Apologies my file wouldn’t work properly so unfortunately I am unable to read or review this

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

One of the better dystopian road trip stories I've read in recent years. I really enjoyed this book as well as R. W. W. Greene's earlier novel, The Light Years, and would recommend them both!
NetGalley provided me with an e-book arc for review purposes.

I requested this book on Netgalley and I’m so glad that I did!

A good book for readers who don’t want to fully immerse themselves in a new universe but still want to enjoy road trip-based dystopian stories. Even so, I had no trouble caring for the protagonist. That said, I did feel a need for more explanation about why the world was the way it was.

In some ways, this book reminded me of the movie, Lou. If you haven’t seen it, do it now. Y’know those movies in which a cynical, retired spy who is living at the edge of the world is drawn into a last fight because of a naïve, innocent single mom and her abusive, murderous ex? It’s that but the spy is Allison Janney and not a male actor. She gives back as good as she gets and we also get a not-too unexpected twist at the end. In Twenty-Five to Life, we have a Lou-like Ranger who takes our protag under her wing. I liked her immediately!

Be warned, the going is slow and there isn’t much of a plot, except for a teenager runs away and faces the harsh reality.

The first thing to say is that Julie and Ranger are incredible characters and ones that you fall in love with.

This science fiction novel tells a story of survival where the coming of age of its characters is really the most important thing, thus becoming a direct point of conversation with the target audience of the book.

Imperfect and memorable characters, they are the ones in charge of keeping us together with this narrative that crosses hope and despair.

Mind you, this isn't action-packed sci-fi. If you want that, find another novel.

https://thecurioussffreader.wordpress.com/2022/01/26/book-review-twenty-five-to-life-by-r-w-w-greene/
Julie Riley is twenty-three years old. In our world, she would be an adult and free to work and live the way she wanted to. In her world however, she’s still a minor. In her world, she’s trapped at home, under-employed and monitored with an implant that regularly injects her with drugs until she feels completely numb.

Her best friend is one of the lucky ones, she was chosen to be a member of a ship leaving for Proxima Centauri. But Julie is stuck on a dying Earth and diseases are spreading everywhere. When her mother decides to move to a tiny apartment, it’s the last straw for Julie. She wants out. She wants to explore the world and live among the Volkgeist, a group of people who decided that living in cubicles for the rest of their life wasn’t for them. But when Julie finds them, the Volkgeist are not what she expected and living among them is a lot more challenging than she imagined it would be…

I read and really enjoyed Greene’s debut The Light Years in 2020, so I was very excited for his sophomore novel. Greene has a real talent in writing slice-of-life science fiction stories that are about the everyday people. Twenty-Five to Life is a slow and quiet story about the life of the people who are left behind to deal with the consequences of humanity’s past mistakes.

I don’t doubt that this novel was written during the COVID-19 pandemic. The characters are living in a world devasted by diseases and climate change, the future is looking very bleak and most of the population is stuck in tiny cubicles experiencing life through VR games. However, the novel still manages to be hopeful. It shows people fighting back, trying to find solutions for the planet and for the humans who remain.

Twenty-Five to Life is a coming-of-age story. Julie is twenty-three years old, she’s a young adult who has been sheltered her entire life so, she reacts to new situations like a teenager would. It can be a bit frustrating at times since she makes a lot of totally dumb moves at the beginning of the novel. She completely idolizes the Volkgeist after watching one documentary about them. She sees their lifestyle as exotic and exciting without realizing how dangerous it can be.

I’m 24 years old and, I could definitely recognize parts of myself in Julie. Not that I would like to be a part of the Volkgeist but, I have also set my expectations too high for things I knew virtually nothing about and been sorely disappointed by the less exciting reality. So, if her initial naïve expectations of the Volkgeist was a bit frustrating, I empathized with her a lot when she realized things were not as simple as she imagined them to be. The Volkgeist are divided into a multitude of different groups. Some groups are composed of tourists trying to experience a new lifestyle, some are very dangerous, and others are just trying to get by.

In Twenty-Five to Life, Julie becomes an adult. She learns a lot about herself, about her strengths and her weaknesses. She experiences beautiful moments, heartbreak, and hardships. At the end, she’s not a the same naïve and angsty girl, she knows what she wants and who she is.

Twenty-Five to Life is not your typical action-packed science fiction story but the compelling characters and solid worldbuilding made the book for me. If you enjoyed The Light Years, I would definitely recommend this novel. It even has a few Easter-eggs about The Light Years. A couple of events in the book were a bit too convenient (a certain character saves the day more than a few times!) but I would still recommend it a lot. Especially if you’re still figuring yourself out (and that’s not limited to reader that are in their twenties! 😉)

★★★★
I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. My thanks to Netgalley and Angry Robot for the ARC.

So I really screwed up on these (new for me) and reviewed this 25 to Life off of NetGalley for the blog tour, have also posted it to amazon blog and everywhere else, then never posted the reviews to NetGalley :{ this is not my usual and the reviews were linked to publicist already. Please don't hate me!!

First, thanks to NetGalley for a review copy of this book!

Twenty-Five to Life is Greene's second book after The Light Years, which I also enjoyed a lot (there's a cheeky reference to it in this book as well, which is some meta fun). Twenty-Five to Life has a very different setting- worsening climate apocalypse, as opposed to relativistic space travel. The exploration of humanity is the same, though. Refreshing, and full of heart. I'd hang out with Ranger and Rover any day of the week, and I'd love a return to their world to see if things get better for humanity in their future.

I greatly enjoyed this quietly hopeful book - it was the first novel in a long time which I just sat and read for several hours, without putting it down. The depictions of the world are vivid, but not overly graphic, and the writing style is really empathic.
I grew extremely fond of Julie and Ranger over the course of the book, but as a whole the narrative perhaps didn't emotionally resonate quite deeply enough for me to rate this a "perfect" 5 star rating.
Twenty-Five to Life was a wonderful read, which will stay with me - I finished it nearly 24 hours ago, and still keep thinking about aspects of it. I look forward to reading more R.W.W. Greene.
4.5 rounded up to 5.
Thanks to Angry Robot and Netgalley for the ARC.

Humanity is doomed, some are living on the moon, some are traveling in space with the high hopes that they can establish colonies, while most are left on Earth, slowly dying of poisoning.

Enters Julie, two years shy of being classified as adult with no hopes of a job or even a world to live. Her helpless situation made her want more... She finds herself joining the Volksgeist, people who live on the road. And the road trip like no other begins.

Twenty-Five to Life really surprised me (in a good way). It's more than an apocalyptic road trip book and the usual "Earth is dying, we gotta move to the next planet" trope; it's a coming of age story where it focuses on the meaning of life, survival, and hope. Knowing it's from ARB, I shouldn't have been surprised coz they always publish great books 💯

It's character-driven, thought-provoking, and original. Twenty-Five To LIfe examines people's reasons for leaving a life of convenience behind, what happens if society crumbles, and what it really means to live. The book perfectly balances hopelessness and desperation of humanity and adds humor, so it wouldn't be so bleak. It was slow paced, but it was a contemplative and enjoyable one. If you're looking for an action-packed book, this is not the one.

The characters are likable yet flawed. At each stop that Julie and Ranger makes, there are always new learning we can glean, from learning to drive, to making soap, and learning something from communities they meet along the way. The dynamics between these two is heartwarming and well-written.

Overall, this was an enjoyable and interesting read. It's well-written, thoughtful, and optimistic.

Dystopian fiction has been becoming increasingly popular in recent years, probably because many of us can see the tell-tale signs of it coming along the tracks in real life. This is a depressing thought, but one worth exploring. How will humans continue to survive on a planet they are poisoning? Some of us may get to live on the moon, others blasted into space in the hopes of developing new colonies on far away worlds, but what about those left behind? Twenty-Five to Life by R.W.W. Greene does not concentrate on the dying, instead it looks to how we keep living, and loving, no matter the circumstances.

Julie is luckier than most. Her mother is a News Anchor, and their position is a privileged one. Julie has access to training modules and can visit with real people in the real world, rather than having to spend all her time in the VR world of Third Eye. At 25 she will have reached adulthood and her mother already have plans for her, namely a faceless cube in one of the huge complexes that the government has been placing the disenfranchised. However, Julie has other thoughts and sets out to join the Volksgeist, the name given to the transient people who roam the old roads of America.

For such a potentially depressingly subject matter, Twenty-Five is an uplifting book. This is because it centres on the characters and how they cope and not the dying world around them. Greene does give the reader plenty to ponder about how the world has changed, it is a recognisable version of our own where climate change has damaged the planet beyond its ability to house human life, but we are also given hope. It may not be what you expect. The world in unlikely going to get better, but there are options to keep living, even in a bleak a world as this.

It is this sense of living that separates the Volksgeist from the average person. Most people have chosen to turn their backs of reality and instead plug themselves into the Third Eye with the help of the government. These people will slowly waste away in their cubes enjoying fake entertainment at a cost the government can afford. It is the tramps who are the freest. They choose to breath the polluted air and risk a life on the road, just so they can keep living life.

We follow Julie on this journey as she evolves from privileged rich girl into a member of the Volksgeist. Early in her voyage of discovery she comes across Ranger, a veteran of the road who takes Julie under her rule. The two of them set of on a road trip that is full of incidents and self-discovery. Their relationship feels effortless and makes this a very readable book that skips along like a wheel on smooth asphalt.

There are moments of horror that remind the reader that this is dystopian fiction, but despite all the death it still feels worth it so that the likes of Julie and Ranger can live for real. Greene paints a realistic world through the narrative, the reader is not spoon fed what is happening around the characters, but we instead we live it with them. Julie makes the perfect protagonist for this as she herself is new to most of it. You finish the book feeling uplifted, which is not often the case in the genre. There is a strange sense of hope that runs throughout the book, if there are relationships to be had, humanity can exist in some sense.

When a humanity-saving expedition to Proxima Centauri leaves Earth taking one of Julie's close friends with it, Julie is left behind, one of the billions on the dying Earth. Oh, it's not about to explode tomorrow, but the air is full of dangerous particulates and most people have been housed in cubes, kept doped up to the eyeballs by constant attachment to virtual reality feeds. When Julie's mother decides to move out of the family home in a failing suburb, Julie, still a minor at 23, is faced with life in a city cube… or… she can go on the road and hope to fall in with the Volksgeist, groups of tramps, hoboes and free citizens in their collection of ramshackle campers, and converted vans. So she goes on the road. Since she's not a legal adult until she's 25, Julie is a runner. Luckily she meets up with Ranger, an experienced road warrior whose lungs are none too healthy. There's a lot to learn, from driving (which she'd never been allowed to do) and how to pack the van to making soap and bio diesel from used cooking oil.

It's a coming of age story, but it's also a travelogue of this dysfunctional, dystopian world. To be honest it doesn't really have a plot other than, 'Julie goes travelling and meets a lot of people, some good, some not,' but it's an interesting read with, on balance, more good folks than bad. Julie is an engaging protagonist and Ranger is an interesting character who becomes Julie's mentor.

I know that this is my type of book, no question there. But I had no idea how hard I would fall for it, either! I loved this story, in that special way that leaves you satisfied at the end, but also a little sad because you just don't want it to end. It's a "oh crap, the apocalypse is nigh" sort of situation, with our main character Julie watching her best friend set off for planets unknown, leaving Julie behind stuck on a dying Earth. When Julie's mom announces that she's selling their home, basically sentencing Julie to live her days in a cube existing on virtual reality. This doesn't sound like a real way to live to Julie, so she gets out of there, stat.

Only problem? At twenty-three, she's still considered a minor in the eyes of the law. She has few resources, and knows no one, but has heard of a group of nomadic folks who refuse the VR life, too, and hopes to connect with them. And when she does, the real magic begins. Oh, and I should mention, people aren't exactly allowed to roam freely around the country. The government put the kibosh to that, so they have to keep moving. And while there is a lot of travel (in the form of road trips, which I adore) in the book, it's definitely more of a focus on Julie, the characters she encounters, and the world in general. And yes, there are all kinds of threats along the way, no question! It isn't a slow book by any means, but it is a very thoughtful and heartfelt one, and it gives us such an incredible insight into Julie and the world around her.

Bottom Line: I loved every single minute of this thoughtful and eerily plausible adventure.

I love when a book surprises me, and that’s exactly what happened with Twenty-Five to Life. At first glance, it seems to be your typical “the Earth is dying and can no longer sustain life, so let’s launch some generation ships into space and colonize a new planet” story. I mean, those are a dime a dozen, right? But instead of focusing on the spaceship and those lucky people who were chosen for the journey, R.W.W. Greene tells the story of the ones who were left behind, specifically a group of vagabonds who have eschewed living in tiny government issued cubes, and instead have hit the road to travel across a barren United States, stopping at campsites along the way, learning how to survive with limited resources and food, and basically living off the land on their own terms. This isn’t an action or plot heavy story, but wow did I have fun with it!

Julie is twenty-three, but in the eyes of the law she’s still a minor. In this future United States, the 30th Amendment has changed the legal age from eighteen to twenty-five, supposedly as a way to conserve resources and protect the job market. Julie has barely any rights, and her mother treats her like a teenager and won’t allow her to make any big decisions about her future for another two years. When she makes an announcement that they’re leaving Julie’s beloved childhood home and moving to the big city, Julie decides to run away—an illegal move that could land her in prison if she’s caught. 

Julie is fascinated by a movement called the volksgeist—where people who are disillusioned with the restraints of modern life travel the country in beat up vans and trucks instead of settling down. Once she hits the road, she meets a woman named Ranger who agrees to take Julie to meet up with a large caravan. Traveling in Ranger’s old van, which she calls Juniper, Julie learns how to survive without modern conveniences. Life on the road is dangerous, but it’s also made up of a community of friendly people who are willing to help those in need. But is this the life that Julie really wants?

Twenty-Five to Life is sort of an unusual coming of age story. Julie isn’t a kid in our eyes, but in her world she’s treated like one. I loved the author’s decision to make this a road trip story and have Julie go through lots of growth and changes over the course of about six months. And she has plenty of hurdles to jump. First, her best friend Anji is one of the lucky ones on the journey to Proxima Centauri, and not only is she missing her, but she feels bad about being left behind. When she runs away and meets Ranger, her life goes from one of safety and ease to one of danger and uncertainty. On the road, you eat whatever you can catch or trade with other travelers, you risk running into gangs and other unsavory characters who might want to kill you, and heaven forbid your vehicle breaks down and leaves you stranded. It’s a harsh life, but it gives Julie the opportunity to finally make her own decisions.

This is a character focused story, and luckily all the characters are really well developed. Julie seems younger than her age, but I think it’s because society has told her she’s basically still a kid. She starts out fairly immature, but grows up on the road, learning all sorts of survival skills she probably thought she’d never need. Ranger was a fantastic character as well. She’s been on the road for years, and when she meets Julie, she’s headed West to the ocean. At first she doesn’t care if Julie sticks with her or not, but as time goes by, the two develop a nice friendship. My other favorite character was a woman named Gretchen who is a friend of Ranger’s. She’s a hacker and runs her own computer network. She’s also a mechanic and honestly can do just about anything, and she’s sort of a lifeline for Ranger, helping her out from time to time from her secret home base. Many of the people they meet along the way are simply side characters, introduced for brief scenes and then gone forever, but overall it made sense for the rambling, ever changing life they live on the road.

I absolutely loved Greene’s worldbuilding. Some things feel familiar, like a devastated United States, ruined by floods, earthquakes and climate change, and an internet-like online space called ThirdEye. But I also enjoyed Greene’s unique touches, like the "emplants" most people get that deliver a steady stream of drugs to your system—for pain or to balance your mood or even to keep you from getting pregnant. What I really loved, though, is that as soon as Julie meets Ranger, the story takes on a really cool Wild West vibe. It isn’t illegal to become a vagabond, but there are rules that state how long you are allowed to stay in one place. Most caravans stop in large, abandoned parking lots to set up camp for a few days, in order to rest and recharge. It’s also a great opportunity to make new friends, and there’s always a campfire burning to greet newcomers—it’s polite to announce “Hello, the fire!” when you arrive. I loved the feeling of camaraderie among these “tramps” as they’re sometimes called—they trade food and other goods with each other, share tips about road conditions, and yes, even enjoy hook ups at times.

But the vast stretches of roads are also full of looters, gangs and other dangerous characters. Everyone carries weapons and has lookout drones, and you better be ready to fight if you run into one of them. Julie and Ranger have a few dangerous and gruesome encounters themselves, and these sections were pretty tense and exciting! Despite these dangers, though, most people on the road will agree that it’s worth the risk to be free and doing their own thing, rather than living a predictable life in the city.

If you’re looking for a more grounded “dying Earth” story about the people left behind, you’ll probably love Twenty-Five to Life. I’m so glad I got the chance to read this book, and I look forward to reading more from this author.

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.

Twenty-Five to Life is an exciting alternative history with aliens, an immortal misanthrope and sci-fi tropes aplenty. Set around seven decades from now, America has been hit with cataclysmic climate change and has limited the ability of those under the age of 25 to vote and receive full citizenship. Apparently, this is to solve some of the first world problems currently blighting the country and to protect the job market, lower the extreme shortage in housing and to help an overwhelmed infrastructure run more smoothly. The elite are to be ferried away to Proxima Centauri, their new home planet by six colony ships. However, the rest of humanity is left behind to die out including 23-year-old Julie Riley. 10 billion people left to just fade away, disintegrate.

The bulk of the story is about Julie’s attempts to survive and to push the thought of the apocalypse she is experiencing to the back of her mind. This is a compelling, thought-provoking and thoroughly original science fiction novel peopled by engaging yet flawed and authentic characters who inhabit a well-built world. It's dark, but the humour and optimism brighten the mood every once in a while, and I found that it was a stark reminder of what is to come for our species if we don't start making changes regarding climate. If you're looking for plenty of action and thrills then this is not the book for you, however, if you enjoy books that consider and ruminate upon deeper real-world issues in intriguing contexts then this will be as captivating to you as it was for me.

Finding a SF book that presents the reader with something new and thought-provoking seems to be R.W.W. Greene's forte - Twenty-Five to Life takes the classic "the Earth is dying so we must escape" trope and flips it on its head. Greene continues to show why he is one of the better writers pushing the bounds of SF; his characters feel authentic, lifelike and flawed, and he does an admirable job of just allowing them to live within the world he's defined. As you progress through the story, Greene presents the reader with situations and ideas that are slowly expanded and mulled over, allowing for thought and internal conversation without ever feeling heavy-handed. With The Light Years (Greene's first novel) having been one of my favorite books of 2020, Twenty-Five to Life is presenting a strong case for a repeat.

Just think for a moment of all the things you did before you were 25 that you couldn't have done if you lived in Julie's world. "Twenty-Five to Life" was a very thought-provoking story as well as being a thoroughly enjoyable one. The writing is perfect, the characters are not (they are far too real to be perfect!). I absolutely loved this book and think everyone should read it!

My thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley. This review was written voluntarily and is entirely my own, unbiased, opinion.

Nicely done. This won't be for those seeking a story with a lot of action, since it's mostly conversations. It's well-written, and it's both dark and a bit uplifting in ways. Recommended for both sci-fi and literary fiction fans.

Thanks very much for the free ARC for review!!

I really wanted to love this one as the blurb pulled me in almost straight away. However, the story just wasn’t for me. I couldn’t like the plot no matter how hard I tried and found myself bored almost the whole way through. The characters, however, were amazing; real, relatable, and well developed. I also loved the writing. It was brilliantly put together and flowed. I think this just wasn’t for me, but I am sure others will love this book.

Rating: 9/10

Synopsis

There’s the lucky few who boarded the colony ships bound for Venus. Then there’s the rest of us left behind to either stim the days away in cubes or hit the open road with the Volksgeist and ignore the fact Earth is dying.

For Julie, life in the ‘burbs is a string of medicated monotony. Not yet considered an adult despite being in her early 20s, she attempts to leave the technological comforts of the ThirdEye network behind. She escapes to enter the world of the caravans and the volksnet, riding with the world-weary woman who calls herself Ranger as they rub shoulders with travellers, raiders, seniors, and wanderers of the back roads.

Review

Hello, the fire!

Wow. This book hooked me. Greene’s not-too-distant dystopian future really hits home. He drops us into a world ravaged by hurricanes, pollution, and 90 variants of COVID without so much as a functioning airbag to cushion the fall.

Neo-millennial Julie’s struggle to break out of the boredom and hopelessness of her existence is one we immediately emphasise with. Everyone feels stuck at one stage or other and Julie is no different. The crude removal of most of her emplant (social media and pharmaceutical dispensary all together in one subdermal device) sees Julie physically and symbolically free herself from the oppressive society left back on Earth by the privileged few exiting the planet on colony ships.

We follow Julie as she is then transported to the world of the caravans. There unfurls a sci-fi homage to Kerouac’s On the Road and classic King coming of age stories. Travellers go by their road names; Julie receives the name “Runner” from her wizened old road mentor, Ranger. The duo meets so many colourful characters perfectly-summarised by these road names: Kinks, Coop, Crunch, Fire and Ice, the Dame; you name a character, and you’ll find them outside the ‘burbs. It’s such simple yet brilliant characterisation.

With much of the book set either in Ranger’s clapped out van or caravan camps, Twenty-Five to Life is incredibly dialogue heavy, with the story advancing through the many campfire conversations and road trips. The voices are clear and distinct as Greene examines people’s reasons for leaving modern convenience behind. Julie herself grows in confidence as she quickly adapts. Each campsite brings new characters and personalities to discover, as well as scenarios and dangers Julie and Ranger must overcome. Gangs, cult suicides, guns, and reality TV; it’s a post-apocalyptic Americana and it’s all portrayed brilliantly under a rusty lens.

Summary

I like what the book is trying to say, and it accomplishes this well. It’s eerie how close we are to ravishing our own planet and here Greene is showing us the results. The desire to leave everything behind and hit the road will always be a prevalent part of human culture, no matter how advanced modern convenience becomes. The wasteland is stark but wonderful. The road is long, it’s unforgiving, but there’s a lot of beauty we can find along the way. Welcome to the park!

I received this book as an ARC

That being said, I can't wait until August to get a hard copy of the book. In a near future ruined by basically everything we do today, and where legal adulthood doesn't start until you are 25, life kind of sucks as a 23-year-old. When everyone is either trying to eke out life in the burbs before they end up in a cube in the city on the government dole, what are you supposed to do if you want more from life? Do you try and find the weirdos that have turned their back on that cube-city life and caravan across what is left of the US? OF COURSE YOU DO!

This book is as much about how we are pretty close to a crap future if we don't get our stuff together, as much as its about growing up in a time where things are probably just going to stay bad (which hits kind of close to home). I loved this book and if you have a chance, you should read it, too.

I am keeping this short because there is too much that would give away the good parts, including the author poking fun at himself. Buy(or borrow) this book and enjoy the ride--pun intended.

R.W.W. Greene's second book is a fun and exciting read right from the start and you won't be disappointed.