Resistance Is Futile by Jenny T Colgan, Review: Geeky charm

Jenny T Colgan’s Resistance Is Futile is a wonderful romantic comedy come save-the-world adventure with a rebellious, geeky tone. Read on for our full review of this under-appreciated gem.

Resistance Is Futile Synopsis:

She’s smart. She’s funny. But she’s only human….

As a high-ranking mathematician in a male-dominated field – with bright red hair – Connie’s used to being considered a little unusual. But she’s nowhere near as peculiar as Luke, who is recruited to work alongside her on a top-secret code-breaking project.

Just what is this bizarre sequence they’re studying? It isn’t a solution to the global energy crisis. It isn’t a new wavelength to sell microwave ovens. The numbers are trying to tell them something… and it seems only Luke knows what. The truth is out there. Will Connie dare to find it?

In this whirlwind adventure, Sunday Times best-selling author Jenny Colgan boldly goes where no author has gone before….

Narrated by: Lucy Price-Lewis
Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins, Unabridged Audiobook
Release Date:28/05/2015, Publisher: Hachette Audio UK

(Audible)

BOOK REVIEW

In Orbit UK’s October 2014 press release announcing they had signed Jenny T Colgan for two new novels, they used the following description:

“Bridget Jones meets The Big Bang Theory meets Independence Day”

And now, having just listened to the audiobook of the first of those titles, Resistance Is Futile (a May 2015 release), I can vouch for that description being absolutely spot on. I’m probably showing my age here but I’d also throw in a vibe reminiscent of The Goonies movie too. Need I say more?

I doubt it’s necessary, but I will… because the world just might be a nicer place if lots of people read this novel.

Okay, so I do tend to get excited about books more than the average punter – the naming of this website should be sufficient declaration of that – but personality-wise, I am not normally one to gush. But, I LOVED Resistance Is Futile.

Science fiction and romantic comedy combo

I have not read any of Jenny Colgan’s bestselling romance titles, nor her distinctly different science fiction work, but think she’s hit the sweet spot with this bridge between the two genre. And she just has so much fun with it.

“A novel of love, friendship and the total obliteration of mankind” – Resistance Is Futile

The tricky part is that it’s hard to say much at all about the Resistance Is Futile plot without revealing spoilers.

You do not need a mathematics background to enjoy this novel. However, having spent time in a university mathematics department myself, I felt Colgan really captured the lighter side of the culturally diverse group of oddball characters (and egos) that typically inhabit such a place. For example, she draws upon the rivalry between pure mathematicians and physicists to great comic effect.

And the audiobook narrated by Lucy Price-Lewis… Compulsive listening for me, often into the wee hours, chuckling to myself no less. Her distinction between character voices and comic timing was of a very high standard. Listen to an audio sample. And, to give you a sense of the humour involved, apparently it was Jenny’s aversion to Matthew McConaughey led to her writing this rom-com novel.

Jenny T Colgan’s Resistance Is Futile is a romantic comedy come save-the-world adventure with a rebellious, geeky tone that I could ‘totally’ see being made into a movie.

Remember at the beginning I said Colgan locked in a 2 book deal with Orbit… To say I am looking forward to that second title would be something of an understatement.

BOOK RATING: The Story 5 / 5 ; The Writing 5 / 5

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Genre: Romance, Sci-Fi-Fantasy, Mystery, Action-Adventure, Audio, Chick Lit, Humour

This review counts towards my participation in the 2015 Audiobook Challenge.

Related Reads:
Bellwether by Connie Willis  /   Where The Forest Meets the Stars by Glendy Vanderah  /  Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams  /  From the Wreck by Jane Rawson  /  As She Climbed Across the Table by Jonathan Lethem

About the Author, Jenny Colgan

Jenny Colgan is the author of numerous bestselling novels, including Christmas at the Cupcake Café and Little Beach Street Bakery. Meet Me at the Cupcake Café won the 2012 Melissa Nathan Award for Comedy Romance and was a Sunday Times top ten bestseller, as was Welcome to Rosie Hopkins’ Sweetshop of Dreams, which won the RNA Romantic Novel of the Year Award 2013. Under the Jenny T. Colgan pen name, she has also written the Doctor Who tie-in novel Dark Horizons and the Doctor Who short story ‘Into the Nowhere’. Jenny is married with three children and lives in Scotland and France.

For more about Jenny, visit her website and her Facebook page, or follow her on Twitter: @jennycolgan.