Genre: Dystopian
Thriller
Description:
“In a time when civil liberties have been
eroded and unemployment has exceeded Great Depression levels, nanotechnology
provides the ability to reanimate the recently dead. Far from zombies, but nothing
like their former selves, ‘Revivants’ are a ready source of cheap labor able to
perform simple, routine tasks. Great news for some sectors, but for many, the
economic and social impact is devastating.
Enter Joe Warren—an unemployed college
dropout, who is self-absorbed and disinterested in the world’s problems. All
Joe wants is a job, food on his table, and a cure for his girlfriend’s
lingering illness. What Joe gets is a stint in jail with a bunch of
self-proclaimed freedom fighters, and coerced to become an informant by federal
government agents.
Joe is forced to examine his me-first
attitude, and in the process learns that some things just might be worth
fighting—or dying—for.”
Author:
“Scott Bell holds a degree in Criminal Justice
from North Texas State University, and has enjoyed careers in both asset
protection as well as sales. With the kids grown and time on his hands, Scott
turned back to his first love—writing. His short stories have been published in
The Western Online, Cast of Wonders, and in the anthology, Desolation. Yeager's Law is his first published novel, but there are two more
due for release next year, and more on the way.
When he’s not writing, Scott is on the eternal quest to answer the
question: What would John Wayne do?”
Appraisal:
This is a story of two distinct parts. It opens as a
cyberpunk-styled romp through a future world where human society is being
disrupted not by robots, but by Revivants (nanotech driven zombies). Told in
first person by Joe Warren, who is possibly the most smart-mouthed and
sarcastic character I’ve ever come across, I found myself flipping through
pages of fresh writing and laughing at Joe’s wisecracks. Try these: “I snagged
Jamil by his fancy dress jacket--the material caressed my fingers like it
wanted to blow me.” or, in reference to his ill treatment during interrogation
by the cops, “they beat you like cake batter,” and, “Ramirez studied me the way
a surgeon examines colon polyps.” One more: “‘Ah!’ Rogair made a noise like
he’d discovered masturbation.”
There were a bunch more, but hopefully you get the idea.
Every page is littered with grin-worthy smug irreverence.
The dystopian world is fairly stereotypical (big business
and government=bad, poor working stiffs=good), but it was revealed nicely
through the action with only a smattering of dogma or political pretentiousness
from the author. The last quarter of the story focused on the final conflict
between the bad guys and the Resistance. Here, the writing morphed into action/adventure
with little or no reference to future-tech. This did make the novel a little
schizophrenic for this reader. I preferred the cyber-punk stage, and the change
of focus late in the story did shoehorn in a number of new characters which
diluted the tension somewhat.
But overall, this was a terrific read, unusual,
tongue-in-cheek funny and hyper-paced. If you enjoy characters like Joe Warren
and/or action sequences teeming with bullets, I think you’ll have a lot of fun
spending a few hours in Scott Bell’s dystopia.
FYI:
Although all of them seemed necessary to me, there are
many, many F-bombs.
Format/Typo
Issues:
Very clean copy. I found only one typo!
Rating: ***** Five Stars
Reviewed
by:
Pete Barber
Approximate
word count:
90-95,000 words
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