Book Review – BioShock: Rapture by John Shirley

BioShock: Rapture begins with the end of the Second World War. The world-changing use of the atomic bomb urges billionaire industrialist Andrew Ryan into action. He throws his time and his money into a project he has long since planned; a secular city under the ocean, isolated from the rest of the world. A city where science and business can innovate and grow without tax, without public ownership… without regulation. A city where a man owns the sweat off his own brow, and nobody else’s. The ultimate free market: Rapture. The book gets off to something of a false start. For the first few chapters, Shirley is prone to seemingly random bouts of brief — but intense — doses of pedestrian detail when introducing new characters. Even a character who will disappear within a page or two never to be seen again may have their hair, clothes, and even skin described to the reader. Whenever this happens, it brings the narrative to a juddering halt. Thankfully, he kicks the over-describing habit long before the city of Rapture is even finished. Would Ryan hire the man who came to fix his toilet as chief building engineer for a secret city under the sea, though? Really? The early stages of the novel are far from a total loss though, and in fact one of the best sequences of the book is to be found in the prologue. During Ryan’s childhood flashback, there is an undeniable tension that most authors struggle to provide. You’ll be pleased to hear that Ryan often takes centre stage …