Blog Tour Pax and the Secret Swarm by David Barker

 Blog Tour Pax and the Secret Swarm by David Barker

As New London edges closer to war, Pax must decide what he is prepared to sacrifice to achieve the impossible – a united kingdom.

Pax and his friends head back to Scholastic Parliament for their third and final year, their focus shifting to their plans for the future. Meanwhile, the mayor’s renewed plans in his fight against the Countryside Alliance demand even greater sacrifices from the citizens of New London.

Stumbling upon secrets that could change the fate of New London forever, Pax finds himself at the centre of a conspiracy that threatens him, his friends, and everyone in the city. Can he bear to risk everything he holds dear for the thing he’s always wanted?

Pax and the Secret Swarm is the third part of David Barker's London Falling trilogy and it brings Pax's story to a thrilling climax.

For those unfamiliar with the series, it's set in a dystopian London, in a UK which has split in half due to civil war, with a guild of cities on the one hand and the rural countryside on the other. Whenever people in New London reach the age of sixty they have to take the long walk, and leave the city for the countryside, exiled and forgotten, feared as "pinchers".

Pax is an orphan, a cloned youngster, who has managed to rise above his station and gain admittance to the Scholastic Parliament, a school for gifted children where they're expected to be constantly competing, four houses striving for top place through academic achievement, discipline and excelling in a range of challenges. Many of these challenges are based around games and computer technology including a fantastically well depicted strategic chess game that plays out like Risk or Civilisation.

In this third story, the focus shifts somewhat from the competitions in Scholastic Parliament to the ongoing crisis in New London. There are rumours and reports of food shortages and power outages and Pax is convinced that the mayor is up to more dirty tricks and schemes and is determined to investigate. There's more exciting spy stuff going on here, with Pax using his technological skills and robotic companions to break into a number of facilities looking for clues and trying to stop the mayor. The peril levels are rising and no one feels safe. Pax even has to face losses among his friends and companions.

The action leaves New London too, exploring some of the wider English countryside as the story takes us to new, exciting places.

One of the things I love most about this series is that it skilfully blends school based competitions with a political situation that mirrors so much of what we're currently seeing in the world around us. There are some really powerful themes here, around fake news and propoganda, governments and media finding groups to target, painting them as the cause of the problems their citizens are facing, 

It's these modern political parallels that really help elevate Pax into something vital and important, as well as exciting and fun.

Pax and the Stolen Swarm is full of interesting, believable characters, rivalries and competition, but the focus shift towards politics and war gives it greater depth and relevance.

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Pax and the Stolen Swarm by David Barker is published by Tiny Tree Books and is out now.

I was given a review copy in exchange for an honest review and participation in this blog tour.