Outrun Battlefuture by Will SciFi
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Young Adult (14 – 18 y.o.), Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Action/Adventure
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by AstilbeWHAT IF YOU HAD TO ESCAPE WAR? ONLY PROBLEM – YOU’RE TRAPPED ON AN ISLAND.
In the year 2082, Noah lives peacefully with millions of kids who go to school and live on the island Trinity. The peace is shattered when news of student abuse is revealed, causing students to protest. As the situation worsens, riots happen, and war breaks out between students and the military which sends the island into absolute chaos.
Now Noah and his friends must make it off the island while being pursued by a vicious military and radicalized students. As they run for their lives, Noah must decide between escaping and finding out the truth behind the conflict. But this is no easy task for they are fighting for their lives in outrunning the battlefuture in this gripping scifi dystopian.
How far would you go for freedom?
The action scenes were well written and exciting. I especially liked the portions of the plot that described the battles that went on between the students and Heelers who were essentially a form of law enforcement for these schools. There were some pretty intense moments in these fights, and I couldn’t wait to see how everything would turn out.
I would have liked to see more world building in this novella. There wasn’t a great deal of time spent describing what Trinity, the boarding school where Noah and other children in this society lived between the age of five and eighteen, was like. Having a firm understanding of how kids were treated there was crucial for me to understand why Noah and his friends were so quick to revolt when they found out what had really happened to their missing classmates. The basic framework for a compelling story were definitely there. I simply needed concrete details to help me make the leap from what appeared to be a fairly contented life for them to outright revolution.
The dialogue felt natural to me. It was interesting to see how the characters’ speaking patterns changed depending on how much danger they were in at the moment. They went from speaking full sentences to getting their points across as quickly and quietly as possible. That’s exactly how people tend to react in frightening situations in real life in my experience, so it was nice to see it represented in fiction, too.
Anyone who loves gun battles and action in general should give Outrun Battlefuture a shot, pun intended.