There is something of a noble tradition in science fiction of getting timescales wildly wrong. Think, for example, of the excellent movie Blade Runner that came out in 1982 - set in 2019, it portrays a future that's still in the far future past that date with lifelike androids and interstellar travel. With the Rockstar books, Nicola Rossi provides a similar overestimation of the rate of change, with a total transformation of civil society, ubiquitous self-driving vehicles and robots - all set in 2027, though this book was only published in 2020. Despite this distinct miss, though, the trilogy is engaging and has a powerful theme.
In the first novel, Rockstar Ending, we encounter a UK where youth has taken over and living past the age of 85 becomes horrendous. Admittedly this theme has been visited in more dramatic form in the excellent novel Logan's Run, where lives are terminated at 21 (in the distinctly inferior film, the age limit was raised to 30), but rather than being compulsory, Rossi gives the intriguing possibility of all government support being removed at 85, with citizens encouraged to euthanasia by inheritance tax breaks and power sales and marketing.
The 'rockstar ending' of the title is the euthanasia equivalent of a business class flight, and with enthusiastic young brand/advertising executive characters starting by making a pitch for this 'product', the concept is insidiously believable. We then meet main character Lexi, a forty-something woman who becomes increasingly horrified by what is happening and is forced into activism. She is driven to this by the additional discovery that anyone 70+ is being insidiously restricted in what they can do (largely by withdrawing insurance), making them depressed and more likely to end it all early.
After a disjointed start, once Lexi becomes the main character the book becomes quite a page turner. In a rare reflection of real life in a dystopia, Rossi is a bit fuzzy about who the bad guys are - is it the youth movement that forced this measure on parliament, or big business, looking to make a profit out of the euthanasia business? The economics are not awfully well thought through, though. While it's true that the company providing the euthanasia service (just called 'the corporation') would benefit, it's hard to see what insurance companies would get out of missing out on big profits on products for the over-seventies - or for that matter, why manufacturers would stop selling to the lucrative grey market. We even get Brexit wheeled in as part of the driving force with no logical reason beyond the author's dislike of it. But a spot of suspension of disbelief can cope with these points enough to keep the plot flowing (Logan's Run required a huge amount of suspended disbelief too).
Overall, a dystopia that manages to be both genuinely interesting and makes the reader think about some big issues.
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The second book in the Rockstar Ending series carries straight on from the first - so definitely a series you can't jump into part way through. Second entries in a series can often be either a let down or really give it a boost, and Rock On falls into the second (Terminator 2) camp - Nicola Rossi really ups her game.
Where the first book focussed primarily on central character Lexi, here the action is split pretty much 50:50 between and Lexi with her techie partner, and the pair of young people working in the agency that markets the euthanasia service that is central to the plot. This makes for a particularly good mix of seeing what is happening from both sides, whether it's in action or discussion about what's going on. After the success of the voluntary euthanasia scheme for the over-seventies, the company behind it (now changed from 'the company' to 'The Company' - I don't know if that's supposed to be a rebranding or a change of mind from the author) and its advertising/marketing agency consider expanding euthanasia to any age and pushing it to those with disabilities or depression.
As with the previous book, Rossi's writing style, which is refreshingly simple, lets the ideas come through without obscuring them with too much literary flourish. There were a series of nice touches from a thinly disguised Banksy (Fakesy) to the way that the activists fighting the coercion to undertake euthanasia disagree amongst themselves about what the limits are and how to fight against the threat. My only slight disappointment was that I was looking forward to the heads of The Company and the agency being torn apart in a Select Committee hearing - but the MPs only really took their side of the argument and it was a distinct damp squib. But that's a minor disappointment.
I mentioned in reviewing the first book that it follows in something of a tradition of books that set the action far too close to the present for the technology developments it features. This second book reminds me it also follow in an SF tradition of covers that have very little to do with the content. The rather garish covers follow a David Bowie theme - I admit Bowie gets referenced rather too much in the text, but the covers don't really link into the stories at all.
A distinct step up from the (already good) first book that left me enthusiastic to read the third. I just hope that the series isn't dragged out to too great a length, as it would be difficult to sustain over more than three or four books.
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After an impressive second entry in the series, this third book seemed to be marking time with too much discussion and nothing much happening beyond characters attending a political rally, taking a visit to Southport (where Nicola Rossi seems to have a bit of a downer on the north and northerners). There is one set action piece with a protest in London that had real opportunity for drama, but this fizzles out - as does the book itself, which just ends in a distinctly desultory fashion.
While the dastardly Corporation and the Yuthentic political party behind its increasingly dodgy euthanasia product seem to move on inexorably, apart from a setback where they go too far even for their supporters, the activists opposing them don't seem to be doing much.
One thing I don't understand is that the books in this series are labelled funny in the blurb - I suspect this is only the case if you think giving practically every organisation or project silly acronyms is hilarious (for example, the 'Corporation Robotics and Aviation Plant'). I find this irritating, but continue to think the series as a whole is amongst the best new dystopian novels I've read in a good while.
This could have been the triumphant conclusion of an excellent trilogy, but instead I got the feeling that Rossi, perhaps because according to the cover this series is 'now in development for television', was stretching it out to get more books into the series. It's okay, and I'm glad I've read it, though Rossi's naive writing style works less well when there's not much happening, but because of this thinning out, Rockaway doesn't do its two predecessors justice.
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Review by Brian Clegg
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