3 out of 4 stars
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There seem to be two major flavors of post-apocalyptic stories - either there are multiple survivors who are trying to create a settlement and live in peace or save humanity, or the world's human population is nearly wiped out and the main character(s) is/are just trying to survive. Titan by Michael Van Cleve ends up feeling like a combination of the two. It's been at least 200 years since a war ruined the world with nuclear weapons, and most everything - and everyone - has become mutated by the radiation.
The main story begins with a family - Paris is giving birth to her second son while Troy tries to keep their first son, Christopher, occupied. The four of them (including the new boy that's only referred to as the Second Son) live alone; Troy is incredibly intelligent and Paris is not only in amazing physical shape, she's an expert marksman. Troy and Christopher are both dying of sickness, however, and it isn't even a week and a half after giving birth that Paris goes out alone for supplies and toward the last city, a place with a giant wall with only the word "return" written in many languages. Their plan to get into the city is an absolutely crazy one, however; can one woman alone gain entry to a giant, technologically-advanced city that wants nothing more than to keep people out? Will she even survive the trip, when there are ruthless, demented humans and mutated animals between her and her destination?
Despite the fact that Paris, Troy, Christopher and the newborn Second Son are a family, this is far from a warm tale. The book is often comprised of single-sentence, very short paragraphs with minimal description. For example...
While the entire book isn't like this, it is semi-frequent. The interesting effect this has is that it makes the book feel cold somehow, which is exactly how the world in Titan is meant to feel. Even when Paris does things for the benefit of others, she isn't a typical hero about it. This is much more realistic in a post-apocalyptic setting, and yet so odd at the same time.Paris loads the rounds into the magazine well.
Paris locks and loads the magazine.
Paris resumes a stable firing position.
While the lack of descriptiveness at times can be explained away rather well, there are a few other issues that can't. Toward the end of the book, things get a bit crude at times (fitting for the story, but restrictive on reader base) and there are a few places (less than 5) where a bit of editing would have been beneficial. Also, I'm really torn on the story - while it's very unique and raises some interesting points, it does it in a way that really could've used some more fleshing out, the ending especially. The book was short - 88 pages in the PDF I reviewed - and I think adding a dozen or two more pages throughout would have made all the difference in the world.
While I'm hesitant to recommend the book to kids due to some violence and crudeness, I can definitely recommend it to fans of post-apocalyptic stories that want something different. I'd rate the book 2.5 stars if I could, but the fact that I'd recommend this so readily makes me realize I should round it up and give it 3 out of 4 stars.
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Titan
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