Hard Times in Drowntown (Beyond the Dome - Prequel)
Hard Times in Dronetown (Beyond the Dome – Prequel) by Jackson Dean Chase
3 stars
Category: New Adult
Note: Short Story length
Summary: Vikka and Rylee are both Drones, low-class citizens destined to enter the low-level workforce when they hit 16 to continue earning credits to pay for the oxygen for their masks if they want to continue breathing while living in their domed city. Vikka’s father is disabled and can’t work, so she is afforded a couple more years before she will be forced into a factory job, but Rylee’s birthday is that week and she has decided that she will run away and try to find a way out of the dome.
Comments: Where Amazon says this is 57 pages, it isn’t. My copy ended at the 30% mark (making this story about 17 pages long) with the rest of the book filled with sample chapters of other books by the author (just like Come to the Cemetery did). I adored Drone (Beyond the Dome – Book 1) (loved the futuristic action with a strong low-class heroine who partners with a high-born guy in their struggle against the corrupt corporation that harvests body parts and people), and have been eagerly awaiting a second book in the series (I’m really looking forward to seeing what’s out there outside of the Dome). So, I picked this up to tide me over. It however didn’t really add anything to the story other than to explain why Vikka didn’t try to escape her fate as a factory worker. It also felt a bit preachy on teen runaways. And why she didn’t ever bother to hunt for a way out of the dome on her own. Nothing really happens to Vikka herself in this (she’s pretty much just a by-stander in this), and it doesn’t really have any twists or turns or anything all that unexpected, other than a rather sad fate for Rylee. The main draw of this particular short really is the detail of the futuristic world with the dome, and the breathers, and the paying for oxygen, the selling of body parts, that their life will be terminated at a certain age, and the upper-class vs the lower class. It feels a bit like the world of Blade Runner, Logan’s Run, or In Time.
3 stars
Category: New Adult
Note: Short Story length
Summary: Vikka and Rylee are both Drones, low-class citizens destined to enter the low-level workforce when they hit 16 to continue earning credits to pay for the oxygen for their masks if they want to continue breathing while living in their domed city. Vikka’s father is disabled and can’t work, so she is afforded a couple more years before she will be forced into a factory job, but Rylee’s birthday is that week and she has decided that she will run away and try to find a way out of the dome.
Comments: Where Amazon says this is 57 pages, it isn’t. My copy ended at the 30% mark (making this story about 17 pages long) with the rest of the book filled with sample chapters of other books by the author (just like Come to the Cemetery did). I adored Drone (Beyond the Dome – Book 1) (loved the futuristic action with a strong low-class heroine who partners with a high-born guy in their struggle against the corrupt corporation that harvests body parts and people), and have been eagerly awaiting a second book in the series (I’m really looking forward to seeing what’s out there outside of the Dome). So, I picked this up to tide me over. It however didn’t really add anything to the story other than to explain why Vikka didn’t try to escape her fate as a factory worker. It also felt a bit preachy on teen runaways. And why she didn’t ever bother to hunt for a way out of the dome on her own. Nothing really happens to Vikka herself in this (she’s pretty much just a by-stander in this), and it doesn’t really have any twists or turns or anything all that unexpected, other than a rather sad fate for Rylee. The main draw of this particular short really is the detail of the futuristic world with the dome, and the breathers, and the paying for oxygen, the selling of body parts, that their life will be terminated at a certain age, and the upper-class vs the lower class. It feels a bit like the world of Blade Runner, Logan’s Run, or In Time.
No comments have been added yet.
