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Pilgrennon's Children
The Emerald Forge
Who is the boy spying on Dana? Who is the girl imprisoned in her dreams? Following the Information Terrorism attack on London, a radical new government has risen to power. The world is changing, but so far as it concerns Dana Provine, an unusual autistic girl growing up in an unforgiving society, everyday life is much the same. When Dana is troubled by disturbing dreams about a hospital, and a boy from school who seems to know far too much about the past starts following her, it's just two more problems on top of many. But when she encounters a bizarre construct, half beast, half machine, she realises something dangerous is going on that could affect everyone. The answer she seeks could confirm both her greatest hope and her deepest fear: that Ivor Pilgrennon still lives.
342 pages, Hardcover
First published December 11, 2012
About the author
Manda Benson
14 books4 followersManda Benson is a scientist and writer from the Midlands of England who has previously worked in research and taught science at undergraduate and A-Level. Manda's work includes:
Pilgrennon's Children, a technothriller series about an autistic girl with the power to mentally control computers and other devices, who discovers that she and a number of other children came about as a result of unethical genetic and technological experiments;
The Beasts trilogy, which explores a future vision of the age-old symbiosis between humans and animals, set in a meritocratic society where scientific advance has come at the cost of a widening gap between the haves and have-nots;
A handful of standalone science-fiction and thriller novels and novellas and middle-grade-children's novels and stories, and;
Numerous short fiction and nonfiction pieces in magazines and anthologies.
Pilgrennon's Children, a technothriller series about an autistic girl with the power to mentally control computers and other devices, who discovers that she and a number of other children came about as a result of unethical genetic and technological experiments;
The Beasts trilogy, which explores a future vision of the age-old symbiosis between humans and animals, set in a meritocratic society where scientific advance has come at the cost of a widening gap between the haves and have-nots;
A handful of standalone science-fiction and thriller novels and novellas and middle-grade-children's novels and stories, and;
Numerous short fiction and nonfiction pieces in magazines and anthologies.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 14, 2012
This is a fast-paced thriller/adventure story that hits the ground running and will keep you turning pages until you realize with a shock that it’s over and you have to wait forever for the next one.
The Emerald Forge is the sequel to Pilgrennon’s Beacon, following the continuing adventures of Dana Provine, the product of an experiment by Ivor Pilgrennon, a scientist with a bit of a Frankenstein complex. Dana, who is autistic, has a chip in her brain that lets her talk to computers. In fact, she feels much more comfortable with logical, predictable computers than she does with illogical, unpredictable human beings, and much of the appeal of the book comes from Dana’s attempts to make sense of “normal” human behavior. She is, however, more functional in human society than her similarly equipped brother, Cale.
Ivor, who is Dana's biological father, is missing and presumed dead, but Dana, who had become attached to him when she met him before, has hopes that he’s alive. Her search for Ivor is one of the motivations for the adventure that follows.
Dana’s foster parents, now adoptive parents, Graeme and Pauline, are wonderfully caring, patient people who do their best to cope with the challenges represented by Dana and Cale, but they don’t know about the chips, nor are they fully aware of much of Dana’s activities. School is still terrible, replete with bullies and clueless teachers. It gets marginally better when Dana makes a tentative alliance with Eric, another misfit, who turns out to be the boy Dana had met previously, in a computer simulation. But that connection brings problems of its own, as do all of Dana’s attempts at making friends.
As in the first book, there’s an abundance of mad scientist stuff, including weird biological-machine creatures, patterned after mythical beasts. Super computers and flying fortresses. Remote-controlled animals of all sorts. “Impossible” chimeras, who exist with the aid of nanobytes in their systems. The mysterious girl in Dana’s dreams who turns out to be more of a nightmare. A blind man who “sees” through the eyes of an eagle.
Dana re-connects with her emotionally and ethically challenged biological mother, Jananin Blake, who is now a spokesperson for the meritocracy, the new form of government that has taken over Britain. The two share a hair-raising adventure, which includes some of Dana’s siblings from Ivor’s experiments.
Highly recommended.
The Emerald Forge is the sequel to Pilgrennon’s Beacon, following the continuing adventures of Dana Provine, the product of an experiment by Ivor Pilgrennon, a scientist with a bit of a Frankenstein complex. Dana, who is autistic, has a chip in her brain that lets her talk to computers. In fact, she feels much more comfortable with logical, predictable computers than she does with illogical, unpredictable human beings, and much of the appeal of the book comes from Dana’s attempts to make sense of “normal” human behavior. She is, however, more functional in human society than her similarly equipped brother, Cale.
Ivor, who is Dana's biological father, is missing and presumed dead, but Dana, who had become attached to him when she met him before, has hopes that he’s alive. Her search for Ivor is one of the motivations for the adventure that follows.
Dana’s foster parents, now adoptive parents, Graeme and Pauline, are wonderfully caring, patient people who do their best to cope with the challenges represented by Dana and Cale, but they don’t know about the chips, nor are they fully aware of much of Dana’s activities. School is still terrible, replete with bullies and clueless teachers. It gets marginally better when Dana makes a tentative alliance with Eric, another misfit, who turns out to be the boy Dana had met previously, in a computer simulation. But that connection brings problems of its own, as do all of Dana’s attempts at making friends.
As in the first book, there’s an abundance of mad scientist stuff, including weird biological-machine creatures, patterned after mythical beasts. Super computers and flying fortresses. Remote-controlled animals of all sorts. “Impossible” chimeras, who exist with the aid of nanobytes in their systems. The mysterious girl in Dana’s dreams who turns out to be more of a nightmare. A blind man who “sees” through the eyes of an eagle.
Dana re-connects with her emotionally and ethically challenged biological mother, Jananin Blake, who is now a spokesperson for the meritocracy, the new form of government that has taken over Britain. The two share a hair-raising adventure, which includes some of Dana’s siblings from Ivor’s experiments.
Highly recommended.
January 25, 2013
The Emerald Forge is a return to the world of Pilgrennon's Children,in which an unscrupulous scientist experimented on human embryos to combine technology with the human mind. The first was lobotimized, the second and third developed severe autism and the fourth turned into a sociopath, but the fifth, with the help of a prototype synapse resulted in Dana Provine.
But the world has changed since the events of Benson's original, Pilgrennon's Beacon. A Meritocracy has risen to replace Western Liberal Democracy in Britain, and Jananin Blake, Dana's genetic mother, has become a powerful figure in the new political climate. Dana herself has returned to her adoptive parents along with her autistic brother, Cale, and is struggling for acceptance in her local high school without giving away her secret; the ability to communicate with anything that gives off a signal. But everything changes when she encounters a cybernetic wyvern that has been sent to kill her. Dana traces the wyvern's source signal to a nightmarish place known as the Emerald Forge, where someone is carrying out illegal experiments on animals and using the very same synapses that flow through Dana's blood.
The Emerald Forge is set in an alternate world in which an unwitting terrorist attack has changed the socio-political structure of Britain. The author attempts to explore the theme of meritocratic system, drawing out the potential benefits and ultimately, the flows in the system that lead to the dilemmas that are central to this story. The genre that this book would fit well in would be cyberpunk, and yet the cultural aspects of cyberpunk are starkly missing from the gritty world-building of this series. The characters are unique and immediately iconic, as is the author's style which sets this book apart from other dystopian tales written in the past twenty years.
The science and politics that form the components of the world-building in this story could have been handled with a lighter touch, making the physics and the higher concepts easier to grasp, but despite this shortcoming this book is definitely a hidden gem that deserves respect and a big following.
But the world has changed since the events of Benson's original, Pilgrennon's Beacon. A Meritocracy has risen to replace Western Liberal Democracy in Britain, and Jananin Blake, Dana's genetic mother, has become a powerful figure in the new political climate. Dana herself has returned to her adoptive parents along with her autistic brother, Cale, and is struggling for acceptance in her local high school without giving away her secret; the ability to communicate with anything that gives off a signal. But everything changes when she encounters a cybernetic wyvern that has been sent to kill her. Dana traces the wyvern's source signal to a nightmarish place known as the Emerald Forge, where someone is carrying out illegal experiments on animals and using the very same synapses that flow through Dana's blood.
The Emerald Forge is set in an alternate world in which an unwitting terrorist attack has changed the socio-political structure of Britain. The author attempts to explore the theme of meritocratic system, drawing out the potential benefits and ultimately, the flows in the system that lead to the dilemmas that are central to this story. The genre that this book would fit well in would be cyberpunk, and yet the cultural aspects of cyberpunk are starkly missing from the gritty world-building of this series. The characters are unique and immediately iconic, as is the author's style which sets this book apart from other dystopian tales written in the past twenty years.
The science and politics that form the components of the world-building in this story could have been handled with a lighter touch, making the physics and the higher concepts easier to grasp, but despite this shortcoming this book is definitely a hidden gem that deserves respect and a big following.
October 17, 2013
Once again, Manda Benson has dragged me back into her world. Having read nearly all of her SF titles by now, it's absolutely fantastic to get to see the "prehistory" of her world-building – all the stuff that gets mentioned in Dark Tempest et al.
Dana is a troubled protagonist, who suffers the brunt of bullies' attention and is socially maladjusted. And she lives a double life. On one hand she's just a kid. On another, she's the result of a scientific experiment that didn't quite go according to plan for her creator, one Ivor Pilgrennon.
This is YA with a difference. You're not going to see a love triangle. Instead you're dropped into the heart of turmoil from the perspective of one very brave girl who's caught on the cusp of young adulthood. She's old enough to reach for bigger things, but is still considered a child. A very frustrating place to be indeed.
As always, Benson's cybernetic creations are fascinating. In The Emerald Forge we encounter fantastical beasts brought to life in unexpected ways. Star of the show is the "wyvern" made up of metal and biological matter. Not so groovy is its opposite, the "griffin". The scarred Pendrick sees through the eyes of his martial eagle. Birds implanted with devices form deadly swarms. We see the first of the horses that were the highlight of Benson's novel Moonsteed.
Benson is unafraid of exploring the sociological implications of unfettered science. Though her characters are not easily likable and are often abrasive, they carry with them a kind of rough charm. Once you step into Benson's world, be prepared to be sucked into a reality as tangible and well realised as those created by the likes of Anne McCaffrey or CJ Cherryh.
Dana is a troubled protagonist, who suffers the brunt of bullies' attention and is socially maladjusted. And she lives a double life. On one hand she's just a kid. On another, she's the result of a scientific experiment that didn't quite go according to plan for her creator, one Ivor Pilgrennon.
This is YA with a difference. You're not going to see a love triangle. Instead you're dropped into the heart of turmoil from the perspective of one very brave girl who's caught on the cusp of young adulthood. She's old enough to reach for bigger things, but is still considered a child. A very frustrating place to be indeed.
As always, Benson's cybernetic creations are fascinating. In The Emerald Forge we encounter fantastical beasts brought to life in unexpected ways. Star of the show is the "wyvern" made up of metal and biological matter. Not so groovy is its opposite, the "griffin". The scarred Pendrick sees through the eyes of his martial eagle. Birds implanted with devices form deadly swarms. We see the first of the horses that were the highlight of Benson's novel Moonsteed.
Benson is unafraid of exploring the sociological implications of unfettered science. Though her characters are not easily likable and are often abrasive, they carry with them a kind of rough charm. Once you step into Benson's world, be prepared to be sucked into a reality as tangible and well realised as those created by the likes of Anne McCaffrey or CJ Cherryh.
June 21, 2018
This series got brought to my attention in a pub discussion about Brexit, of all things. It was the only work of fiction anyone could come up about a future where the UK wasn’t a member of the EU. Considering the first one was published in 2010 they have some disturbing prophetic moments, and probably deserve to be better known.
In The Emerald Forge, central character Dana takes a more active role with the addition of a more traditional villain complete with henchmen. The story feels distinctly dystopian from a combination of an alternative democracy where some people's votes are worth more than others and the ethical exploration of the use of animals, by the government in a humane but exploitative way, and by the villains in an outright abusive way. While often macabre and at times violent, the book is fresh and different to most teen novels and there's a particular scene that serves as a neat kick in the teeth to the teen romance genre.
In The Emerald Forge, central character Dana takes a more active role with the addition of a more traditional villain complete with henchmen. The story feels distinctly dystopian from a combination of an alternative democracy where some people's votes are worth more than others and the ethical exploration of the use of animals, by the government in a humane but exploitative way, and by the villains in an outright abusive way. While often macabre and at times violent, the book is fresh and different to most teen novels and there's a particular scene that serves as a neat kick in the teeth to the teen romance genre.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews