[REVIEW] Hidden – Eve Kenin

Eve Kenin
Hidden (Northern Waste, Book 2)
Dorchester Pub (1st July 2008)
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In 2037 there will be an outbreak (a plague, maybe) that kills a whole lot of people. Don’t say I never warned you.

Excluding the prologue, this novel takes place in 2093. The world is now divided into four parts: the Northern Waste, the Equatorial Band, Africa and the Southern Hemisphere. Born in a laboratory in the icy Northern Waste, Tatiana is now free. But there’s something seriously screwed with her genes, clearly evident when she slices off a bloke’s hand with no weapons other than her own hands.

Once imprisoned, Tatiana seems headed into containment when she’s exposed to a plague – one she may have helped create.

There’s no doubt that the world-building and science are the novel’s best features, and makes me wonder if Liskeard and Gladow Station actually exist. (Forgive my lack of knowledge; I live in the Southern Hemisphere, not the Northern Waste.) But despite all the nanotechnology, Tatiana wishes for the simple things, like again visiting the orange tree in the New Edmonton arboretum.

Unfortunately, I haven’t read the previous Northern Waste novel Driven, which focuses on Raina Bowen, and Tatiana’s brother, Wizard, so I don’t know enough about Duncan Bane and Gavin Ward. I also read chunks of Hidden in front of the TV, thus my concentration wasn’t as strong as it could’ve been. Still, I’d love to read more of this future, and am particularly keen on learning how life in the Equatorial Band, Africa and the Southern Hemisphere differs from that in the Northern Waste. Will we find out? Stay tuned.