Chapter review of The Truman Show from A Children’s Crusade
‘The Truman Show’ offers a pacey introduction to the intriguing world C.E. Stevens has created so skilfully in his novel ‘A Children’s Crusade’, volume one of the ‘Lights in the sky’ trilogy.
The chapter opens with twenty five year old Marta da Guia, feted celebrity network presenter, being driven to an annual awards show. Her wealth and power are clearly displayed by her arrival at the event in a limo, with flunkeys to carry an umbrella to shield her from the rain. But her world is even sharper than our own: holograms rise up in the air, cam drones hungrily snap images of her face and her words are instantly translated for a global audience. And the event that she is hosting? Well the people in Marta’s world, like people since the dawn of humanity, are looking to the skies for their inspiration and hope. But Marta’s skies are dominated with the televised images of ‘the six.’ The inspirational child ‘explorers’ who now live on Alpha 5 and whose lives, like the characters in the film ‘The Truman Show,’ are scrutinised every minute of every day.
The awards ceremony is to feed the media-created appetite and celebrate the achievements of ‘the six’ this year. Except that here Stevens uses an unexpected intrusion to sow doubts about the truth behind the facade of this glittering media world that our Ms da Guia has to negotiate so carefully. A truth that may or may not be linked to the disturbing events that she has to face up to the next day…
A powerful writer, C.E. Stevens’ fascinating futuristic world holds a jagged glass up to our own media and technology obsessed society, whilst at the same time making us care about Marta’s personal story and that too of the mysterious ‘six!’ Definitely an author to read… and watch.