Ebook Review: A Different Alchemy

A Different Alchemy is author Chris Dietzel’s dabbling into the end-of-the-world dystopian drama. The book revisits an incident briefly mentioned in his previous work - The Man Who Watched the World End.

After Jeffrey learns that his son, who is completely paralysed, has died in a stadium fire along with Philadelphia’s other paraplegics, he steals a tank and heads north to come to terms with his death.

If you have not read the original book, the series revolves around the idea that mankind is going extinct because women can no longer produce healthy babies. All babies born into the world are fully paralysed and mentally unaware - dubbed Blocks. 

Jeffrey’s story alternates between the days he spends on the road heading north and past events of his life; from getting married, to having a Block son, to the day his son died. 

While A Different Alchemy kept my attention I did not find it as addictive or disturbing as The Man Who Watched the World End. I felt a lot of ideas from the first instalment were reiterated, which is ok if you’ve not read the previous book but if you have, it’s a bit repetitive. That said, there were some fresh ideas in here as well, like how badly some parts of society, like the disabled, are treated by certain people. While this book is fictional, it does make you wonder about the injustices in real life carried out against those in the past who are unable to defend themselves.

Also, I felt the theme of man’s decline was overused. I appreciate it is integral to the book’s plot but in the flashbacks of Jeffrey’s life, all TV programmes and news seem to centre around this and Blocks every hour of every day. It also seems to be the only thing anyone ever talks about. I know the end of the world will be a scary time but since it takes place over so many years, I found it very difficult to belief that it is the only thing people ever talked about. 

Some other things seemed a bit silly as well, like how fast certain cities rotted away. I’m not a civic engineer by any measure but this seemed to happen a little too fast. Also, I seriously doubt military installations would be left unlocked for anyone to wonder into - especially in the US. The same idea of houses going on fire and no fire crews attending and hospitals being closed, also sounded a bit ridiculous. I think there still would be emergency services, even on a smaller scale, operating at this point in the population decline. 

That aside, Jeffrey’s journey coming to terms with his son’s death was well captured through the narrative. You could really feel his hurt and heartache at such a tragedy and that is to be applauded.