Review: Interesting and creative
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 09 26, 2012
The plot of MuTerra revolves primarily around two groups and their survival on Earth post-apocalypse. One of the groups is located in a military facility underneath a mountain in Colorado. The other is a group of submariners and drifters who found refuge on a 'safe-zone' free of most of the world's destruction and settled there. Now the colony of the underground facility, having been underground for a very long time, want to go to the surface. The surface is dangerous however, as most of the land suffers from radiation, electrical storms, and mutated creatures known as "MuTerra". So through a discreet operation the head of the facility selects Keith, his son, former Green Beret, and your main character to undergo a genetically enhancing surgery that in short, makes him superhuman, so he can safely scout the surface.A little twist occurs however, and a government conspiracy is uncovered that Keith will not simply ignore. This leads to his banishment in order to keep the conspiracy from reaching the public. With Keith no longer being their man, the military facility begins sending full teams out armed with protective suits, rifles, and semi-rational fear of all surface dwellers being MuTerra, to establish a foothold on the surface. Guess what their scouts set their eyes upon? It's the radiation free safe-zone now populated by hundreds, including the recently exiled Keith.So there's your plot and setting. It has a lot of key elements including action, tragedy, mutation, and deception, The post apocalyptic environment is explained pretty thoroughly, and the author uses a lot of science to explain vital plot points such as Keith's surgery, the safe-zones, and even the apocalypse to make it a little more believable, giving you a true science-fiction story.The character's, their traits, personalities, and development are all at a minimum. Even the physical descriptions of the characters are mostly left to the reader, but this book seems to be more focused on the plot, and most of the characters are simply vehicles set to explain it. The main character, Keith, is not one of those characters though. He has a very tough personality and with his surgery he seems overpowered, but isn't too Gung-ho about it. In fact, although he has a very driving motivation for vengeance against his sociopath of a father, and some justifiable reasons to take a moment and have some outburst of tears or anger, he stays relatively calm throughout the entire story. The other characters are either too insignificant  for the reader to care for their emotions, or have even less emotion, like Keith's father. So like I said, aside from Keith, this story is not focused on the characters.Overall, I found the story very interesting, especially for the short length of it, but the author doesn't let the story dwell on things, even at times it would be considered appropriate. The author explains many of the sequences in scientific detail, but without damaging his prose by using abstract words or exhausting the reader's patience. The characters are bland, but the book is more about plot than the actual characters, and lastly I feel that the climax and ending went a little too smoothly for my taste, but it's still worth reading.