Review ‘Blue Gold’ by David Barker

The near
future. Climate change and geopolitical tension have given rise to a new
international threat – a world war for water. This most vital of resources has
become a precious commodity and some will stop at nothing to control its flow.

When a satellite disappears over Iceland, Sim Atkins thinks he knows why. He is
given the chance to join the hallowed Overseas Division and hunt for the
terrorists responsible. But his new partner Freda Brightwell is aggrieved to be
stuck with a rookie on such a deadly mission.

Freda’s misgivings are well founded when their first assignment ends in
disaster – a bomb destroys a valuable airship and those responsible evade
capture. Seeking redemption, the British agents follow the trail to a
billionaires’ tax haven in the middle of the Atlantic ocean and uncover a web
of deceit that threatens global war. Whom can they trust?

As the world edges ever closer to destruction Sim and Freda must put their
lives on the line to prevent Armageddon – and protect the future of ‘blue
gold’.

When I
read the book description of ‘Blue Gold’ I was immediately fascinated by this
read. Although I don’t read a lot of thrillers, this was a read that just
interested me. Who doesn’t want to read more when you read about Climate Change?
It’s such a ‘hot’ subject at the moment, I definitely wanted to read what could
be written about this subject. Especially in a thriller!

I haven’t
been reading a lot of thrillers lately. And it took me a while to get into this
story, and not because of any lack of action. Not at all! This book is really
action filled, but since I don’t read a lot of thrillers I found I couldn’t
concentrate on this book as much as I would have liked. But thankfully, David
Barker is a writer that makes his readers want to keep on reading and I kept
going.

What I
didn’t really expect was the science fiction, futuristic part of this book. I don’t
read a lot of sci- fi novels and so it took me a little while to really
appreciate the whole ‘set in the future’ part. But in the end I started to enjoy
this book more. And the author did a great job with the world building.

The two
main characters Jim and Freda where fun to read about. I think they made a fun team
and I enjoyed reading about their journey together. Jim was really humoristic at
times. And I just enjoyed reading about his character. 

Although
this book was definitely fun, I just didn’t really love it. And I think it’s
mainly because of the genre. I can definitely say I’m not really into the
science fiction stories at the moment. And although this book isn’t as sci fi
as let’s say ‘Star Wars’, it still just wasn’t something I particularly liked.
But the writing in this book was from the beginning very good and interesting and
there was some great world building and awesome characterizations.    

David was
born in Cheshire but now lives in Berkshire. He is married to an author of
children’s picture books, with a daughter who loves stories. His working life
has been spent in the City, first for the Bank of England and now as Chief
Economist for an international fund. So his job entails trying to predict the
future all the time.

David’s
writing ambitions received a major boost after he attended the Faber Academy
six-month course in 2014 and he still meets up with his inspirational fellow
students. He loves reading, especially adventure stories, sci-fi and military
history. Outside of family life, his other interests include tennis, golf and
surfing.

For more
information about David please visit his website. Or follow him on Twitter.

I received this book by Smith Publicity in exchange for my honest review.