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Human Rites #3
The Life Lottery
Book 3 of Ian Irvine’s classic eco-thriller trilogy about the consequences of global warming and unstoppable climate change, Human Rites.
Irith Hardey’s life is out of control. The world’s climate is in chaos and rising seas have flooded out half a billion people. Hundreds of millions of refugees are pouring into the west, the global economy is collapsing and democracies are being crushed by the anti-refugee Yellow Armbands.
But there is worse to come. In a desperate attempt to avert the coming ice age that will wipe out civilisation, the Great Powers have agreed to embark on the most monumental gamble of all time – 100 Days to Save the World. Irith, now a climate scientist, is sure they’ve got it wrong – the US President’s pet scheme isn’t going to save the world, but ruin it.
Searching for the awful truth behind the 100 Days project, Irith is tormented by the Yellow Armbands, then hunted from blizzard-struck London to the Scottish Highlands and across the wild North Sea. In a USA terrorised by gun-toting militias trying to bring down the President, Irith is forced to confront the worst nightmare any 21st century woman can face, as she struggles to uncover the ghastly secret of the Life Lottery before 100 days are up.
Irith Hardey’s life is out of control. The world’s climate is in chaos and rising seas have flooded out half a billion people. Hundreds of millions of refugees are pouring into the west, the global economy is collapsing and democracies are being crushed by the anti-refugee Yellow Armbands.
But there is worse to come. In a desperate attempt to avert the coming ice age that will wipe out civilisation, the Great Powers have agreed to embark on the most monumental gamble of all time – 100 Days to Save the World. Irith, now a climate scientist, is sure they’ve got it wrong – the US President’s pet scheme isn’t going to save the world, but ruin it.
Searching for the awful truth behind the 100 Days project, Irith is tormented by the Yellow Armbands, then hunted from blizzard-struck London to the Scottish Highlands and across the wild North Sea. In a USA terrorised by gun-toting militias trying to bring down the President, Irith is forced to confront the worst nightmare any 21st century woman can face, as she struggles to uncover the ghastly secret of the Life Lottery before 100 days are up.
502 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
85 people want to read
About the author
Ian Irvine
74 books659 followersI'm an Australian author of 34 novels, mainly fantasy. They include the bestselling Three Worlds epic fantasy sequence, which has sold over a million print copies. It comprises The View from the Mirror quartet, The Well of Echoes quartet and The Song of the Tears trilogy. I’ve just finished The Gates of Good and Evil quartet, the long-awaited sequel to The View from the Mirror. Book 3, The Perilous Tower, was published recently and the final book, The Sapphire Portal, will be published on November 1, 2020.
Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/ianirvine.au...
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LATEST BOOK
WHY I WRITE
Funny thing is, I never wanted to be a writer. From an early age my ambition was to be a scientist. I’m an expert in pollution and I’ve spent my professional life studying it in far-flung places like Mauritius, Sumatra, Mongolia, South Korea, the Philippines, Papua-New Guinea and Western Samoa, as well as all over Australia. Often scuba diving to the bottom of foul, smelly harbours and hammering tubes deep into the polluted mud to collect samples for chemical analysis. Now that’s living!
I was a small, quiet kid who devoured books from the moment I learned to read. When I was naughty, Mum wouldn’t let me read anything for a week – talk about a cruel and unusual punishment.
I discovered fantasy in the early 70’s, with The Lord of the Rings and the Earthsea trilogy, and was immediately hooked. But there wasn’t much fantasy in those days; within a couple of years I’d read everything available. I wanted more and bigger tales, on vaster canvases, but they didn’t exist. That’s why I had to become a writer – to write the kind of stories I wanted to read.
WHAT I WRITE
I’ve never wanted to write about superheroes or huge, reckless warriors who know no fear. I write epic fantasy about underdogs and ordinary people who, in pursuit of their goals, are put to the limit of human endurance. My characters aren’t fantasy stereotypes, they’re real people with believable motivations and unfortunate flaws. I’m well known for strong female characters who have as many adventures as the men, and frequently get them out of trouble (I have five sisters). My characters are often small or clumsy or inexperienced or handicapped in some way, yet they make up for it with cleverness, ingenuity or sheer, low cunning. My antagonists are real, complex people who do bad things for strong and deeply-held reasons – never ‘just because they’re evil’.
Though my characters suffer every kind of torment imaginable, at their lowest point they discover the truest form of courage – they keep fighting because the fate of the people they care for, and the world they love, depends on them never giving up.
SOME RECENT REVIEWS
"Irvine is a veteran storyteller who excels in sustaining complex plots with well-rounded characters. Here, he delivers a compelling tale of vengeance, loyalty, and the search for a place in the world." Starred review, Library Journal (US)
"That Grand Master of the vast epic is with us again! The first gripping volume of what promises to be a vintage Irvine treat. More please!" Crisetta MacLeod, Aurealis Express
"Incredibly exciting. The end will have you eagerly anticipating the next book." Good Reading (Aus)
"He knows how to spin an epic yarn and tell it with real gusto ... ambitious in scope and tirelessly action-stuffed." SFX
Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/ianirvine.au...
Signup to my email newsletter for free books and special offers, preview chapters, news and other great stuff. https://www.ian-irvine.com/join-my-ne...
LATEST BOOK
WHY I WRITE
Funny thing is, I never wanted to be a writer. From an early age my ambition was to be a scientist. I’m an expert in pollution and I’ve spent my professional life studying it in far-flung places like Mauritius, Sumatra, Mongolia, South Korea, the Philippines, Papua-New Guinea and Western Samoa, as well as all over Australia. Often scuba diving to the bottom of foul, smelly harbours and hammering tubes deep into the polluted mud to collect samples for chemical analysis. Now that’s living!
I was a small, quiet kid who devoured books from the moment I learned to read. When I was naughty, Mum wouldn’t let me read anything for a week – talk about a cruel and unusual punishment.
I discovered fantasy in the early 70’s, with The Lord of the Rings and the Earthsea trilogy, and was immediately hooked. But there wasn’t much fantasy in those days; within a couple of years I’d read everything available. I wanted more and bigger tales, on vaster canvases, but they didn’t exist. That’s why I had to become a writer – to write the kind of stories I wanted to read.
WHAT I WRITE
I’ve never wanted to write about superheroes or huge, reckless warriors who know no fear. I write epic fantasy about underdogs and ordinary people who, in pursuit of their goals, are put to the limit of human endurance. My characters aren’t fantasy stereotypes, they’re real people with believable motivations and unfortunate flaws. I’m well known for strong female characters who have as many adventures as the men, and frequently get them out of trouble (I have five sisters). My characters are often small or clumsy or inexperienced or handicapped in some way, yet they make up for it with cleverness, ingenuity or sheer, low cunning. My antagonists are real, complex people who do bad things for strong and deeply-held reasons – never ‘just because they’re evil’.
Though my characters suffer every kind of torment imaginable, at their lowest point they discover the truest form of courage – they keep fighting because the fate of the people they care for, and the world they love, depends on them never giving up.
SOME RECENT REVIEWS
"Irvine is a veteran storyteller who excels in sustaining complex plots with well-rounded characters. Here, he delivers a compelling tale of vengeance, loyalty, and the search for a place in the world." Starred review, Library Journal (US)
"That Grand Master of the vast epic is with us again! The first gripping volume of what promises to be a vintage Irvine treat. More please!" Crisetta MacLeod, Aurealis Express
"Incredibly exciting. The end will have you eagerly anticipating the next book." Good Reading (Aus)
"He knows how to spin an epic yarn and tell it with real gusto ... ambitious in scope and tirelessly action-stuffed." SFX
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
January 15, 2013
Not what I would normally read but I like all of Ian's books so thought I would try this. Glad I did but it did scare me with the accuracy of some of his climate predictions. Bummed out by the ending bc it was sad but kinda fitting.
August 19, 2024
I think the basic problem here is that II has taken a 5 page summary of one path climate change could take and padded it out to a trilogy.
Authors discuss "plotting vs pantsing" a lot, and I think "pantsing" is most of the problem here - the action doesn't make sense, doesn't build into a coherent story, and mostly doesn't even influence the main events. That makes a lot of it feel like a lot padding that's just there to fill the gaps between "and then the ice sheets collapsed". That could have been an interesting angle on mis-conceived climate change action, devoting lots of effort to ineffective efforts, but here it just means most of the book is filler?
Then the characters - I think Irith is being written as an everyman character for the audience to experience the world, but this mainly means she's surrounded by hyper-competent geniuses who have to explain everything to her, while she whinges about it. Levi is the world's best cybersecurity expert and intelligence expert, Bragg is a special forces commando, Jemma is top-level government official dealing with climate change - Irith is ... insecure about the size of her bum? This could have been an interesting comment about people feeling inadequate to deal with the problems on the scale of climate change, but it's hard to get around "maybe they should stop making her lead all their plans, she is not remotely qualified for this".
(Sexual violence) Also, this one had a pretty graphic rape scene, and when this comes up later people defend the rapist, and he turns into kind-of-one-of-the-good-guys?
It felt like II doesn't understand what he wrote there, because I think he was aiming for Senator Dean to be a bit of a sleaze rather than a vicious sexual predator. And also the way this comes up in the story (at this point Irith has been cosmetically altered to look like her mother) feels like it's a weird fetish thing? Anyway, yeah, deeply unpleasant.
Also, wasn't the "life lottery" the online suicide cult in the first book? This feels like another thread that hasn't really been tied up.
And then finally - the ending: Bragg teases Irith that she works too hard and they should go to Australia and settle down. After ecological catastrophe dooms all humankind, they've failed at every turn and everyone is going to die, Irith is like "damn, I'm such a workaholic, I should have half-assed this more".
Authors discuss "plotting vs pantsing" a lot, and I think "pantsing" is most of the problem here - the action doesn't make sense, doesn't build into a coherent story, and mostly doesn't even influence the main events. That makes a lot of it feel like a lot padding that's just there to fill the gaps between "and then the ice sheets collapsed". That could have been an interesting angle on mis-conceived climate change action, devoting lots of effort to ineffective efforts, but here it just means most of the book is filler?
Then the characters - I think Irith is being written as an everyman character for the audience to experience the world, but this mainly means she's surrounded by hyper-competent geniuses who have to explain everything to her, while she whinges about it. Levi is the world's best cybersecurity expert and intelligence expert, Bragg is a special forces commando, Jemma is top-level government official dealing with climate change - Irith is ... insecure about the size of her bum? This could have been an interesting comment about people feeling inadequate to deal with the problems on the scale of climate change, but it's hard to get around "maybe they should stop making her lead all their plans, she is not remotely qualified for this".
(Sexual violence) Also, this one had a pretty graphic rape scene, and when this comes up later people defend the rapist, and he turns into kind-of-one-of-the-good-guys?
It felt like II doesn't understand what he wrote there, because I think he was aiming for Senator Dean to be a bit of a sleaze rather than a vicious sexual predator. And also the way this comes up in the story (at this point Irith has been cosmetically altered to look like her mother) feels like it's a weird fetish thing? Anyway, yeah, deeply unpleasant.
Also, wasn't the "life lottery" the online suicide cult in the first book? This feels like another thread that hasn't really been tied up.
And then finally - the ending: Bragg teases Irith that she works too hard and they should go to Australia and settle down. After ecological catastrophe dooms all humankind, they've failed at every turn and everyone is going to die, Irith is like "damn, I'm such a workaholic, I should have half-assed this more".
September 12, 2020
End of life on earth scenario as we know it and 3rd vol of a trilogy. There is a lot of science, communications and surveillance tools info, government manoeuvring and military games, and its scarily convincing - this an author who knows things the average bod is ignorant of or manages to successfully avoid knowing. Those are definitely its strengths. I had some problems with what main characters were forced to endure in order to keep the plot moving but part way through decided, fine details belivable or not, the author had perhaps to cover too much ground and sacrificing some belivability might be redeemed by the urgency of what was unfolding - an ends justifies the means sort of structual decision. I think he made the right choice and he did it well as even though many times I thought 'nope, impossible to survive, endure or still function despite this' it never once made me put it down unfinished. I also found the main characters very two dimensional with some annoyingly stereotypical behaviour. Though characters and maintaining an unbroken believability normally would make me give up I couldn't not find out how he ended it. I would recommend this despite its faults for the huge journey it takes and the cool, clear eye on things we would rather avoid thinking about or knowing about in too much detail.
September 23, 2007
I'm not going to say much as i haven't read this in a while.
I'm just going to say that the ending, oh my god the ending, was awful.
It pretty much goes like this:
'And they all died on the very last line of the book'.
Well bully for you Irvine. But come on! This is how you ended the Well of Echoes quartet. This really better not be becoming a pattern.
The only 'hooray' thing about this book's ending is that Gemma survived the trilogy. Hooray.
This book is fast, original, shocking and poetic (sort of).
A fitting end to a trilogy such as this one.
I'm just going to say that the ending, oh my god the ending, was awful.
It pretty much goes like this:
'And they all died on the very last line of the book'.
Well bully for you Irvine. But come on! This is how you ended the Well of Echoes quartet. This really better not be becoming a pattern.
The only 'hooray' thing about this book's ending is that Gemma survived the trilogy. Hooray.
This book is fast, original, shocking and poetic (sort of).
A fitting end to a trilogy such as this one.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 26, 2011
Along with the others in this series, I enjoyed the ride through extremist climate change scenarios and the depiction of flooded cities and societies. The main character is less angst ridden which was a refreshing change (although I appreciate the effort to create new depictions of real human characteristics, despite their 'unlikability'). Worth a read for anyone interested in a fun depiction of climate change complexity.
May 9, 2016
The background story of the book (i.e. what's going on with society and politics and how the world copes or doesn't cope with the changes caused by global warming) is fascinating and really well thought out. Unfortunately the main story itself is completely ridiculous and unbelievable. I guess I just find this book incredibly frustrating because it could have been so much better!
December 5, 2012
I really enjoyed this trilogy. I must admit I only read these books because I'm a big fan of Ian Irvine's other works. It's not the type of book I would normally read. The trilogy is action packed and scarily prophetic in places. I thoroughly recommend it :)
January 11, 2013
Good finish to trilogy An ending in keeping with the story
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews