We Are Saul by Richard Dee

We Are Saul by Richard Dee

Saul is a pretty good guy who is paralyzed from the neck down after being hit by a vehicle. With absolutely no hope of every regaining the use of his arms and legs, Saul is tempted into an experiment which might make him feel useful again but has to agree to participate without knowing any pertinent details about what he will be doing. I expected the novel to veer into the realm of LitRPGS at this point with Saul being wired into some sort of gaming world, but Richard Dee had a much more interesting direction planned for his hero.

 

The experiment (or “the project” as it is called) is run by a Dr. Tendral who will immediately strike the reader as having shady ethics. It’s not just that he is keeping almost all of the elements of his project secret. He has inserted a nurse into Saul’s original hospital to influence him to agree to join Tendral’s project. And he is clearly cutting Saul off from all real contact with the outside world at least for the first stages of the experiment.

 

Tendral also has a sort of childish pique, getting angry when Saul acts like a human being with reasonable questions rather than serving as an automaton who simply unquestionably does everything Tendral wants. But what does Tendral want? It’s as difficult for the reader as it is for Saul to tell at times. About the only certainty is that Saul will undoubtedly choose wrong again and again (just as I think the reader would in Saul’s place).

 

I’m trying really hard to write this review without giving away the central surprise of the story (i.e. the key to the project). That being said, Tendral and his lack of ethics becomes an increasingly disturbing force in the story and Saul (as a quadriplegic) is really in a vulnerable position when they confront each other.

 

This is one of Dee’s best stories. The problems Saul has are easy to relate to, as are the hard choices he is forced to make—especially the last two. All of this results in one of Dee’s best novels with an ending that really took me by surprise.