Publisher - Angry Robot

Published - Out Now

Price - £8.99 paperback £1.42 kindle eBook

How close would you hold those you love, when the end comes?
In a society where self-preservation is as much an art as a science, Norah and Arthur are learning how to co-exist in domestic bliss. Though they hardly know each other, everything seems to be going perfectly – from the home they’re building together to the ring on Norah’s finger.

But survival in this world is a tricky thing, the air is thicker every day and illness creeps fast through the body. The earth is becoming increasingly hostile to live in. 

Fortunately, Easton Grove have the answer, a perfect little bundle of fur that Norah and Arthur can take home. All they have to do to live long, happy lives is keep it, or her, safe and close.

I think the most chilling idea in dystopia is not that we have a the fall of our world into something worse (each year shows worse is often very possible); but when you meet people for whom this world is not something to be fought but instead this world is all they know - there is the absence of hope that change is possible. This state is always and forever unquestionably normal to them. Reading Catherine Hardaker’s ambitious science fiction novel Composite Creatures we get such a tale told with a unique voice where what is unsaid is equally important about a strange and terrible future world.

Norah a thirty-something insurance worker meets Art a thriller writer for a first date. They get on and via an exchange of personal portfolios start a whirlwind relationship and soon find themself moving in together. All under the watchful eyes of Easton Grove a mix of public and private healthcare which has huge plans for this couple. In a world without birds, pets and with gardens that can burn your hands (or worse) Borah and Art are viewed as ready and deserving of a unique creature called the Ovum Organi which Norah names Nut. Norah finds Nut someone she gets very closely attached to and finds herself isolating every more every day and yet the Grove is very keen to talk to her about the future.

What I really enjoyed about this story is Norah’s voice. She is quite matter of fact. Not a future rebel leader just someone very keen to try and keep her head above water in what we see is a world feeling on a lot harsher and more dangerous than our own. Norah recalls childhood tales of being told there has been birds and all sorts of creatures. It becomes very apparent Norah lives in a world where environmental collapse has taken place. The stars are rarely seen, and garden and fields are sparse and as we find out potentially deadly. Chillingly we hear about people succumbing to a deadly condition known as the greying and we also see as Norah explains the news that we have seen the UK’s NHS finally decide to bond with private healthcare. The policies that then evolve sound more alarming - only really benefiting the rich. What I think makes this chilling is Norah isn’t actually that concerned - for her this is what life has been for twenty plus years. This is how it is and will be. A horrible reminder that its very easy for anyone to be institutionalised even in their own country.

Norah and Art’s relationship itself is also strangely off. There doesn’t seem to be great warmth. Often seems more transactional and about there is clearly an agreement of some between them and the Grove. Art wants to be far more than a thriller writer and keeps attempting to write a literary genius. Norah seems to want security and is less enamoured of being told she is due many promotions. It’s Nut’s arrival that unsettles things even for there this fluffy ball creature they make a home for in their loft is clearly important for sone reason but Norah seems to find in Nut the love she no longer has from anyone else. Her mother died of cancer; her friends for unknown reasons seem wary of her and she is very keen not to share Art’s relationship with them either.

As the story continues we do find the answers to those mysteries and again I like the unpredictable route Hardaker takes to makes us understand Norah’s choices. She is trying to make do with the world she is given and has chosen what for her limited circumstances is the best option. There is a slow building horror story how this nightmare capitalist world has changed all these people to do things we would shirk from purely for financial security but I suspect we all may say I could be pushed one day to doing that. I think though my reservation on the novel is the final third is trying to do a little too much at once. Norah’s friends are more on the periphery and seem initially as if they will be important but then fade away; the reveal of what Nut is and for is probably kept a little too late to explore the ramifications and we then get a quick time jump to wrap everything up and I’d had liked a little more examination of all the consequences.

Despite this Hardaker makes an impact with this creative disturbing tale that is being carefully explored in a different way. The grasp of a character and slow unpeeling of their secrets and life helps you understand a character we may not end up admiring but certainly will have some sympathy with. An author I will be watching to see what else they have in store for us.