This is book is not what I expected, but it is very interesting. What I thought I was going to read about were some bad-ass tough Marines going through space killing and creating havoc every where they went. Instead, I got a more thought provoking book with a story about a young man growing up in a civilization very, very different from mine.
Everything in this future/alternative civilization is ran by corporations. Big business is an understatement. Galaxy-wide business is more like it and everyone is indebted to a corporation of one kind or another. There certainly are classes of citizens since those that run the corporations certainly can’t do the dirty work that keeps the corporation running. No, most people work for the corporation at assigned jobs and that’s all they will ever do. You get an education starting at an early age, but you’re also going to pay for that education. Yes, you owe the corporation for you entire upbringing and when you finally become an adult, you find that you have so much debt owed to the corporation that you can’t do anything but work day in and day out for the rest of your life. And that’s what was facing Samuel Hyst.
Samuel’s parents were working for the Grotto Corporation and had done so all their lives. They hope to raise Samuel to do something different. His Dad had done some off-duty work for a few friends and they promised to look after Samuel and maybe get him a position on an assembly line where the pay might be just a little better. Then came graduation from the Citizen’s Academy and Samuel’s prospects for a decent job weren’t that great. An Administrator reviewed Samuel’s academic record and determined that Samuel would best serve the corporation in waste disposal, janitorial, or food service. Samuel indicated that he’d like to do something else, but the Administrator was quick to tell him that his desires were irrelevant to the corporation. He was to choose one of those three jobs and do only that for the rest of his life or when his corporate debt was paid off. The latter option was just thrown-in as a kind of joke. No one paid off their debts to the corporation or if they did, it was a very rare feat.
So Samuel finds himself preparing boxed meals for the corporation. He does this every day of the week but does have some time off which he can use to have drinks with his friends at a local bar. Of course every drink and every meal he has goes against his corporate debt so while a little comes off more goes on. Still, Samuel finds the time to meet up with a young woman doing about the same job as him, only she has a hobby of taking pictures. One thing leads to another with Samuel and Sura getting married. Not long after that, Sura says she’s pregnant.
Samuel was talking with his best friend, Ben Takeda, about his situation, well their situations, when Ben mentioned the REAPER card that he had received from the Administrator just immediately before being dismissed. The Administrator had said something about using the information on the card as a last resort. Samuel got his card out and inserted it in his handheld data-pad. It basically said that REAPER card stood for “Resource Exploration and Procurement Engineer Regiment”. It further went on to say that as a REAPER you would be a foot soldier for the corporation and specialize in salvage operations for military expeditions. It came with twice the average works pay and include hazard bonuses!
Samuel and Ben signed up to become REAPERS knowing that they might not be home again for a long time. Sura didn’t mind that Samuel had joined. She knew why he did and with his new pay, she could stay home with their child until the returned. While she wasn’t working, she was still incurring debt especially with the child birth, but that was a fact of life and not going to change. There was the chance that if Samuel could serve long enough, he might earn enough to pay off his, Sura’s and even his son’s debt to the corporation. someday, if he lived long enough! So this is where the real book starts. Samuel gets basic training but only in the very basics of war fighting and then he’s trained in salvage operations. His job will be to fight and kill anyone the corporation decides will increase their bottom line or increase profits. They will do so with the least amount of loss to the corporation given substandard equipment and very few supplies.
So, you’ll read about Samuel’s new life. He’s basically left his family and his wife, Sura, and child behind. He has no idea of when or if he’ll ever see them again, but they will benefit from his service. Samuel just needs to learn how to do his new job to the best of is abilities because his very life depends on it.
Good start to an interesting series. I have an idea that Samuel isn’t going to stay working for the corporation for a very long time. It will be interesting to see how things turn out or even if we will read more about Samuel Hyst. His story might just end with this book although his life didn’t. I can’t tell if every book will be about someone new or not. Not sure how I’ll like changing characters in every book, but I’ll give it a try in book 2, “Dead World”, now available on Amazon.
==[Note: As of 12/03/2023, this will not be published on Amazon since I have been banned from posting reviews for some unknown reason. Once the ban is lifted, assuming it does get lifted, I’ll go back and post this to Amazon.]==