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Mask
Kerry Nietz · February 2013 ·
science fiction for all adults, all teens+YA, men, teen boys+YA
I am the mask. The mask is me.
Radial is a Collector. The instrument of the will of the people. You get voted away … Radial makes you disappear. The system works, and he is its servant. The rule of the people is the highest form of human government. He is a believer.
Until he is asked to collect someone who should never, ever be voted away.
Kerry Nietz’s The DarkTrench Saga series was a fantastic exploration of a future Earth ruled by Sharia law — into which God and His Word finally breaks anew.
Now Nietz imagines another cheerful dystopia, in which we evidently didn’t need radical Islam to destroy ourselves. Very timely, yes, but it will likely be Nietz’s fluid, vivid writing and original storytelling that makes this one sing, as he was able to do until the end of DarkTrench. Oh yes, I’m getting this one, and so should you, and not only because of that sweet cover. (Marcher Lord Press covers just keep improving.)
Having read this, I’d agree with Stephen. It has an great premise focusing on a world where “likes” can get you killed. There’s a rep system put in real life where if you get enough negative feedback, you die to regret it. The protagonist is one of the police that enforces this system, and soon he changes his mind.
One thing though is that I think the book suffers from a YA focus. You have some strong potential for satire and dystopia, and the Dark Trench books had a mature spirit that I think is easily equal to much of the best of secular SF. It’s a little muted in this book. While still great, I wonder what it would have been like if written for a more adult audience.
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