Blind Faith by Ben Elton - 4 out of 5
This was my second Ben Elton audio book. This one was read by Michael Maloney, who was ok, but some of his voices were irritating. The premise is near-ish future, post massive flood. The initial set up is pretty crazy and unbelievable, with an insane Church running the show (well maybe not all that unbelievable). There are some fairly standard SF motifs here; such as a suppressed society, the banning of literature, along with any creative or even private thought (Creation is for God only you see).
The book hammers home these points a tad repetitively to begin with, but as things move on (although still not having much original to offer) thing really start to improve. Once Trafford (our hero) meets up with Cassius & some other resistance cell fellows the story moves away from all that initial craziness &, although that's still there as a back drop, it becomes more realistic, shocking & (perhaps most surprisingly) rather moving in places.
By the end I was starting to wish the story was longer, but it probably ends in the right place really. Maybe it was just that I wish there had been more good stuff like in the latter half & less of the nonsense on offer. The 4 star rating is most definitely for the second part of the novel.