Customer Reviews

City of Ruin

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I was as much drawn to this story by the reviews that I read as I was by the subject matter. What a great springboard for a full-length novel.

To the story itself I give 5 stars. The fact that of the 166 kb content only about 41 kb are devoted to its telling drops it to 1 star. I think that an author has the right to "push" other stories within a book; however, I also think that it is a bit misleading to include the advertising when stating the length of the story. I'd be really torqued if I purchased a paper book, expecting x-number of story pages - only to receive it and find that it contained 25% story and 75% author promotions.

There are very few authors that I make sure to leave reviews for once I've read their newest material. Steve Wands is one author of who'll I grab every new release. He's an indie author and while that may not mean anything to many people, it does to me. First, it means the books are most often lower-priced--meaning I can buy, therefore read more--and they are stories that may be a bit more niche. With saying that, really outstanding indie books and stories are so times hard to find, though, it seems, no harder than traditionally published fiction. Mr. Wands other works, not all, of course, but a large majority, concern themselves with post-apocalyptic zombie yarns (in my opinion very good ones) but with City of Ruin the author has stepped a bit out of his safety zone...to tremendous effect.

City of Ruin is a remarkable tale of a future time when all we know has crumbled and society has reverted back to barbarism. I will try to not give away key plot points, for the short story is a pleasure when discovering the plot. Suffice it to say, in this dystopian world, living is hard and living for a cause is even harder. Among the strong points of this Wands' story is it is written in first person and you see through the eyes of an impoverished man that can't help but worry about the future he can't control. Wands' world-building, a definite strength, is also apparent here and succeeds to implant a disturbing mood into your psyche. This is one of those rare stories that will linger long after the pages are closed. It will haunt you and make you look around appreciate all that is good, is easy, and is fair in your life.

As the title suggests, yes, this story stuck like glue to me and I give it the highest recommendation.

This isn't a short story, it's more like a chapter in an unfinished book. I downloaded this on my kindle and the end of the story is Location 354 of 1304. The rest of the "book" reads more like an advertisement with chapters available from other books the author has written with "Buy it Now" links.