The Defectives (Creekside Chronicles 1)

by Jim Bates

Rating: ****

Science fiction/dystopian mash-up The Defectives is set in the 27^th century. Cockroach-esque creatures, the Tracliodytes conquered Earth in the 22^nd Century, and humans were driven underground to live in cities deep beneath the Earth’s surface.

Over the next five hundred years, they segregated into the “Rich and Powerful” and the “Defectives”, and life for the latter is brutal under the diktats of the Supreme Commander, Reginald Botta.

When eleven-year-old Defectives Len and Alex escape to the surface, they discover that the Tracliodytes have evolved and are now an intelligent, compassionate, and understanding species, in contrast to the humans underground…

On a superficial basis, The Defectives is an easy, engaging, and exciting beginning to a promising YA series. However, there is definitely a sly contemporary commentary on the nature of perceived perfection and the hubristic follies of the human race bubbling away beneath the narrative, ensuring that The Defectives operates on several levels rather than just purely as a YA novel.   

First, the focus is on Len and Alex, two young boys who are residents of an orphanage in the dystopian underground city of Metro Metropolis and who are shortly to be sent into forced labor.

Bates keeps their escape and time below ground relatively simple, preferring to concentrate on the boys’ experiences with the Tracliodytes, and there is definitely a touch of reverse psychology in Bates’s depiction of the insect-like creatures.  

They are infused with a warm curiosity and a growing benevolence that becomes maternal toward the escapees. Yet, they remain formidable fighters, whereas the Supreme Commander and his acolyte army are depicted as self-serving, intensely unpleasant, and frankly quite stupid.

Bates paints Earth, now the land of the Tracliodytes, as a vibrant, visual Utopia. The boys work at Creekside Meadows, helping to harvest wildflowers, the primary food source for the Tracliodytes. There are some lovely, imaginative touches and highly inventive, sometimes magically quirky descriptive passages. Bates beautifully captures the innocence and childlike wonder of the Defectives. His writing, although gloriously offbeat in places, neatly mirrors the children's uncomplicated emotions and authenticity.

Whereas the chapters set within the halcyon environs of Creekside Meadows are suffused with a playful, eternal-summer glow, those below ground are infected with a stark, malign darkness, and Bates subtly alters the tone accordingly.

As further orphans escape their underground prison, he begins to layer the story, introducing factions and backstories, involving a host of interesting characters, some imbued with a comic energy, others, such as Rex and Orly, with poignancy and a sense of foreboding. Notwithstanding, at this stage, there is a definite heroes/villains demarcation, although the reader senses this may pivot or be sorely tested in future books.

However, overall, he maintains his cheery briskness, even during some murky scenes, such as Benton Snaggleroot’s abduction of six-year-old Stephanie. Nonetheless, Kyla and Fae, two escaped Defectives, are not quite so convincing in their portrayals as Len and Alex. Additionally, the book would have benefited from a sharper edit, there are areas of repetition.

The Defectives is an enjoyable, original, and thought-provoking start to Bates’s Creekside Chronicles that leaves the reader intrigued by how this versatile writer will further develop the clever, creative concept that underpins this opening instalment. Well worth a look.

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