Publisher: Amazon Media EU
Written By: Jude Austin
RRP: £2.37 (Kindle)
Reviewed by: Sebastian J. Brook
Review Posted: 9th March 2019
The SciFi/Thriller genre is chock-full of tales of a dystopian future, heaped on with a bucket load of aliens and apocalyptic doom, but Jude Austin's 'Project Tau' takes the genre in a refreshingly different - and scarily realistic direction.
Leaving behind the dystopian angle, Austin instead gives us a future that is totally believable; where human cloning is at an advanced stage.
When a frat stunt initiation goes horribly wrong, our lead character Kalin Taylor finds himself in a world of trouble. He is offered a way of his problems in exchange for him taking part in a few 'experiments'. A decision that will have dire ramifications for Kalin, and the world itself...
There are moments when you feel like you have been truly catapulted into the future, but then Austin pulls you back and reinforces the foundation of reality:
"Is this going to hurt?" Kalin said edgily. The scientist (Renfield, he'd said his name was) gave him a rather patronizing smile that set the normally passive Kalin's fists itching, and shook his head. "Of course not. You'll be given a general."
Just that line; "given a general", instantly connects you to something you would hear in a modern day hospital. Such a tiny point to mention, but its utter simplicity and nonchalance ends up being an incredibly clever tool that makes the reader fully immersed in this story.
There were some moments that were hard to read; without giving too much away, a certain 'modification' and a shock end to a chapter leaves the reader feeling a little nauseous. This actually gets even worse during the next chapter, but, again, it's totally down to the realism in which the author paints the world and the scenes within.
At its heart, Project Tau is a morality tale that leads the reader to a stark realisation of where we're headed and what we cannot allow to happen. It makes us assess what it really means to be human, and that you don't HAVE to be human, to BE human (if that makes any sense). By the time you finish reading Project Tau, you genuinely feel glad to be back in the present.
The door is left open at the end for more adventures in Austin's world, and with writing like this, we are very much looking forward to what happens next.
+ Project Tau is Out Now!
+ Buy this book from Amazon.co.uk!
+ Follow Jude Austin on Twitter.
