Let me introduce you to a brand new dystopian novel by debut author David Webb.

Book Synopsis

The sun is dead.

Humanity has moved deep underground.

The Lightbringers have reinvented electricity.

Their presence offers reassurance.

But some prefer the shadows.

Aniya Lyons has never forgiven the Lightbringers for the abduction of her brother. She’s overjoyed when he escapes and returns three years later, but he comes bearing a dark secret. Before he can share it with her, the Lightbringers steal him away again and murder their parents. Aniya is devastated, and she knows that she’s next.

So Aniya plunges into the dark tunnels of the Web, where savages and mutated beasts lie in wait. She despairs that there is no safe place to hide, that she will be running for the rest of her life. But there is a glimmer of hope. If she can make it to the Lightbringers’ Hub before they hunt her down, she may be able to sneak in and rescue her brother. 

But the closer Aniya gets to the Hub, the closer she gets to discovering the horrible truth that led to the destruction of her family. The dark secret the Lightbringers would do anything to protect. And if she chooses to use this secret against them, it may carry unimaginable consequences and a great cost that Aniya may never be ready to pay.

David’s website: https://www.jdavidwebb.com/

Review

I give The Light Thief 4 out of 5 stars

The Web is a network of underground cities all connected by a series of train tunnels, but there is also a secondary route to most of them created by beasts that have grown to unnatural size. It is here, in this dark world that Aniya and her family subsist in the lowest settlement of the Web: the Hole, short for Holendast.

Aniya is of age to get married, and their society has a system in place that matches couples, but she’s not interested in any of the choices they’ve set her up with. It’s only a matter of time before they make the decision for her, but before she’s faced with personal rebellion in that matter, her brother, William, shows up out of the blue . . . bleeding and almost unrecognizable. His arrival sets off a series of tragic events that leaves Aniya reeling and running for her life.

The murder of her parents and her brother’s abduction open Aniya’s eyes to the dirty under workings of those who claim to work for the good of the people. Her only desires are to rescue her brother and survive, but she’s become a cog in a machine set to change their world. She and two friends get split up on a chase through the underground world to the Hub–the power center of their civilization–to save her brother and stop the powers that be from killing anyone else in their pursuit to cover up their dirty deeds.

I enjoyed this book, but I will just say there was a lot of violence. The Light Thief is not a book for younger kids, but it’s definitely for older teens and above. There are several deaths, including the descriptive murder of the main character’s parents as well as a few other tragic deaths. The world building is interesting and there are some great questions left open in the end that make me think this underground world Aniya lives in isn’t the only one that exists, and maybe there’s something ‘up there’ that is fed by the power of the people below. I got a City of Ember vibe while reading The Light Thief. If you like ya dystopian science fiction with giant moles, chases, and an ambiguously evil ruling body that may or may not be the actual bad guys, you’ll like this book. It’s the first in the series, so definitely look for more. 

I did receive an ARC of the book.

Connect with David Webb on

• Intsagram @webbwordsmith
• Facebook @webbwordsmith
• Twitter @jdavidwebb

You can buy The Light Thief in paperback or Kindle E-book on Amazon.

What’s your favorite dystopian novel? Do you even like dystopian? I know not everyone does. This one falls in there somewhere with Divergent and books like that, I think.