Review: Plausible, readable, and great value for the price
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 28, 2011
JF Perkins started with a novella/short story in Renewal, the story of a young man 40 years out from the end of America whose small, gray world is suddenly changed forever by a guy named Bill and a village named Teeny Town.Renewal Part One stands alone as an excellent effort, but we get bonus words from this great author. Nine bonus parts, in fact. I'm up to Part Six right now and Perkins is spinning a tight, well-written story with characters you care about.It's a bit more of a "juvenile" series than a standard book, meaning that the writing tends to stay at a PG-level, and despite some serious issues about PA America and the incredible evils that might occur, Perkins tends to treat deaths more like XBox than real life. I also think that he and many other speculative fiction PA authors tend to over-hype the idea of EMP bursts. These are minor quibbles.From his meticulous settings in central Tennessee to the interleaved stories from 2012 and 2049, Perkins writes an ultimate story of hope that's in high demand in these very uncertain times. At 99 cents a whack, you'll have some great reading in the weeks ahead.