Review: Exciting and intriguing science fiction / action adventure
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 25, 2013
Choke follows Suffocate, the first of S. R. Johannes' Breathless novellas, and it's a quick, breathless, exciting and enticing read. The author has a deft hand with minimal backstory and you won't need to have read the first book to follow this tale. From a fantastic first line--"Whether I'm real or not, the sun still burns my skin"--to an ending that leaves you with a feeling of "No, that can't be the end," the story keeps you glued to the page or whatever e-reader you happen to be using.Some fine lyrical phrases bring the reader quickly into Eria's world as she runs between "an altered past and an unknown future." Not quite human, not quite anything else, she's lost all she knows and she knows both more and less than she needs. The world she runs through is filled with frights of its own, yet haunting hints of our own world lie beneath. Filled with mystery--mostly unresolved--and promises, with great characters, an intriguing plot, and only occasional inconsistencies, Choke offers a very unsettling view of what future technology could hold and future politics could destroy. Breathless is a great series. I just wish the story hadn't ended where it did `cause I don't know how long I have to wait to read part three.Disclosure: The author kindly gave me a free ecopy to review and I'm so glad she did!