Genesis – Bernard Beckett.

Are humans the only beings capable of reasoning? Capable of innovation? Capable of structuring an argument and adjusting under different situations? Or are machines, technologically advanced machines, just as able to perform the same as a human would.

Those who know me, know that I love to read. Anything and everything that crosses my path gets a go and no genre is off limits. Very rarely do I come across a book that not only keeps me interested the whole way through BUT has an ending that was so surprising and so unexpected I had to read it three times to make sure!

This novel is definitely unlike anything I’ve ever read before. It’s set in a post-apocalyptic future and the main character, Anaximander is undertaking an oral examination to enter a prestigious unit known only as The Academy. The entire novel consists only of the interview between The Examiners and Anaximander as she answers questions and states her opinions on her chosen topic, the life and actions of Adam Forde, a soldier of a time gone by who is long dead. His story is taught in schools and Anaximander has chosen to make it her study, working with a tutor for The Academy, Pericles. The Academy are advisors to those who make the rules and Anaximander knows that they take only students who perform at the highest level. Everything she says in this interview will be analysed, questioned, criticised and judged.

Through this interview and the questions The Examiners put to her, Anaximander takes us back in time to the history of how her world came to be the place that it is today: a time of war in the world as we know it now leading to plague, leading to isolation, barriers formed around the islands with soldiers posted along all the coastlines with orders to shoot to kill if  any boats or humans make their way to the fences. Adam Forde was one of these such soldiers but the choices he made were significantly different from those he had been trained to.

Exploring a world with incredibly advanced technology and it’s interactions with humans, Genesis deals with Anaximander’s shocking discovery of the real history of her Republic, as well as the startling realisation of what her fascination with Adam Forde really means to those who are questioning her.

It’s a short novel, only 150-odd pages, and there’s not a word wasted. From the very beginning we’re straight into the story with Anaximander going into her 4hr oral examination. The Examiner’s questions skilfully draw out an explanation of the background of the Republic where Anaximander lives, giving us a rich and colourful history that gives us understanding of what has gone before and shaped the way things are now. Anaximander, through her chosen study of Adam Forde hopes to join The Academy and work in the top echelon of the Republic, advising those who make the decisions, those who create the rules. She has to think carefully on everything she says and we are also privy to her thoughts as she processes the questions from the Examiner’s and seeks to shape her answers in the best way.

What you get is a novel that’s philosophical, ripe with ideas that are familiar – Plato, Socrates, Pericles and also the idea of rational thought. Are humans the only beings capable of reasoning? Capable of innovation? Capable of structuring an argument and adjusting under different situations? Or are machines, technologically advanced machines, just as able to perform the same as a human would.  It’s an interesting, thought-provoking and often frustrating attempt to attribute the same qualities humans have to a robot-type machine and all throughout those scenes I went back and forth on my position of whether or not a soul could be attributed to a machine.

This novel amazed me with how much Beckett managed to put into the 150 pages. It’s a smart novel, it will challenge your views on things you think you know and raise questions that might not have occurred to you before. Although it’s categorised as YA it’s much more than that. It’s also one of those books where all of a sudden you reach the end and you’re left utterly stunned and sort of gasping for air, wondering if you really just read what you thought you did. I had to go back and read the last couple of pages another 2-3 times just to make sure and the impact was not lessened each time at all.

Genesis is an incredible book, unique to the post-apocalyptic and dystopian genre’s and one of the best reads I have had in a very long time.

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