A gripping Canadian tale of life in a post-oil world, where cities are established on the old oil rigs. The main character, Hwa, is a martial arts expert and security enforcer. She accepts a job from the mysterious Lynch company, protecting the youngest son. In no time at all she, and he, are facing attacks from all over, and trying to figure out what lies beneath.
The world Ashby creates is believable and relatively complete. The plot is fast moving and keeps you flipping the pages to see what happens next.
The book suffers somewhat from irrational and too fast leaps in the last few chapters. I found the ending stepped outside of credibility, even within the fictional world.

But maybe that's because I was racing through it to see how it worked out? In any case, the ending seemed rushed and ruined my pleasure in what otherwise was an excellent tale. ( )

Picked this up for a few bucks from a store called Bookland in Vernon, BC and whew, what a ride. Company Town got a lot of attention in 2017 and I can see why: it's sharp, clever, and very Canadian. One of my pet peeves is Canadian authors setting their books in America so it was nice to see a futuristic Canada for once.

Company Town is set an indeterminate amount of time in the future, where the titular company town is an entire city settled on an oil rig off the coast of Newfoundland, and almost everyone has genetic and technological modifications. Except Go Jung-Hwa. Hwa is half-Korean and all natural - no modifications or enhancements. This makes her the perfect bodyguard for fifteen-year-old Joel Lynch, heir to the corporation that just bought the rig.

So let's start with Hwa. At the beginning she works as a bodyguard for the Canadian sex workers union, protecting the women from any dodgy clients. She's a study in contrasts and has an intricately drawn realness to her, which in a novel about an almost post-human world is important. Having epilepsy and a port-wine stain on her face, Hwa has spent her life isolated, lack of money keeping her from indulging in the technological tweaks and tucks. She has her own wants and needs but is pragmatic, fully aware of the realities of her situation. She's a great character, perhaps even better than the story itself.

Company Town is a mishmash of genres yet also thoroughly Canadian. There's a cyberpunk element that merges with science fiction and even fantasy in some ways, creating an interesting world contained entirely on New Arcadia's rig. There's also plenty of violence, murder, artificial intelligence thought experiments, and possible time-travelling. It's a lot. Considering the American propensity to forget that Canada even exists in the future, simply ignoring it as they draw out their dystopian maps, it feels surprisingly fresh to have the novel set in Newfoundland, complete with slang that lets you hear the Newf accents hidden inside. Company Town does swing towards a little confusing at the end, all the answers coming at breakneck speed, almost too quick to process as you're reading, and might require some thinking about afterwards.

I read this directly after finishing [b:Son of a Trickster|30257957|Son of a Trickster|Eden Robinson|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1469407972s/30257957.jpg|50729928] and it made me feel hopeful about the future of CanLit (especially after my disappointment in major CanLit figures in the recent past). ( )

I just took a week to read and take a mini vacation. During that time, since Canada was gearing up for Canada Day, I decided to catch up on this year's Canada Reads selections. For those that do not know, each year the CBC hosts a reading contest in winter where 5 books are selected to become the book that all of Canada should read that year. They get guest celebrities to defend one of the 5 selections.

The year the books were:
Company Town by Madeline Ashby
Fifteen Dogs by Andre Alexis
The Right to Be Cold by Sheila Watt-Cloutier
The Break by Katherena Vermette
Nostalgia by MG Vassanji

Even though I linked to the books on the US version of Amazon, they are much cheaper through Amazon.ca, but you will have to wait 3 weeks to get them or so.

Company Town was in second place this year, but I enjoyed it a tad more than this year's winner- Fifteen Dogs (although I am going to read it again to give it a second chance).

Company Town takes place in the near future off the coast of Newfoundland. Most people are augmented in some way or another, except our heroine Hwa. She has no augments and a small mole on her face, so face identifying augs have a hard time picking her up. She also happens to know Kung fu.

On the oil rig, which is the size of a town, Hwa lives with her mother who is a legal prostitute as a body guard. She is approached one day by a member of the Lynch family to help protect the youngest Lynch. He is in danger of being assassinated within a week's time. As Hwa leaves to protect the Lynch family, prostitutes start winding up murdered. Do the two connect to one another? (Hint: probably)

Company Town is one of those instances where the cover does not do the book justice. I don't know what the current cover, pictured above, says about the book, but Kung fu action murder mystery is not what it portrays. That is what is at the heart of this book. It was perfect for a summer on vacation type read.

The book moves very quickly and keeps up the pace. While it is not a perfect book in that at times it gets a little lost within its own narrative, it was just right for me. Hwa is a strong female protagonist who makes mistakes, owns them, and doesn't try to Rambo everything. While she is a one woman soldier, what gives her strength is also her greatest weakness.

The ending does start to fall a bit into a typical ending in that we can guess what will happen with Hwa about 1/2 way through the book, but that was fine with me. The people on Canada Reads critiqued it as a soap opera ending, but I would not agree with that statement. It is just pretty obvious where it is going.

I wound up loving this one. I still think I liked Nostalgia just a tad more.

I gave this one 4.5 stars. It isn't perfect, but it was a great summer read. ( )

'Eh...i read the first part. I kinda cant get past these very young people, kids really, in this world. Hwa is what 17 and a bodyguard to a sex worker who's age I didnt catch. No. Then she is trying to work for someone even younger and her watcher is a 10yr old? I cant read another page. This is not the book for me. ( )

3.35 review here ( )