as hell.

There is a fantastic scene towards the start where Howard is attacked by birds. This is brilliantly written and reminded me of The Birds by Daphne DuMaurier. I loved this scene.

I liked the fact some chapters are told from the point of view of a creature that used to be human but has been changed into part metal. This was an unusual perspective to use and is quite chilling if a little clunky in its execution.

I look forward to reading other books in the series.

This wasn't really my cup of tea. I found it very hard to follow despite it being a short read.

Neverwhere makes a baby with Rick and Morty, what is born is the wholly original series 'The Change', written by Guy Adams.

The Change impacted the London suburbs as bizarrely as it did the rest of the planet, with close to any imaginable horrors coming to life. It more than just London, the entire world is in a state of 'screwed beyond comprehension'. Anyone who witnessed it, staring into the sky while the fabric of our world shredded, died on the spot. They dropped to the ground like their strings were cut and existence was over. Those who witnessed it second hand via recording or playback, they went crazy; It just broke them and they fell apart in whatever manner their minds required in order to remain 'living'.

Everyone else just plugs along. The blind, the sleeping, the hermits and Luddite technophobes. If they failed to witness the end, they live through the aftermath until something else tries to kill them.

Howard lived and to the best of his knowledge was not crazy. Hard to tell since he had no memory of any personal history.. Full amnesia. Even his name is a guess, based on a journal in his pocket. He just woke up blank and started walking down the crowded freeway filled with cars, corpses, and periodic unexplained bloodstains.

Howard is rescued, after being maimed by locust style swarms of pigeons with teeth, a taste for meat, and flock coordination. His savior is a boy named 'Hubcap' who brings him to relative safety in a group of survivors. Relative is key terminology as they are being hunted by something hungrier and crazier than any mutant pigeons could be.

The world of The Change is a teen fiction export from the UK. It is short, clocking in around 160 pages and probably falls more to the vein of Novella, but is solid from cover to cover. London Orbital is the first in a series, currently three novella, but seems ripe for easy expansion due to the way it was crafted. It relies heavily on world building, but delivers the world quickly and easily, spacing out key data into punchy conversation and short journal snippets.

Unfortunately for me, while the target audience (teens) might take The Change at face value and survive, I would not be so lucky. As an adult, I cannot resist obsessively speculating what was in the sky that murdered the planet, or ways in which you could filter video or perspective to see via tape. I would be dead or crazy as a look in the world of The Change after day one.

While this Novella is not 'graphic', it absolutely does not hold punches when it comes to accurate and potentially queasy descriptions. It May not be appropriate for 0-8 year old age ranges but who really knows these days, my five year old loves Jurassic World after all. He cheers for the Dinosaurs..

This should not be confused with another series from the UK in the 1960's called The Changes which was equally enjoyable for different reasons. Nor the books of the Change by SM Stirling which I personally have mixed feelings on.

--
Disclosure: This book was provided to me by the publisher for review purposes. Had I said no, there is minimal risk they would have left me to die on an ant hill covered in honey. Lucky for me, I like ants and honey, so I do not know how that would have changed my perception. I would advised if this book sucks and then eaten protein laden honey on toast.

This book was completely ridiculous! Outrageous, unreal, crazy, bonkers, whacked out and a complete laugh a minute, cringe constantly, what the hell just happened thrill ride! It flew by so fast, mostly just leaving me shaking my head and trying to wrap my mind around what the f I just read!

Of course, me being me, I absolutely adored it! It was, for starters, oh so clever. I've never seen the apocalypse handled in quite that fashion before, and it suited my fancy very well. The characters were all unique, and well represented as the crazies they had to be to have survived that long.

I found it almost impossible to put down, and once it ended I had no choice but to jump straight into book two. So what if I don't know how it would be possibly to accurately classify this. Just read it!
~ George, 4 Stars

This book is very intriguing, short and sweet, leaving me wanting more.
The story itself is creepy, without giving too much away all at one time, following different peoples tales on where they were during a cataclysmic event known as The Change and what has followed since, which is basically an unpredictable chaotic world.
The characters are likeable and the author makes some interesting, descriptions whilst the story flows at a fast pace.
I will definitely read the next instalment.

Combine <em>World War Z</em> and <em>Mad Max</em> and put it into a comic book without pictures and you get the fast-paced feel for <em>The Change: Orbital</em>.

"The Change" came about suddenly, turning the world into an instantaneous post-apocalyptic, dystopian world. Howard wakes up in a car on a highway to discover the change and is confused by what he sees, and his surroundings. Nature has become cruel - with pigeons attacking like zombies - and men have formed scavenger gangs. Howard runs into an odd fellow who goes by the name of 'Hubcap' who brings Howard into the safety of his gang.

But Howard has a secret that even he isn't sure of. He has a very strong feeling that he and Hubcap are supposed to make a journey into another territory to explore what's at the heart of this change. A dark blob of goo appears, gobbling down members of a biker gang. Howard and Hubcap must pursue Howard's intuition.

In many ways this is a pretty standard post-apocalyptic sci-fi story. Author Guy Adams doesn't need to spend much time describing the setting or giving s a lot of background because most of us are already familiar with the genre and the look and feel of the world because we've watched <em>The Walking Dead</em> or the <em>Mad Max</em> films or any one of dozens of similar films. What the book has, then, that makes it a little more unique, is a mystery. This is not a survival at all costs story, there's something afoot and Howard is a part of it, and that's about all we know.

Even at the end.

Yup...this book doesn't end.

Like comic books, or graphic novels, this appears to be written in serial style. 'Book One' really means 'Chapter One' of a larger story.

There's a good history of serialized fiction, especially among the British (thank you Charles Dickens!) and while I've more than once bemoaned the lack of ending in a book because of the attempt to get you to buy the next volume, thus lining the publisher's pockets with your pennies or pounds, this feels a little different. First this is a short book. A novelette, perhaps? And it doesn't try to pretend to be a complete book, which I think is the main difference. Going in to this you have a pretty good clue that you're not going to get the whole story in this one volume.

Still...I'm not a fan of leaving so many questions unanswered simply to sell another volume. The book loses one star for that.

If you like the genre and don't mind some familiar tropes in order to begin a mystery, then you might want to consider giving this a chance. It's a quick read, so it won't take up a lot of your time.

Looking for a good book? <em>The Change: Orbital</em> by Guy Adams is the first, slim, book in a series about a strange sudden change that came over the world, casting it into a dystopian wonderland where something dark and evil lurks at the heart of it all, but you may have to pay out for many more volumes before you get a better sense of the whole story.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.