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Five Star Science Fiction/Fantasy - Imprint

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The world is a bleak and dark place for people like Wyatt Weston who lives below the poverty line. Not having an income is one way of disappearing or being killed which has the benefit of keeping the population stable since natural resources are disappearing at an alarming rate. Wyatt has a unique talent of waking up missing a body part and being able through the power of his mind to regenerate it.

Rachel Void wants Wyatt but she has left behind Heartland where all the decision makers and power brokers live under a dome because the air that everyone else breathes in the world is polluted. A chance meeting with one of the leaders of Heartland Victor Crist earns Wyatt the job of bodyguard, a dangerous job since his new employer wants to change the world order. Wyatt doesn't know that if he makes it through the coup alive, he probably will play a strong role in what will be a new world.

Not one word in this entire novel indicates this is planet earth. It could be any world where the plague and religious wars destroyed much of the orb and there is very little chance of nature regenerating itself without a major paradigm shift. Readers will find this dark grim work reminiscent of A CLOCKWORK ORANGE where those in control know what lies beyond the next symphony. Paul J. Bates has written a work that takes the reader one step beyond the edge.

Harriet Klausner

IMPRINT, By Paul Bates.

The present-tense, stiff-masculine action in this novel is reminiscent of the hardboiled detective novels from the forties and fifties. The protagonist, Wyatt, spends an inordinate amount of time thinking, an apparent attempt to present him as a sympathetic character. In general, this fails. Wyatt doesn't seem terribly motivated or bright. Nevertheless, there are some redeeming and curious qualities to this novel. For one, Wyatt's tendency to lose his extremities while sleeping. Why he wakes with an arm or a leg missing is never really explained - but he has the eerie ability to rebuild the missing parts by the power of his mind. That unique ability makes his DNA valuable. This alone is enough to keep most science fiction fans reading. It certainly grabbed my attention.

Wyatt misses his true love, Jenny. Jenny disappeared and none of Wyatt's friends remember her. It happens a lot in this book. Some people `disappear' themselves, and others are erased by the powers that be. We learn this is how the government controls the population, and the surviving masses prefer to forget their missing loved ones rather than search for them or even remember them. Wyatt is the exception.

Wyatt is a sweeper - a frightening profession with a certain prestige. He is authorized to carry a wand. The wand, carried in a holster beneath his arm, can instantly destroy anything organic, reducing it to smoke and ash. He goes out with other sweepers to eliminate drossies (people) animals or things in places where they don't belong. The job pays a very modest wage, enough for Wyatt to eat and pay the rent on his drab apartment in the worst area of the city. Wyatt often wonders if his sweet Jennie has been `swept.'

This world is a coldhearted place. No one seems to be kind or pleasant. There is no real tenderness or interaction between characters. Love is sex, sex is love. Conversations are brief. Dialogue provides information, but does not succeed in any real character-building.

Wyatt is offered a job he cannot logically or economically refuse. He becomes the bodyguard for a very powerful man and is dragged into a power struggle between feuding warlords. On his days off, Wyatt visits his latest girlfriend for sex or he stays in and studies, not appearing to have a definite preference. He gets a bit of education, but he is no wiser or more interesting.

Wyatt is very good with the wand, and can fry two or three drossies at a time. He impresses his boss again and again. He's earning good wages now, in the form of credits.

Eventually we meet Jenny. She is meek, tearful and she prefers her life in the Archives, locked away, studying and filing, or whatever devout Archivists do. It's a letdown as far as long lost reunions go. Luckily, it's not the climax.

Wyatt has some exciting adventures in the last third of the book, and they are worth the wait. He gains some initiative and travels to an area where a terrible plague is blamed for massive loss of life. While there he learns a number of things about his powerful boss and none of the things are good. He discovers that he is partly to blame for the loss of life in this sector. Does this change Wyatt for the better? No, he goes right back to frying people, in the employment of his evil boss.

The employer's daughter, Anastasia, is Wyatt's personal trainer. She kicks and punches him up, down and sideways on a regular basis. She is the only truly interesting character in this tale. What she sees in Wyatt is a mystery. Maybe it's because he bathes regularly and dresses sharp? Don't know. Over the length of this book he changes from out an ignorant dud to an educated dud.

Action scenes are this writer's strongest talent. The futuristic city, the limbs dissolving and rebuilding, the space station, the secret weapon, the bloody battle between the warlords, those are the genuinely entertaining parts. 'Imprint' is an better than average read if you're not insistent on sympathetic, believable characters. The ending was somewhat predictable, and it came, ultimately, as a relief to this reader.