BLOG TOUR: The Rig by Joe Ducie

October 4, 2013

 Winner of the 2012 Guardian Hot Key Books Young Writers Prize

Fifteen-year-old Will Drake has made a career of breaking out from high-security prisons. His talents have landed him at the Rig, a specialist juvenile holding facility in the middle of the Arctic Ocean. No one can escape from the Rig. No one except for Drake.

After making some escape plans and meeting the first real friends of his life, Drake quickly realises that all is not as it seems on the Rig. He is shocked to discover the mysterious Crystal-X – a blue, glowing substance that appears to give superpowers to the teens exposed to it. Drake, Tristan and Irene are banking on a bid for freedom – but can they survive long enough to make it? Drake is an action hero to rival Jason Bourne and the CHERUB team in this debut author’s fantastically imagined sci-fi nightmare.
*I received this book as a review copy from Five Mile Press for a honest review in return. Thank you*

Will Drake has escaped every prison he's ever been in and when re-located to the toughest juvenile centre he believes 'The Rig' will be no different. But The Rig is in the middle of the Arctic Ocean and every step is monitored by a tracker. The idea of this sounded amazing and believe me, The Rig has a lot going for it. If you like action packed thrillers, with plot twists and a bit of badass, then you’ll no doubt enjoy this book. It’s not something I usually go for and definitely a change from my usual range of books but I understand why it has received the awards it has because I can see people loving it.

The Rig was a interesting idea that I was intrigued by. A oil rig in the middle of the arctic run by brutal force, home to a bunch of delinquents… was quite a cool idea. Our main character Will Drake or as he is more commonly referred to in the books as Drake, has managed to escape every prison so I was really interested to see how he’d escape the inescapable. Especially with every walking moment monitored. Obviously this wasn’t going to be a easy peasy task and I liked that it didn’t come easy to Drake. Drake was not full of himself, rather aware of his abilities and whilst he had this bad ass image he also had a softer side to him.

I struggled to get into it at first but once you get into The Rig it can be quite gripping because you can't leave the story without knowing exactly how it’s going to end, it’s just one of those books. As the story progressed unlikely alliances and friendships formed which I thought was a nice addition to the story. It was a really good dystopian and the storyline was very original which is always something I really appreciate. The whole Rig was really rough and in the environment of it all you start to get your suspicions and you begin to question things. But I never saw one of the massive plot twists coming. The twist will have you in awe because things suddenly match up but I would never have come to that conclusion. I don’t want to spoil anything but once you get to this big reveal it’s definitely worth continuing because you can’t leave after the infomation you hear.

I really liked scenes where Rigball was played, think of it as an electrified version of lacrosse with a lot more fatal injuries. I also liked the relationship that Drake had with Doctor Lambros. Like I said, The Rig has a lot going for it and I believe it will get big. Personally I just  don’t think this was my type of read but still one I really liked. To be honest I think male readers would enjoy this more than females but really lovers of a great action book will fall in love with The Rig instantly. A great debut and a really good dystopian that at some stages had me speechless with the plot twists.



About the author:


Twenty-five-year-old Joe was born in Britain and lives in Perth, Western Australia. Joe attended Edith Cowan University and graduated in 2010 with a Degree in Counterterrorism, Security and Intelligence. He completed post-graduate studies in Security Science in 2011. Joe has also studied Creative and Professional Writing at Curtin University. Joe’s work has involved border protection, liaisons between domestic and international military forces, and private security consulting. He is primarily a writer of urban fantasy and science fiction. Follow Joe on Twitter: @joeducie

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3 comments

  1. The Rig sounds like a pretty good book. I really like these sort of action-packed books. I may read it one day but I'm not rushing.

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  2. Great review for The Rig Sunny! I couldn't put this book down, there was a lot of technical stuff about the prison and everything but I still enjoyed it. My tour stop is going up tomorrow.

    Jeann @ Happy Indulgence

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  3. The the mystery of what the rig was planning and doing was very exciting this book was amazing.

    Zia
    Injury Attorney San Antonio

    ReplyDelete

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