I can’t say it’s a pleasant story, but it’s well written, and you should read this book.

Following the collapse of the EU, and by the sounds of it, also capitalist America, England is wedged between the remaining capitalist Scandinavian Arc and the post-capitalist Southern Bloc. The English back idealist Ben Baines and his New Socialist Order, with the hope of creating a collectivist utopia, with true equality. Unfortunately, humans are human, and some people just want power.

Like so many times in true history, the Northumbrian countryside becomes a war zone. Nat Bell, his wife and his daughter are farmers. They are hardly the rich, greedy folk that the NSO purportedly seeks to oust, but they also don’t want to give up the farmland that is in their blood. Sadly, they are not just left in peace to work the land, and without going into plot-spoiling detail, let’s just say that revenge is a truly destructive force.

I feel like this book is an important reminder of human nature, and that no large-scale collectivist government has yet succeeded to immanentise the eschaton. With our current social unrest, and calls for the abolition of capitalism in many Western countries, this is a very timely novel. I’m not saying that capitalism is perfect or even great (that’s a conversation for another day), but real life and idealism unfortunately don’t often intersect where we would like them to.

This book is brilliantly written, albeit very violent. It loses a star partly for the graphic violence, and partly for the fact that I still had so many questions at the end. I feel like it dropped off all too abruptly.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Matador for the arc of The Border Reiver by Nick Christofides

Thank you Nick Christofides for this amazing book.

This is a remarkable story, Life and liberty are at stake and because of the courage of one man the entire country begins to question the authoritative regime that has taken over the government. This was so gripping and it was a really fast paced, scary, creepy, interesting and exciting book! i liked how it progressed the writing and structure of it which Nick did was so beautifully done!!

Recommend
4 stars⭐⭐⭐⭐

Border reivers were actually historically the warring clans along the Scottish/English border many centuries ago. But then again the past repeats itself. Because no one ever learns from the mistakes of others and oftentimes not even from their own. And yes, those are all old maxims, but nevertheless oh so accurate. And they are the premises that drives on this tale of the near future Scottish rebellion, the near future where Brexit and subsequent collapse of EU has led to a succession of a collectivist socialist party in England led by a well intentioned charismatic lunatic with a diabolically evil second in command. Anyone with even a superficial knowledge of recent past is well aware that neither of those things, socialism of collectivism, work and there are terrifying displays throughout the last century especially of just how tragically and lethally they fail and yet…you know those who don’t learn are doomed to repeat and there they go. The farms are to be taken away from the people who own and work them idea doesn’t sit well with a stoic powerhouse of a farmer named Nathaniel Bell, so he decides to take a stand and, when his family pays a terrible toll for it, he goes on the offensive, a one man war against the new world order that becomes something like a call to arms or even…gasp…a revolution. Is that sounds familiar at all, it’s because it’s basically a plot of Braveheart updated for the modern age. You can just imagine Mel Gibson busting out his best Scottish brogue for this. No blue stripes this time or long locks, but still…it’s all there. Right down to the ending. The only thing is Braveheart for all its shortcomings was actually very entertaining. This book is considerably less so. I wasn’t a huge fan of the author’s writing, it seemed very…mechanical somehow, all descriptions, no inner life, all show no tell in a way, and entirely too much action. I mean, obviously, some was necessary to the story, but the entire thing didn’t really work for me, too militant, too testosterony. Objectively it was decent enough, the writing was perfectly serviceable, the plot had some intriguing ideas, the characters tried for dimensionality, albeit mostly were divided along the good and evil sides pretty strictly, except for the charismatic ne leader who did show some ambivalence. But in the end it just really didn’t work for me, the writing didn’t draw me in, all that action didn’t really excite and the parallels to Braveheart were just too blatant. The thing is the past does recycle itself and with all that’s going on in the world, nothing is no longer off the table politics wise, so the book may have been terrifyingly prescient had it gone for a more dramatic less action driven approach, but as is…William Wallace wants his life story back. Or a credit. Yeah, didn’t like this much, tried, but just wasn’t for me. Kind of had to speed read it just to get it over with. Then again, it has a bunch of good reviews, so it obviously stirred some minds and imaginations. Thanks Netgalley.

I apologise to the author and publisher, I requested this in error! I have tried to read it but it is proving too heavy. Thank you to the publisher for the opportunity to read it.