In the post-apocalyptic future, toxic rain has eradiated all food and crops, so the leaders of the two remaining city-states came up with an unusual solution: to sustain their populations with a manufactured war. Each morning, the remaining survivors of humanity watch graphic war footage. They consume propaganda. Literally. However, this whole system is threatened when a small rebellious faction is secretly trying to grow crops from seeds. Rise & Shine by Patrick Allington presents a clever and thought-provoking allegory about climate change, our dependence on war, and human nature itself. Even though the story dives into abstract concepts, the writer grounds its readers with a compelling cast of characters. We see the inner moral conflict as characters like Holland realize that the world they created isn’t sustainable. All in all, in this little 240-page novel, Allington manages to create a complex and memorable dystopian sci-fi that glimmers with a seed of ...