Of Kindness and Kilowatts (Nothing is Promised 3)
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4.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
Humanity is trapped in a loop.
As the world heats, it takes more energy to keep humanity from dying—a feedback loop that makes net-zero carbon increasingly impossible to reach.
Akemi’s job on the Public Utilities Commission has its own daily disasters—making sure the infrastructure of civilization keeps running is the most thankless job on the planet. When a double event hits—heatwave plus viral breakout—keeping the power on is an all-out battle. It doesn’t help that he’s distracted by his elderly father, who was struck down and neuro-compromised by the same virus that killed his mother the year before. Now his father is living in Akemi’s attic. They’d never had a relationship before, and that was a fair description of the state of things now.
Then an old friend’s daughter shows up with a mystery of physics… and a tale of stolen kilowatts and deadly intrigue. He would dismiss it outright, except she’s also the Regional Director of the power grid. Something isn’t right, and the Governor won’t accept excuses when the power goes out.
Sometimes, you’re the right person in the right place, whether you want to be or not.
Of Kindness and Kilowatts is the third of four tightly-connected hopepunk novels in a near-future climate-fiction series. It’s about our future, how the world is always more complicated than it seems, and how just when it seems like things couldn’t possibly get worse, they invariably do… and that’s when we discover kindness and quantum entanglement are what hold everything together.
If you enjoyed the optimistic climate solutions in Kim Stanley Robinson’s Ministry for the Future or the cozy cooperative future in Becky Chambers’ Monk and Robot series, you will enjoy Nothing is Promised.
Customer Reviews
3.5stars-detailed, complex but often overwhelming
3.5 stars—OF KINDNESS AND KILOWATTS is the third of four instalments in Susan Kaye Quinn’s post apocalyptic, speculative fiction, hope-punk, series of interconnected story lines set in the year 2050. OF KINDNESS AND KILOWATTS should not be read as a stand alone as it picks up shortly after the events of book two YOU KNEW THE PRICE.
As a quick explanation, hope-punk is often about people fighting for a change in a dystopian setting such as a post apocalyptic society.
SOME BACKGROUND: In the past thirty or so years, the world has been ravaged by several pandemics, ecological disasters, and global warming to the point that air quality is questionable, and food stocks are in short supply. The few remaining people have to apply for a ‘family’ and a place to live, often forcing a number of people together in order to thrive. AIs are the norm; implants are used to communicate but someone is siphoning the power, threatening the few who survive.
Told from third person perspective (Akemi) OF KINDNESS AND KILOWATTS picks up immediately after the events of book two. Public Utilities Commissioner Akemi Sato is struggling in both his personal and professional life having lost his mother one year earlier, while his father’s mind slowly deteriorated as a result of the same pandemic but a visit from Zuri Hill-Gray (You Knew the Price 2) pulls Akemi into the search for the truth. As another airborne virus begins to ravage Huntington Beach, Akemi must begin an investigation into the blackouts, power surges, and the people behind a possible act of treason against the American people.
OF KINDNESS AND KILOWATTS reads like a PhD dissertation; a detailed and complex physics lecture, in both science fiction and fact, often overwhelming the story line premise. With the help of Zuri, and her tech-savvy friends, Akemi sets a plan into action to take down the people involved.