Review: Intriguing Read
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 20, 2014
Ballard lives within the mountain, he works the machine, as do they all, too terrified to leave, to travel on the outside into the maelstrom into the constant storm.Ballard is married to Laura, his own personnel living hell, a woman who walks all over him and constantly reminds him that he’s not a real man, that he couldn’t give her the children she wanted, scorned and not capable of standing up for himself. Best friend Mark who it turns out is anything but, and an accident awaiting him that’s going to make things better or maybe worse, depends which side of the fence you’re sitting on.Ballard is just ignoring his problems until the day of congregation, the day that Father Etheridge recites “The snake will tempt you to do things that are against the teachings of the machine. He will tell you to skip your duties, to steal, to murder” and when he points at Ballard, there is sure enough a storm heading about to head his way.The Machine is an interesting place, a place I wanted to more about, it’s a world, a compound of gigantic structures connected by tubes & bridges and you could travel for weeks and not reach the end.Marrow’s Pit is a huge opening in the side of the mountain, a pit for the Machines waste and a place where Ballard will visit before the end. Keith Deininger has certainly written an intriguing novella, one that I hope will produce other stories.Recommended.