Reviewed by annieb123 on
The Assassination of Billy Jeeling is a near-future SF novel by Brian Herbert. Released 1st Nov 2018 by ReAnimus press it's 269 pages and available in paperback and ebook formats.
I picked this book up because I was familiar with Brian Herbert's work continuing his father's legacy with the modern Dune novels. I was surprised that this standalone novel's writing style was so different than his other work. This book is altogether choppier and seemed less finished than his other novels.
The premise is very timely. A scientist, really a messiah figure, is working within the confines of a huge ship to clean and repair the catastrophic damage to the earth and its atmosphere. Political wrangling and greed for power on the part of established politics threatens to upset the balance at the cost of the Earth's potential destruction. The world building and the idea of the ship is very creative and well done. It's just the hastily written, unedited/unpolished narrative which were very hard going.
Unfortunately it just didn't feel like a cohesive whole to me and would almost certainly benefit immensely from a thorough editing and rewrite.
Three stars. Super premise, difficult to read, alas.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
Reading updates
- Started reading
- Finished reading
- 11 June, 2019: Reviewed