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Reviewed by Jamie Michele for Readers' Favorite
In B.A. Bellec’s Cobalt Lungs, after cobalt spores make outdoor air deadly, twenty-four-year-old Maddy lives inside Vancouver’s Rogers Arena, which has been converted into a crowded Safe Zone. Her father died there, her mother is gone, and her grandmother can no longer travel, so Maddy accepts help from Shadow, an underground network that moves people toward Sanctum, a colony on Vancouver Island. A storm leaves her near death in a contaminated forest, until Ethan Moreno, a scientist hiding in a missile silo, pulls her inside. Ethan escaped from Sanctum after refusing to let its leaders use his research on human subjects. When Sanctum reaches for his spore treatment again, Maddy is drawn into a fight not only over Ethan, but over who gets access to breathable air.
B.A. Bellec’s Cobalt Lungs is a biohazard dystopian novel with some really excellent tech, most of which works through sealed breathing systems and pressure readings, and Sanctum’s ARES chamber. All of this ties into an extensive, but easy to follow, world with genuine social hierarchy as a physical shape. At BC Place, Bellec shows us color wristbands that send families through separate corridors, and a concession stand at Rogers Arena that becomes an assigned home. I love Maddy, who also happens to be a former Langley Secondary pianist. Strong female antagonists are few and far between in the genre, and Bellec not only supplies one, but he also supplies one that is believable. Where Bellec shines brightest is in the visual settings that are equal parts terrifying and stunning; the standout being a Vancouver Island forest, where low blue air gathers around suspended filaments between trees, making one footpath look like a living atmospheric trap. Well written and immersive, readers who enjoy dystopian science fiction, especially fans of Wool and Station Eleven, will adore this.
