Reviews of Free Sci-fi - W


Reviews of free sci-fi with titles beginning with W



Wanted – Jason Halstead


*** sex = 4, action = 9, prose = 8

Another post apocalyptic bloodbath. The collapse of civilization is not as complete as some such as Hawk's Legend or The Stand. In most ways this is as good as Hawk's Legend. The proofreading is better and the science is a bit more realistic. (The cannibals aren't zombies.) The characters largely show no remorse for the slaughter, except one who wonders why she feels no remorse. The love story is much less a part of this and is never consumated because no one can be that weak out here. Several loose ends in the plot are not tied up, but since this is the first of a series, I assume they lead into one of the later books.

The story is well written and well plotted, but is really all about body count. For those who are into that, this would be a four or five star.

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Wires – Harriet Bunting

** Sex = 0, action = 7, prose = 7

The story is a teenage girl taking revenge on a company who used her in medical experients. The company who used her was trying to develop mind control drugs, something that is hardly fiction today. I think this is science fiction only in that it takes place in a parallel universe where leaving a trail of sword play victims scattered across the London suburbs doesn't attract the attention of Scotland Yard and Fleet Street. A few of the characters do manifest a few supernatural powers, probably more than mainstream fiction would allow.

If this was a little less dark and depressing I might have given it three stars. The prose is actually good except for a few proofreading errors and unfinished sentences. With less mayhem and more compassion is could have been a lot more fun and meaningful. There are people out there, right now (but probably not in England) who are being held against their will and used in experiments, both psycological and pharmaceutical, trying to develop drugs and procedures to control other's minds (and for many other purposes also). Whether it be more effective marketing or stifling of social unrest, these things are happening now, and unlike this story, those corporations and regimes are getting away with it and those victims are being written off as 'human trafficing' and buried in third world landfills.

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