The Rule of One (The Rule of One, 1)

(Review) The Rule of One. 5 stars!“Resist much, obey little;Once unquestioning obedience, once fully enslaved; Once fully enslaved, no nation, state, city, of this earth, ever afterwards resumes its liberty.”- Walt WhitmanThe Rule Of One is the BEST dystopian novel I have ever read. It had everything: drama, suspense, intrigue and violence all wrapped up in a superb story. Which started slow initially, but once it got going, the pace never stop until the very end. A emotional roller coaster ride, for sure.Set in Dallas, Texas. In the near future. In a climate changed world of dwindling natural resources. Identical twin sisters, Ava and Mira, are trying to navigate an all seeing, all controlling society with a strict one child policy.For 18 years, these sisters shared one identity. When one went to school, the other stayed home and vise versa. Both were careful to inform the other of every detail of their day to maintain continuity in their shared friends and lesson plans for that day.Their father, who happens to be head of the State’s Family Planning Agency, which enforces the one child law, brow beats them daily to never draw attention to themselves and always maintain one persona. As the consequences would be catastrophic for their small family if someone were to learn that he has more than one child.But a fellow classmate, Halton, who was unusually perceptive, was watching closely. And he just happened to be the grandson of the Texas Governor, their father’s boss.Governor Roth, a pompous, stern, racist, self righteous man with a superiority complex, hates Mexico, immigrants and anyone who would dare siphon resources from his state. He is also a fervent believer in the One Child Policy.“One Child. One Nation. One People.”Ava and Mira’s life went to hell once their secret was intentionally revealed to State authorities.But the twin’s father always knew that this day would come. And he planned for it meticulously. With only minutes until the Texas State Guards closed in on their home and arrest them all and face the death penalty, he shoved backpacks full of food, survival gear, clothes in his daughter’s arms, along with a map pointing out a series of safe houses to aid their escape out of Texas to Canada.“Canada is now where the masses flock in droves. Not to breathe free, but to survive. One of the few countries to come out on top when the climate crisis shook up the global power structure, the Canadian superpower possesses the lucky trinity: a moderate climate, an enormous supply of freshwater reserves, and a robust food resource thanks to a melted Arctic Ocean.”Along the way to Canada, these girls faced near heat exhaustion walking hundreds of miles through the desert, faced off with rabid dogs, while constantly eluding surveillance drones and nationwide network of security cameras with facial recognition software, almost got gang raped by a predatory group of guys, drank putrid water after days without and helped an illegal immigrant find refuge out of Texas.Before finally arriving at the 3rd safe house, in Denver, of their long thought dead grandmother, Rayla, who happens to be the one of the founding members of The Common - the underground resistance against the United States Government.This is when Rayla explained to the twins the true extent of the takeover of America by ideologues and what they were up against...“The NSA, the news media, the military, the president . . . every powerful agency and official participated in the cover-up of the people’s rebellion. I was only six years old, but I knew what was happening. My parent’s generation watched helplessly as one constitutional right after another was taken from them—replaced with microchips, surveillance, and oppression.”“But how could the government get away with it? The people must have fought back,” I say. “Fear,” Rayla answers. Mira shifts in her seat, uneasy. “The government used fear as its weapon—exploiting the fallout from the climate crisis to take control from its citizens,” Rayla continues. “The Common rose up to overthrow the regime that was quickly turning America into a brutal militarized state—a far cry from our leader’s declaration that we still remained an elected ruling body of the people, by the people.”Ultimately the girls did make it to Alberta, Canada with the aid of their resourceful, battled hardened grandmother and after a final confrontation with old foes at the US/Canadian border.Where they were shock to discover the home base of the insurgency, The Commons, hiding in plain sight. Whose members were all too keen to take on Governor Roth and the US Government after public opinion shifted favorably (Save The Twins!) as the nation watched transfixed as the twin fugitives eluded and escaped a nationwide manhunt.Ava and Mira are now the public face of The Commons. Speaking to the nation on a pirated feed....“We speak to you now, on this symbolic day, to ... "

For Amazon First this month, my choice was between a story set in Philadelphia and a story set in Dallas. My sense of adventure tugged me to purchase “The Rule of One.” This story about two twins living in Texas at a time when only one should exist is written by two twin sisters from Dallas, Texas.The description was not so enticing, but that was the case with all the others. Still, as I advance towards retirement, my second childhood persuaded me to give this a try.In a nutshell, I’m going to be charitable and rate it four stars. Why? Because once you get beyond the wild exaggerations it is an interesting story. The writing is so good it keeps you coming back for more.BLUSH FACTOR: I’m old-fashioned and, I suppose, my age will show, but I was taken aback by two f-words late in the book. Didn’t expect such words in a YA book. Otherwise, the language is on par with modern society.POINT OF VIEW: First person. Differs, though, according to which twin is speaking.STAND-ALONE: Although it is clear that more story is coming, this does not end with a cliffhanger. Well, not exactly, anyway.ADVENTURE: Yes, the further the story advances, the more is the adventure.EXCERPT‘...Father stands in front of us like a drill sergeant about to scold his troops. His piercing gaze scans Mira before it falls on me, dripping with disappointment.Mira and I usually have time alone together before our nightly family meetings, but Father followed Mira into the basement directly after dinner. He didn’t want to give us a chance to formulate a defense justifying our switch.I can’t hear a thing through the soundproof walls, but I saw Roth strong-arm Gwen and the surprise photo shoot over the surveillance video. Not good at all. Father must be livid.I need just one glance from Mira to reassure me she managed it all fine, but she won’t give it to me.“Did you honestly think you could trick your own father?” he finally says.“We’ve done it before,” I say in defense. And we have.Last year, I found an illegal bottle of Japanese Nikka whisky buried in the tomato garden I was tending in the greenhouse. Hidden in one of the cameras’ blind zones, I made certain no one saw me take it. I couldn’t resist surprising Mira with such a rare delicacy—the government can’t stop all contraband from being sold on the black market. Mira ended up drinking so much celebratory whisky the night we found out our placement level results at Strake, she spent the entire next morning vomiting. I went to school that day in Mira’s place; Father still doesn’t know it was me.“Your life is not a game, Ava! How could you take such a childish risk on a night like this?”I hate when he refers to us like we are still children. And our life...’Excerpt taken from page 40, Part 1, The Rule of One, copyright 2018 by Ashley Saunders.BOTTOM LINE:Four stars out of five. But, frankly, three stars or even two stars is not uncalled for. I rate it higher because I focus on character development.It is people such as you, who comment on my reviews, who have helped me improve over the years. I'm still learning, and I have a great deal yet to learn. With your help, I'll improve every day. Eventually, I hope to publish a book series for Amazon Customer Reviewers to show them how reviewer ranking works and how reviewing for Amazon differs from writing book reports. If you permit, your comment could be used in such works...One request: Be respectful and courteous in your comments and emails to me. I will do likewise with you.Thank you so much for indicating if this review helped you, or for your comment.

In an overpopulated and closed American society, the rule of one child per family is strictly enforced. Multiples are not allowed, and if born, the mother has to choose one child. However, in this dystopian and futuristic world, where every need and movement is tracked, 18 year old twins, Ava and Mira, exist, sharing one perilous identity.I chose this as my Kindle First read this month, and enjoyed it more than I expected to. Written by twin sisters, the concept was unusual, the story was different and intriguing - ending on not too an annoying cliffhanger as there will be a sequel, and the narrative, told from each twins alternating first person pov, works well. The characters were good, with the twins starting as hyper careful and obedient, to prevent the discovery that there are two of them, and developing individually as the book progresses.It's a YA book, and a debut novel, so the language is a bit basic, and it lacks some complexity that would really have given it an edge. There's also a few plotholes, particularly with the twins microchips, and the pacing, especially in the middle, is a bit slow. It also reads a little like a screenplay so it was interesting to learn in the authors bio that they are both filmmakers.I've given it three stars, as a little more editing and complexity could have made a huge difference, but I am looking forward to the sequel.

A bit formulaic, this is a reasonably entertaining read, but it lacks the excitement and pace of the Hunger Games, which it clearly pays some homage to. The concept is good, climate change addled world unable to cope with population growth introduces population control (the One in the title) and draconian one country policies, rejecting globalism, and almost compting as to who can be more draconian, and in this story that applies to state level governments not just country level. Our heroines are identical twins, quickly discovered at the start of the book, then on the run. So far so good. But then not a lot happens. Needs more driven plot and conflict, above the constant threat vibe that is the only real plot element.

A short, light dystopian read that I read on holiday. I liked the initial premise, a reverse of the Handmaid’s Tale where the world is overpopulated rather than underpopulated, and so a one child policy is strictly enforced, even to the point where twins are not allowed and one twin will be taken away at birth. I enjoyed seeing Ava and Mira develop as individuals, and seeing their relationship change as they retain their strong bond while becoming less dependent on each other.However, I don’t think the world building is as well developed as other young adult dystopian fiction like The Mortal Instruments or Red Queen series. It kind of felt like the bare bones of a novel that hadn’t been fully fleshed out; the focus was all on the twins with very few supporting characters and no subplots, and the rebellion movement, The Common, was underdeveloped compared to The Scarlet Guard in Red Queen. I also think the ending was too clean-cut; a good ending for the first novel in a series needs to involve some peril for the main character(s), a bit of a cliff-hanger to make you want to read the next one. It would have been much better if Mira had gone back and staged a rescue attempt for their father, and been captured in the process, while Ava joined together with The Common and planned to save her in the next book.I also think the novel ignored a very obvious question – what is the role of abortion in this society? Are women sterilised after they’ve had their one child, or are forced abortions taking place, like in China under their one child policy? This is a high technology society, so why allow twins to be born in the first place? The revelation of what happens to the second born twin seemed like an anti-climax – surely it would have been more shocking and terrifying if all second children were killed, either before or after birth. I’m not sure whether the authors wanted to avoid abortion because this is a young adult novel, but to me it felt like a massive oversight. There could at least have been some hint at pregnant women being taken away and returning no longer pregnant, if the authors didn’t want to spell out exactly what’s happening. There is a scene which implies attempted rape, so the intended audience would surely be old enough to read about abortion too.

I was really looking forward to this book, sadly it was a high disappointment, and unusually for me, I gave up having only read a third of the book.Teen literature at the moment is swamped with books set in a dystopian future, and this is no exception. However, what the authors failed to do was to fully realise their world. World-Building is essential in setting yourself apart from other books, the reader must be able to actualise and visualise the works you have created in their head. Sadly, the world kept morphing in mine. I'm sure that if I'd read on there would have been more exposition, but there were no solid foundations, and it just became too difficult to imagine coherently.Added to which, there were also times when decisions were made by characters where I as the reader got no insight as to why they made that decisions. The book is seen and told in first person from the pov of the twins at the centre of the story. For some reason, despite the first person narrative, the characters were wholly underdeveloped. I felt I knew them from a sociological standpoint, but not a personal one.Ultimately I felt this read more like a screenplay than a novel - which of course are two very different ways of telling a story. It doesn't surprise me then, that the authors of this book are filmmakers, writing their first novel.

This has an excellent start. It fulfils all those dystopian thoughts that filter through the teenage brain. It's premise is good. The US is a closed society with strict rules and a one child policy. What happens if there's a spare, another?The one child, as he or she grows up, has to become the best they possibly can because this isn't a classless society, they have to blindly follow the rules, if they don't the consequences are high.Into this society falls a high ranking official and his daughter - and they have a secret.It's written by twins and they have a unique viewpoint to write this. I felt there were few potholes and questions unanswered as secrets are revealed and corruption is exposed but they are minor and I hope they are answered in the next novel which ends on a cliffhanger. I'm really interested as to where it goes next.I read in another review there's a couple of swear words near the end, I actually never noticed them at all as I was engrossed in the story. I do think though, that unfortunately, such words are in everyday life and it would be naive to expect, in the future, none would exist.I think it's a great novel, it uses everyday fears of over population, climate change and a totalitarian society in quite an interesting way.I'm looking forward to the next.