Review: Has Promise
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 12 16, 2013
Is personal development a blessing or a curse?Twenty-three pages isn’t much space to explore a character’s personality and background, but everything I read about Mulligan and the strange, futuristic world he lives in makes me want to know more. It takes a strong personality to resist such fierce cultural pressure to conform, and I would have loved to delve more deeply into the personality traits or experiences that made Mulligan such a unique individual. He is clearly an incredibly complicated man.The mythology behind this story was complex for such a short piece. While I understood what was happening, the narrative would have flowed more smoothly had the author had more time to explain the origins of certain characters. At times it was difficult to understand the motivations of certain individuals because the reader has such a short amount of time in which to get to know them. This would have been particularly helpful when it came to putting the pieces of the mystery together, as the author attempts to build the world in the same scenes in which he provides important clues that help the reader figure out what actually happened.This tale would make a great series if the author ever decides to expand it into such a thing. While I don’t know what Mr. Earle’s plans might be, all of the groundwork has been laid for a glimpse into a society that shares many similarities with westernized, modern-day societies. The ending was so surprising that I scrolled to the very bottom of the page on the off chance that something else would be written there. If the author chooses to revisit this world he will clearly have quite a bit of material with which to work.The 13th Prophet sent a shudder down my spine. The premise is as realistic as it is frightening, and I would heartily recommend it to fans of science fiction and mysteries alike.Originally posted at Long and Short Reviews.