This from those tax-dodging blighters at Amazon; “Industrial Revolution is Robert Cutforth’s epic post-apocalyptic work based in Manchester, England-home of the original Industrial Revolution. Industrial Revolution is dramatic and dangerous, a novel that will please fans of both hard and soft science fiction. Realism is at its core and readers should liken the novel more to The Drowned World or The Stand, rather than to a novel like World War Z. Industrial Revolution is a work of adult fiction that will please fans of the masters, Stephen King and Haruki Murakami. The main protagonist of the novel is Seth, an American, who wakes up in the destroyed city, reliant only on the words of a sadistic doctor and a little girl long dead for clues to why the world is gone. Seth’s mind is blank except for a grotesque machine and a burning need to find it. Seth will need to recover his memory and survive a dead world full of brutal and battle-scarred killers long enough to find the machine. Lovers of the science fiction genre will adore the twists and turns throughout Industrial Revolution. The compelling plot will keep the pages turning until the very last one, and have you hungering for more.”

More details from here.

“A dead world full of brutal and battle-scarred killers”?  So, the Council’s still functioning then…