Review: Three by Jay Posey
Three is an excellent debut novel by Jay Posey, a local author down here in the southeast. It is a post-apocalyptic story without a dystopian theme, which is unusual these days. It is action-packed, thrilling, and well-written. It took a while to finish and left a few questions unanswered in the end, but overall is an excellent debut.
The novel is set in the not too distant future. In this dark post-apocalyptic world, humanity is barely scraping by. Some sort of cataclysm has left civilization in ruins and created a wasteland full of dangerous zombie-like creatures called Weir. Three (yep, that’s his name) is a bounty hunter just trying to get by. He gets involved helping a woman and boy escape some dangerous gangsters, throwing him into the middle of a deadly chase across the wastelands. The two carry a secret many are willing to kill for.
The trek from one post-apocalyptic shanty town to another is both exciting and depressing. It gives also gives you an idea how people are coping with the new world. There is plenty of action and you get to read about the many skills of Three. He is essentially a ninja. However, the trek is long, well over 400 pages. I started to get a little numb to it by the end, particularly the numerous physical injuries suffered during the journey.
Unlike most speculative fiction writers, Posey doesn’t provide much background in his novel. He doesn’t explain what happened to the world and what the Weir are. Usually infodumping slows a story down and can distract readers, but in this case a bit more background info would’ve been helpful.
Posey built some interesting characters a well. Three is a typical anti-hero turned hero (e.g. Han Solo). He starts out as a dark loner but soon starts to care about others. Cass is the protective mother desperately trying to shield her son from the entire world, something that is nearly impossible. You get the impression she has had a rough life and is running from her past, in addition to running from the murderous gangsters.
Wren is innocent and sweet, but doesn’t seem to change much throughout all the different experiences. He faces each trauma as if it is the first he’s witnessed. In such a dismal world, that is hard to believe.
The secondary characters were compelling as well, but a couple didn’t seem to belong. Nearly all of Three’s friends are genuinely good and loyal people, which clashes with his loner, bounty hunter reputation The characters and their relationship with Three felt too good to be true.
Three sees himself as a loner mercenary, who is only interested in getting by. That every man for himself mentality isn’t one that wins a lot of friends. Yet Three has several extremely loyal friends.
The technological innovations are mostly digital in nature, giving it a cyberpunk element but it isn’t really cyberpunk. The protagonists are all good people, who are mainly working with hand-me-down technology and anything left over from the apocalypse.
Science fiction has recently moved in the direction of blending post-apocalyptic and dystopian themes. People get the impression that if there is great cataclysm civilization will take a dramatic turn towards totalitarianism, oppression, and violence. From a historical standpoint, this is often true. However, I think some authors don’t do a good job blending the two themes.
Three doesn’t have this problem. It does not delve into political systems, transformation, or the nature of the downward spiral. It stays focused on the post-apocalyptic setting without trying to complicate or confuse themes by adding a poorly conceived dystopian theme. Some authors can do one of these well, but few can do both. An obvious exception is Suzanne Collins, but in general it was nice to see a writer commit to the core story rather than trying to blend too many themes.
Overall, Three is a solid post-apocalyptic sci-fi novel and would make a great movie. I think Hollywood would cut a few scenes and truncate a few others but I think it would be entertaining. The book is a blend of The Book of Eli, Leon: The Professional, Mercury Rising, and The Road.
It gets 4 Stars from me.
J
The post Review: Three by Jay Posey appeared first on Jacob Foxx.
