Review: Worth .99? Yes, but....
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 06 13, 2012
"Indentured" by Scott McElhaney is, well to put it mildly, derivative of several scifi concepts. As an example, McElhaney has combined ideas from Scalzi's "Old Man's War" mixed in a little Ronald D. Moore's re-imaged Battlestar Galactica serving up a different sort of "immortality" meme themed tale. Other reviewers have mentioned other similarities with other authors books.The central concept of "Indentured" is very interesting - basically while taking a medical test(an MRI) a brain scan has been performed and the brain's patterns (and personality) stored in digital format until it can be placed into a cloned adult body in the far future.  This future society believes that as you have already lived a "full life", you don't have any rights in your second life and are basically "indentured" for a period of twenty years at which point one assumes that you are free to live as you wish.Once placed into a new body, the characters are held helpless, given a reason they have been placed into this situation, given training and the central character begins to suspect this, that and the other and off we go.Problems abound with the plot of "Indentured" with gaping holes that leave you almost wondering what you just read. The curious part is that the tale seems to hold together up to the point where you finish and then start thinking about what you read.  McElhaney has a very good writing style which keeps you engaged with the characters - this is why you don't seem to notice the plot gaps and inconsistencies as quickly as you might with other authors."Indentured" is a quick easy read, very light with no heavy philosophical lifting to do - perfect for killing a hour or so.  Therein lies a different problem.McElhaney has one hell of an idea here - the "indentured" thing is very cool and worth exploring in a larger, wider format universe. Unfortunately, we' don't have that and we're than much poorer for it. McElhaney has the chops to do it - I hope he does at some point.