Impress of the Seventh Surge starts in a very familiar world, as the story centres around a pandemic. Like our world, there are people who obey the rules rules and some people don’t – for the sake of their ‘freedom’. But then as the story unfolds, the similarities between our world and this world sharply diverge.

The Novella told from the point of Shan, across two different time periods. I really want to tell you more about it, but it’s a short read and I think the punch at the end of why Shan’s life has taken a drastic turn through the pandemic is best read without me ruining it.

It was really well done in such a short period of time, not only explaining what happened to the world and Shan, but setting up this very different outcome of the pandemic compared to ours. I loved the tech angle of it all, but mostly the central theme of justice. I found the overlapping of past and present a bit difficult at first (but that may have been because it was 1am on a plane), but within a few pages you got the rhythm of the story.

Anyway, it’s such a quick and interesting read, so go get it!