In Robert Llewellyn’s eagerly awaited sequel to News From Gardenia, erstwhile engineer Gavin Meckler is trying to get back to the present in his Youneec aircraft, but something is amiss. He soon realises he has travelled sideways through time to another possible future, as unlike his visit to 2211 “Gardenia” as our own era.
Llewellyn, known to geeks everywhere as the actor who plays Kryten in the BBC comedy sci-fi Red Dwarf and as a big fan of sustainable technologies and electric vehicles, provides an intriguing perspective on a second possible future for humanity. In “Squares”, it’s no agrarian, hippy love-in, this time, men (who are all well over two metres tall, but outnumbered by females 10 to 1) are now playing the roles traditionally taken by women, while the women run the vast mega cities that evolved from our current metropolitan areas and covered each nations. Bio-inspired materials science allows the women of the future to grow buildings and a neck-wrenching terrestrial and sea-based transport system that outstrips our puny supersonic flight. It soon becomes apparent to Meckler that the world is soon to vote on whether to eradicate the male of the species once and for all…and his timely presence could change the course of history.
A quick and gripping read with some intriguing insights and even a neat reference to today’s wonder material graphene! Can’t wait to read the final part of the trilogy.