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Stewart Hotston

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Tangle's Game Kindle Edition

by Stewart Hotston (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.3 29 ratings

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NOWHERE TO RUN. NOWHERE TO HIDE.

Yesterday, Amanda Back’s life was flawless: the perfect social credit score, the perfect job, the perfect home.

Today, Amanda is a target, an enemy of the system holding information dangerous enough to disrupt the world’s all-consuming tech—a fugitive on the run.

But in a world where an un-hackable blockchain links everyone and everything, there is nowhere to run…

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About the Author

Trained as a physicist, philosopher and economist in a nearish galaxy quite a long time ago, Stewart Hotston now works in high finance fiddling around with weapons of financial destruction. When he’s not doing that, he’s probably writing or hitting people with medieval European swords. His writing spans genres including sci‑fi, horror, fantasy and just plain weird with more than a dozen short stories published and two novels.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07PFDTKT1
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Abaddon Books (May 2, 2019)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 2, 2019
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 786 KB
Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 216 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #3,234,229 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #4,612 in Technothrillers (Kindle Store)
- #9,598 in Technothrillers (Books)

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4.3 29 ratings

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Stewart Hotston

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Stewart started writing in a fit of romance. That was more than a decade ago. He still writes for the love of his life but also for his children, his friends and because he loves it. Having once, long ago, been a proper physicist and now working in finance, he tends to write speculatively - preferring to think about big issues and ordinary people. In other words, he loves the grand old spirit of science fiction, whether it's long or short pieces.

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4.3 out of 5

29 global ratings

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A Masterful Thriller in an Uncertain Future

Reviewed in the United States on June 2, 2019

Tangle’s Game starts off with a bang and never quiets down, throwing you into a whirlwind plot that’s equally fascinating and brilliant. By pairing a doubting protagonist with a secret that would topple the world, we get a heightened sense of suspense as she travels around looking for answers, at first ignorant of the forces trying to take her down. This is a thriller at its best, complete with a throwback to old technology and a series of supporting characters that create a quirky band.

I love how long the author takes to reveal the secret object our protagonist has been burdened with. It leaves a lot of room for the reader’s imagination to play. By the time you get the big reveal, so many possibilities have run through your head that anything comes as a surprise. The author’s use of a very real protagonist just trying to get back to her daily life magnifies the universal issue this object has created for her. The world around her begins to fall apart and she’s unprepared for the ramifications. It’s startling and exciting, especially as you try to imagine how this could all end.

I was most impressed with the author’s mastery of dialogue and its use to shed light on the social inequality of an oppressive system that favors the rich and pits the poor against each other. The award for most surprising supporting character goes to Ichi, an elderly ex-professor whose worldview has been shaped by her proximity to the many catastrophes that have redefined this world of the future. Extremist politics have run rampant and she breaks down how and when the world fell apart, and what it meant to those struggling to get by. It’s a brilliant analysis of capitalism and the possible future the world is headed if extremism becomes the norm.

Overall, Tangle’s Game is a wonderfully entertaining novel that excites at every turn, filled with unexpected twists and a group of characters who compliment and challenge each other. It’s exactly what a futuristic thriller should be.

NOTE: I was provided a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for my honest, unbiased review.

Helpful

Renee LS

Interesting premise, poor execution

Reviewed in the United States on May 7, 2019

Verified Purchase

Some good ideas here, but the author can’t write a scene without overwriting the dialogue. Did not finish this one.

Reviewed in the United States on May 12, 2019

This is a story set in the near future. A financial analyst receives a parcel from her long-despised lover. It's a thumb drive (long outdated tech) that turns out to contain code that disrupts blockchains, the supposedly unhackable technology that runs that future world. The story is moderately interesting until near the end when a bunch of unlikely and unneeded stuff is added in. The UK governments renditions her to China for no reason that I can figure. The rendition lasts a few days and she is then flown back. During the rendition she does not wash or use the toilet, her nose is smashed, and she is only fed one. But when she arrives in London she is not given a cleaned up for her press appearance but no one notices the mess. A bunch of story lines go flat. A break-in at a secure is very poorly planned but succeeds because the security systems are almost non-existent. The most irritating thing about the text is that people don't "park" cars, the "park up" cars. I have been around the world several times and I have never heard anyone say "park up" and neither has Google as of a few minutes ago.

I received a review copy of "Tangle's Game" by Stewart Hotston (Rebellion Publishing) through NetGalley.com.

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Dave I.

An Excellent Read of a Near Future Nightmare

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 9, 2019

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I highly recommend this novel. Set in a world where Blockchain is ubiquitous, we see a narrative investigation of the rights and wrongs of this new technology, and of associated issues such as social credit, social media, and the nature of living in such a world.

I found the ‘genre’ or tone of the book is difficult to pin down but rather than being a hindrance, I found this quite liberating. There are elements of science fiction here, but mixed with a science fact that belies the authors clear intelligence and background in both hard science and financial sector working.

This is not a far futurist tale of high technology and sweeping dramas (see the authors back catalogue for that), but neither is it a story of now with all the drama that we see being played out in the media on an almost daily basis.

Rather it is a Near Now. Almost as though it is set Tomorrow. A story clearly influenced by events of today but cleverly extrapolated to give a world that is all too believable and terrifyingly possible.

There are historical references to events we see being played out today in our newspapers and online media. There is reference to a Post Trump/Brexit world which, while on the surface is a gleaming technological pseudo-topia, is every bit as broken and fevered as our world today. And throughout this the author manages to paint a picture without coming across as preaching or speaking down to the reader.

Characters are well defined, and the author clearly invests time into them with thoughts and drives that are clearly important to him. We see visible representation of women, persons of colour, the elderly, homosexuals, as well as men. And these characters are conveyed in a ‘Warts and All’ way, making them sympathetic but with all too real idiosyncrasies that make them all the more believable.

The author handles the subject matter with a skill that reduces what could be a dry and intimidating intellectual subject into an understandable narrative that highlights important concepts that educate the reader should they wish to know more about a subject that is high in the social consciousness.

All in all I highly recommend this book to anyone, regardless of preferred genre.

3 people found this helpful

Stuart Keen

Insightful and exciting

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 7, 2021

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Good science fiction is not always about escapism and otherworldliness. The best science fiction is insightful, thoughtful and makes us think about what and who we are, and who we want to be. This book delivers that beautifully.
The author's insight into certain worlds opens up uncomfortable truths for us and the most disturbing part of the fiction is that it is so close to the truth.
Part of what makes this book so good is that I was unable to predict where the book was going, the story kept me engaged and did not end where I expected. That is a considerable part of the book's charm.

One person found this helpful

Mr. W. Brown

I didn't want it to end

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 27, 2019

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Set in a not so distant future, Blockchain has become prevalent throughout society and we explore some of the ramifications of this. I really enjoyed the concept of a social credit score (I mean we are going that way already? Ever heard of someone not employed because of their Facebook?) and it lead to a few discussion points with friends about this, relating to this book.
The first 1/3 I enjoyed immensely and had a real feeling of suspense. The middle 1/3 was good, with our character trying to establish where to go and the final 1/3 was excellent. I didn't want it to end, almost a cliffhanger type ending for me.
I really enjoyed the main character, their perception of the world and their exploration of prejudice. The relationships they form also are enjoyable!
Techy, but with no barriers to entry
Tense, but not gratuitously so
Buy this book!

4 people found this helpful

Man-O-War1977

Well worth a read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 20, 2019

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I enjoy some sci-fi stuff, but by no means all and I started reading this with some sense of trepidation, but was very pleasantly surprised. There's a very 1984-esque feel to many of the characters who make mistakes, make bad choices and can come off as straight up unpleasant and yet the narrative story does push along nicely and it has a real thriller sense to the plot.

All of that said the book is far from flawless; we are often visited by Basil Exposition with long chunks of explanatory dialouge which, tbh, I found clunky. The author has a point to make, and it's one worth listening to, but I'm not sure it always works as intended. Iain M Banks, for example, had a lot to say about social justice and the morals of capitalism but didn't beat the reader over the head with it, which ensured both ardent supporters so social justice and, more importantly, those who disagreed both read all his stuff.

I think this is a very good start, and I'd definitely read whatever Hoston puts out next, but I hope he can find the balance between having a political message and having a plot which allows one to emerge more naturally from the other

4 people found this helpful

Amazon Customer

A tightly written scifi thriller that is as much about ideology as technology

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 11, 2021

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If you're interested in technology, a realistic dystopia, or the way people view the world this is 100% a book for you.
Tightly written, interesting and engaging plot, strong characters with actual meaningful diversity in gender, sexuality race and ideology.
One of the few scifi books I've read that claims to be a version of the real world 20 years from now and actually manages to be believeable.

Five stars

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Tangle's Game Kindle Edition

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