Only singing can save Clapham Common from the apocalypse

Times

13-06-2025

Imagine, if you will, a near future in which the wildfires are 'raging outside of Milton Keynes'. Unless it was protected inside the lush 'biodomes' dotted around the country, the remaining greenery has withered and died amid extreme weather and scorching temperatures.
Like the rest of the 16-year-olds in this world, Akaego is awaiting the big day — Augmentation Day — when her unique talents will be 'surgically enhanced to ensure the survival of society'. She is one of the few people who have the power to accelerate the growth of plants — a precious talent in a climate apocalypse that is killing off the source of so many foods and medicines.
As Augmentation Day approaches, she receives a mysterious note. 'Whatever happens,' it warns, 'don't get Augmented.'
Why not? What does the rebel group of 'Freestakers' know that she doesn't? What secrets are her parents keeping? And what really happened at that 'aerogel manufacturing plant in Croydon 13 years ago'?
The author Kenechi Udogu was highly commended in the Fab Prize, the Faber competition aimed at spotting new talent, and Augmented has first-novel energy.
The premise is strong. Akaego can use her voice to grow plants; she just needs to fine-tune her frequency: 'The first note came out louder than I'd expected. […] The second also felt off. Like it was catching in my throat, reluctant to escape into the world. My head tilted backwards with the next note. This one had more of a melody to it, and I latched on to it. Unlike the others, it felt light, like it wanted to roam free, like it wanted to be more than just air trapped within my body.'
A musical mission to save the planet? I'm here for it. I was looking forward to our heroine bringing plants to life like Spielberg's ET resurrecting that dead chrysanthemum.
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However, no sooner has Akaego's superpower been introduced, her Midas touch is all but forgotten and her story is left to wither in favour of a much less interesting one involving the internal wranglings between some rather dull rebels and the mayor's office. (Something about only certain classes of people being allowed licences to grow their own. As the story goes on, there's less about planet-saving soundwaves and more secondary characters turning up to say things like, 'It still doesn't give them the right to stop people from trying to create equally sustainable societies which can function outside of theirs.')
So the concept is promising, but the writing is clunky. As she considers the desolate landscape that was once Clapham Common, Akaego imagines 'what spaces like this would be like if I could help rejuvenate them. If the ability everyone believed I had would be able to provide more enclosed green leisure spaces for people to enjoy.'
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Thankfully, there's a sweet and gentle romance, and enough interesting ideas to keep things thrumming, if eco-sci-fi is your thing.
Augmented (12+) by Kenechi Udogu (Faber £8.99 pp391). To order a copy go to timesbookshop.co.uk. Free UK standard P&P on online orders over £25. Special discount available for Times+ members