I knew it was described as being a 'Futuristic Thriller' but I was completely unprepared for how much distance had been placed between his earlier writing and his latest offering.
Or wrong, as the case may be.Īs a point of disclaimer: I've been a fan of Mark's work for awhile now and while I don't know him all that well, I do enjoy chatting with him from time to time.Īfter reading several short stories by Mark Souza, I was excited to get hold of this full length novel. It's not your average two-hour escape fest, but rather a complex and terrifying prediction of how our world could be someday if we align everything just right. This should be required reading for everyone, IMO. As usual, Souza does a great job of keeping his characters authentic all the way through, and really that's a big part of what makes it easy to slip into their heads and see the journey as they see it, feeling what they feel.
There often are no "good" choices in the lives of these people, and so they have to do as well as they can within exceedingly tight boundaries, even at the end. To make a rather vague review even more vague, hard and harder choices are at the heart of this book. Funny how the mind works, isn't it? But that's exactly what would happen in Souza's world, so it was spot on, as much as it made me itch. Which made me okay with other parts of the book I normally wouldn't have been. I kept screaming in my head, "Leave! Just leave! Why do you stay?!" As an extremely independent individual, I was completely unnerved at the thought that perhaps there was really no where else to go, and that the existence described was all there was. The other part of this book that really shook me to the core was the societal set-up, and the way people just accepted it, even if they didn't particularly like it, for a good portion of the book. And the whole thing is.well, I really can't say more than that without spoiling the tension that builds while you're reading, so you'll have to just read it. Those who are parents or have that desire to be parents won't have such a difficult time identifying with that part of the book, methinks, though the opposite view is represented as well (sort of). Because of the way procreation is handled in Souza's post-apocalyptic (for lack of a better term) world, this need pervades every single part of the character's lives. For one thing, the basic plot starts off with this all-consuming need to procreate.and I don't have a bone in my body telling me I need to have kids (never have, that's why I don't). As uncomfortable and disquieting as it is, this book really made me think.
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