Review: Sad but hopeful dystopian story
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 26, 2014
This book was provided to me in return for an honest review as part of the M/M Romance group DBML program. I have not received any compensation for this review, it's freely given.The world has been torn apart by a nuclear war. Part of the population has left the planet, intending to return when it's safe to do so. The rest of the population is left behind to survive as best as they can, but they're slowing dying & expect to be completely gone in about a century.Aldric is a former soldier who was left behind basically because he's gay & won't be reproducing. He's been damaged both mentally & physically by the war. He's taken to wandering around since he had no home or family left to return to when the war was over. He meets Daniel in a brothel while he's there for some human contact & saves him from being killed.Daniel works at collecting people's memories for a project that will ensure that those left behind won't be forgotten when those who left return. He's thankful that Aldric saved him & asks Aldric to protect him so he can safely work on his project, as there are people who want to steal his equipment.Aldric's not used to being around people for extended periods of time, but he agrees to stay & help Daniel for awhile. Until he & Daniel get intimate & Daniel calls out another man's name. Aldric is hurt because he thought that Daniel had some feelings for him, so he takes off. While he's in the process of moving on, a gang of criminal types they call the Forest Boys try to ambush him & steal his things. He's injured while fighting them off & decides to seek Daniel out for help once he realizes that infection has set in & he'll die if he doesn't get treated.Daniel finds him passed out in the forest, he had tried to track Aldric down wanting him to tell him what went wrong so that maybe they could try again. He gets Aldric medical help, then works at trying to regain Aldric's trust as he realized that he did indeed have feelings for Aldric. He confronts his former lover, Blake, who is the leader of the Forest Boys & discovers that the love he thought he had for Blake wasn't true love, but instead some sort of warped infatuation. Blake is wounded in the fight & instead of killing him, Daniel decides to take a stand & make him responsible for the wrong things that he's done to their community.Aldric realizes that it's time he stop being so afraid of his past & share it for the project because all the memories that will be left behind when the humans finally perish are important & shouldn't be forgotten.This was a sad story & yet there was still hope in the end. People could still be good at heart even though they were slowing dying & becoming extinct. Hope that love could still heal hearts. I enjoyed it a lot & would happily read more from this author.