This is horror, a nightmare. Locked in a car you can’t control with an unknown voice saying you will die in two and a half hours!!

The idea of self driving cars scare the shit out of me. I’m not a good passenger when the OH is driving so the idea of being sat there in the driver’s seat without any driving controls feels a step too far for me on this technological journey we’re on.

I really liked Libby. She was dragged into a situation that is against all her principles without choice is a star. She’s trying to do what is right in a room where everyone else is covering their own backsides and that of driverless cars. She’s the voice of sense in the room but will she be listened to?

This is a scarily conceivable thriller. We aren’t too far off the concept of driverless cars and the way some hackers can navigate their way into some supposedly secure IT systems, who’s to say hacking a car network wouldn’t be a challenge. The FT likened this to Black Mirror and I can totally see why. I can imagine Charlie Brooker taking this and adding it into his unique series.

Marrs has written an addictive high concept thriller. The way the chapters switched between the jury locked in the government room and one of the passengers kept me glued to the read, flicking the pages to see what would happen next. I’ve developed a liking for speculative thrillers and this is one that’s definitely worth a read!

John Marrs never disappoints with his writing skills. He has done it again. Produced a book that’s full of thrills and keeps you guessing.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for gifting me this book.

Another brilliant book from John Marrs. Well written and full of interesting and complex facts and story lines. Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to read

Ahhhh Mr Marrs. What a truly special author he is. How he comes up with these ideas is beyond me!! Each book by him takes you somewhere completely out of your comfort zone. Keep them coming!

As brilliant a read as his other books!

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free ARC of this book.

I haven’t read John Marrs books before. The blurb and premise really intrigued me. Unfortunately, this book missed the mark.

I found the story difficult to connect to and engage with. The start is slow and made for laborious reading. I didn't connect with any of the characters.

The premise is a great one, but the delivery crashed and fell apart for me, unfortunately. One star.

NOTE ON RATINGS: I consider a 3-star rating a positive review. Picky about which books I give 5 stars to, I reserve this highest rating for the stories I find stunning and which moved me.

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5 STARS: IT WAS AMAZING! I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN! — Highly Recommended.
4 STARS: I WOULD PULL AN ALL-NIGHTER — Go read this book.
3 STARS: IT WAS GOOD! — An okay read. Didn’t love it. Didn’t hate it.
2 STARS: I MAY HAVE LIKED A FEW THINGS —Lacking in some areas: writing, characterisation, and/or problematic plot lines.
1 STAR: NOT MY CUP OF TEA —Lots of issues with this book.

I am in charge of the senior library and work with a group of Reading Ambassadors from 16-18 to ensure that our boarding school library is modernised and meets the need of both our senior students and staff. It has been great to have the chance to talk about these books with our seniors and discuss what they want and need on their shelves. I was drawn to his book because I thought it would be something different from the usual school library fare and draw the students in with a tempting storyline and lots to discuss.
This book was a really enjoyable read with strong characters and a real sense of time and place. I enjoyed the ways that it maintained a cracking pace that kept me turning its pages and ensured that I had much to discuss with them after finishing. It was not only a lively and enjoyable novel but had lots of contemporary themes for our book group to pick up and spend hours discussing too.
I think it's important to choose books that interest as well as challenge our students and I can see this book being very popular with students and staff alike; this will be an excellent purchase as it has everything that we look for in a great read - a tempting premise, fantastic characters and a plot that keeps you gripped until you close its final page.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to read and review this book.

After losing and replacing my broken Kindle and getting a new phone I was unable to download the title again for review as it was no longer available on Netgalley.

I’m really sorry about this and hope that it won’t affect you allowing me to read and review your titles in the future.

Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.
Natalie.

Absolutely enjoyed from start to finish, u didn't want the book to end. Highly recommended, if you like books that keep you guessing and on the edge of your seat.

John Marrs seems to have a knack of tapping into our fears regarding technology and science doesn't he? In a world where most of us are online all the time you would think we're past that surely? For instance I personally, on most days, leave my home with a smartphone, tablet and e-reader. I wouldn't be frightened of technology right? Wrong, it terrifies me how much we're been tapped into, I switch off location and voice controls, clear cookies and history regularly and you can forget having that sneaky spy Alexa in my house. But still I've obviously been seduced by tech. And that is what Marrs is so great at preying on. We love it, we crave it. But we don't really trust it. So as with The One he's built this very familiar world, one that has taken that leap we haven't (yet) and this time it's driverless cars that come under his scrutiny. What if the UK threw itself wholeheartedly behind them, so much so that they weren't ever held accountable for accidents? Somehow it was always the human at fault? And what it someone knew how to take over and decided to do something very public and very dangerous to prove a point? Would people be horrified or would they watch on social media, popcorn at hand?

I did like this book, it obviously got me thinking. Again Marrs has built a believable alternate universe that is just a step ahead of us and furnished it with characters we can both sympathise with and despise. Nothing about those characters is ever quite as it seems. The only thing that stopped this been 5 stars for me was a bit of a weak ending, but it wasn't weak enough to stop me from really enjoying this and it been a solid 4 stars.

The Passengers was different, oh so very different from anything I have read in a longtime. For the two or three days I read it pushed my imagination to the limits, put my brain into a tailspin and basically dominated my head space to the point I had to discuss with anyone who would listen!

Marrs asked us to imagine a future of driverless cars, cars programmed to avoid traffic jams and most importantly avoid collisions. Then he asked us to think about what would happen if someone hacked into those systems and had control, who wanted us the reader and a jury to decide the fate of eight passengers.

What I liked was that Marrs’s jury covered every aspect of the professional world, the doctor, the lawyer, the religious, the MP and lastly a member of the public.

Each had their own approach, each tackled the dilemma the Hacker threw at them from a differing angle. It allowed Marrs to show us their true characters. You couldn’t help but hate MP Jack Larson, selfish, egotistical, a man full of his own self importance. At the other end of the spectrum you had Libby, your average member of the public. I loved her level headedness, her compassion, her questioning nature and her ability to stand up for herself that made her all the more likeable.

The Passengers themselves were from all walks of life, of differing nationalities, religions, race and age, each with a secret they wanted to keep hidden. This is where Marrs was very very clever, where the novel excelled. What if the Hacker knew those secrets but only chose to share certain snippets of information, information that could be manipulated, twisted to influence our decision making? What if he used social media to involve the world in those decisions? As you can imagine this took the novel onto a whole new level as the opinions and the decisions of the jury became complex, the tension and anger almost unbearable. You held your breath as Marrs took everything to the extreme, as you waited for consequences that you knew could only be devastating and catastrophic.

Each chapter gave us differing perspectives as we felt the fear of the The Passengers, Of Libby’s emotions and turmoil. As time ticked away the pace of the novel became frantic as it reflected the panic of its characters. I think my own heart rate raced furiously as the sense of anticipation grew and I waited for the inevitable big explosion, for everything to come crashing down.

I loved the subtle surprise near the end, the tying up of loose ends that didn’t leave me with more questions than answers that can do often happen in novels.

The Passengers was not only high octane, it was thought provoking, intelligent and absolutely brilliant. Can someone please make it into a film or TV drama as it would make for addictive and thrilling viewing!

Written by John Marrs — Crime fiction writers are a pretty twisted lot. If they’re not creating slap-the-forehead-and-cry-out-in-shock moments, they’re happily sitting at home, surveying the world around them and coming up with cunning uses for everyday objects.

Sound familiar, John Marrs? Maybe he got cut up by another driver once too often or lost his rag when a parking attendant slapped a ticket on his windscreen. Whatever the cause, this author has really got it in for four-wheeled weapons of mass destruction.

The Passengers is set some time in the not-too-distant future. Technology is king and the latest government directive is encouraging people to ditch their level one, drive it yourself cars and instead plump for a level five driverless vehicle. The road revolution is in full swing, and there are many tasty incentives in place to ensure that people let go of the wheel and allow artificial intelligence to take control. There are plans in place to ban all manual vehicles within a decade.

As a result, road deaths have dropped dramatically, and the blame for the few fatalities is apportioned at specially convened secret inquests. Libby Dixon has been chosen to sit on one of the juries, and she’s not happy about it – with good reason. Two years ago, she was witness to a crash involving an autonomous vehicle. Two woman and a baby died as a result and the scene of carnage haunts Libby to this day. At the inquest into the deaths, the driver was exonerated of any blame.

She was unhappy at that verdict, now Libby must play a part in the process which she so distrusts. We meet her as she’s about to begin day two of her jury duty in Birmingham and it’s a day she and the other jury members are never likely to forget.

It all begins pretty uneventfully, with Libby the only dissenting voice in a group that’s seen it all before. There’s a government minister and even a doctor and everyone seems happy to toe the party line – invariably, the person not in an autonomous car is to blame. But as Libby fumes and everyone else gangs up on her, the real drama is unfolding outside the inquest room. One by one, passengers are being chosen for death by a mysterious hacker.

They include a pregnant woman, an elderly war hero, a faded film star and a married couple who are travelling separately, and as they are going about their daily business things suddenly go awry. Car doors lock, windows become opaque and the vehicle sets off on a journey of its own, to who knows where. A disembodied voice tells each in turn that they are going to die, and soon.

Then the hacker speaks to the inquest room and it becomes clear they have an important part to play in all this. Each has to decide who will live and who will die – and suddenly, Libby recognises one of the passengers. Things have just got a whole lot more complicated.

This book is like an amalgam of the film Speed and George Orwell’s 1984, with a dash of reality TV thrown in for good measure. It’s a strange mixture but somehow it works, pulling you into the drama and then turning things up another unbearable notch or two as each passenger’s innermost secrets are revealed and mistakes are punished in dramatic fashion.

Marrs really knows how to ratchet up the tension and The Passengers should come with a side order of fingernail protectors or they’ll be bitten to the quick. Libby’s a great character and you’ll find yourself rooting for her. She’s a woman with a conscience and it’s certainly put to the test as this drama unfolds.

The Passengers is a book with a brilliant premise. The idea might seem far-fetched at first but really it is all too possible – and that’s a scary thought. Don’t expect to see much of your bed while you’re reading it though, because it’s destined to keep you up late at night.

Read our interview with John Marrs here. New technology also bites back in Jeffery Deaver’s The Steel Kiss.

Penguin
Print/Kindle/iBook
£1.99

CFL Rating: 5 Stars

Clever well-written, brilliantly crafted book. Rather scary in places. Intense it should appeal to most Sci-Fi readers. In my opinion, it would make a fabulous Hollywood Movie.

An absolutely gripping novel with a dizzying amount of twists and turns. Excellent collection of characters and Marrs truly has created another wonderful piece of work. I couldn’t wait to get to the end, in a good way!

Thank you to Netgalley for letting me have a copy of this book.

I love John Marrs and he has done it again. What a truly thrilling and fantastic book. I was drawn in from start to finish and it was absolutely fantastic! I loved his previous work but I think this might be my favourite book to date, I love it so much. I've actually read it twice. I started it again once I finished it to make sure that I got the most of the story and didn't miss anything.

If you want a story with many twists and turns then The Passengers is a book for you. It took me by surprise so many times, John will lure you into a false sense of security and then break your heart with a twist that you were not expecting. Honestly he is so brilliant!

It was so well written, I can guarantee that this book will have you on the edge of your seat. It is a real page turner that is consistent throughout. In the space of a week I had read this book twice and had to stop myself from reading it again so soon. I will be picking it back up again soon.

This is without a doubt the easiest 5 stars I have given a book in a long time. I can't wait to see what else Marrs has in store for me in the future. I recommend this book to each and everyone of you.

Set in the very near future where driverless cars are the norm, eight cars have hijacked their passengers and are taking them on a course set for collision in two and a half hours time.

Each chapter introduces a new major character (there are no minor characters here) who we learn a little about up to the point of them being locked in their cars. Each character is then written in rotation and find that they are not all they first seemed. As I was reading, I kept thinking that in in a few years time as driverless technology progresses, this could be reality. I found it to be very gripping with authentic characters and plotline.

John Marrs is an excellent weaver of realistic fantastical stories and I can thoroughly recommend all his books – 'The One' is a particular favourite of mine.

This was an excellent read. Not something I would usually pick up but It had me hooked from the outset and throughout. Will be keeping an eye out for more in the future.

The Passengersis another brilliant book from John Marrs, taking place in the same world as 'The One' but later, as autonomous vehicles become compulsary in England. It completely grabbed me right from the beginning, when we see various passengers have their cars taken over and sent to a central location with the promise of colliding. What follows is a tense, addictive story of morality and a definite warning against the increasingly AI-driven interfaces of many of our interactions, technology and even ways of thinking.

I loved reading about the effects having autonomous cars - and complulsary autonomous cars at that - would have on society, which made this novel even more interesting. I could actually imagine this being a reality, and the things described in the book becoming a reality (though I can't help but hope that the general public would have a bit more sense to them when making important decisions... yes I just heard that; I think in light of recent decisions we know that unfortunately that's not necessarily true!). I don't want to give too much way but there are many small and big decisions made that made me question, as the reader, what path I would pick if in Libby's shoes, or those of any of the panel deciding the passengers' fates.

I really did find it hard to put The Passengers down, as it's written in a way that makes you want to read 'just one more page', then another, then another... it's also a really easy novel to get through as the sentences flow so well and the characters are interesting and defined enough to stand apart, without getting confused between them. I personally really liked the ending; at one point I thought it was going to go a certain way which I didn't really feel would have done the story justice but I think it ended really well. John Marrs has managed to hit on the perfect combination of drama, action and suspense whilst also writing about a subject matter that it worryingly convincing; we know self-driving cars are no longer a thing of science fiction or even necessarily that far into the future, so the subject matter here feels even more pertinent, and therefore even more worrying. That's part of what makes this book so scary, but also so very addictive!

It's a thriller, a whodunnit, an examination of the role that A.I is taking in modern life, where it is going to go and the inevitable consequences.

The politics of autonomous ,driverless cars which are apparently 'unhackable' is not far fetched at all and when this is combined with the concept of choosing who is worthy to live or die-literally trial in the public eye-by an annonymous person known as The Hacker.

Who he is and what his motivations are are unclear, however, what is significant is the way in which the trapped people, on a collision course with each other unless the public vote them to die first, is startlingly original and prescient.

The 8 victims are all deemed unloveable/up for voting via social media platforms via a jury who are also trapped and forced to vote/ask questions of each Passenger in turn . The results of those questions are determinging the popularity-or not-of each of the characters.

It's a seering indictment of modern society where we are judged on appearance, systematically stripped down by dubious moral standards and societal 'norms'. Without giving away any deaths, or spoilers, the manner in which there are some dispatches, shall we say, holds a mirror up to the sad state of affiars which is modern day Britain.

I cannot wax lyrical enough about the sheer mastery of John Marrs to paradoxially want you to keep the pages turning, whilst simultaneously needing to take breaks from his slam dunk cliffhangers, which had me going 'HOLY SHIT! WHAT THE ACTUAL??!!!' at nearly each chapter's conclusion.

This is going to be a MASSIVE besteseller and it is totally perfect for tv: it's visual, resonant and just a flat out joy to read!

I do not usually read science fiction but I was seduced by the plot line for this book. Am I glad I was. I was hooked from the first chapter. With the way AI is developing this is an idea that will be developed more in the not too distant future, although after reading this I maybe will not embrace the technology too easily! I will certainly look our for other books by this author.

Another intriguing read from Marrs! Clever plotting, characters that the reader can love and hate in equal measure, and dilemmas which make us all wonder what we would do in the same situation. Great fun and plays brilliantly on our fears that we can’t trust technology and that ‘the truth’ is something very much open to interpretation. Highly recommended!