Like that boy who sees dead people in the "
The Sixth Sense
", our first-person protagonist in "Wanted" communes with the spirits of the dead as he traverses an increasingly ravaged post-apocalyptic land in this EOTWAWKI novel.
Unlike most of the genre, Borton does not try and explain what has happened to club Humanity back into the Dark Ages, he just sets the scene of mother Nature running rampant and has his crazed hero go with it. And this is a hero to be reckoned with. Having learned the lesson of 'not having a plan' from a previous city-wide blackout, our tall, dark and handsome man sets about improving his survival skills with lessons in shooting, knife fighting and carrying a pack full of provisions. He also dials his conscience to neutral; not that he is immoral, just realistic enough to know that the niceties of society are persona non grata when the lights go out and the 'cowards' come out to play. Because he is that more ready with his guns, knife and fists, he generally survives where nice people don't when the EOTWAWKI event occurs. Indeed, the body count starts early and keeps climbing right to the closing pages.
The protagonist's continued, vivid interactions with dead people was interesting and off-putting by turns. He is deep into psychosis before the book begins and it grows worse with each difficult decision he makes. Borton makes it clear that our hero knows his visions are not real and that these conversations are really with himself, but some of them are just creepy. Like finding the Malpaso Man wore dresses in his holidays, it did not fully accord with the general motivation or expectations of a EOTWAWKI hero character. He seems masochistic in both emotion and action on a number of occasions, but he is probably more realistic for all that than other accidental EOTWAWKI hero's. Perhaps being so well prepared skewed his brain in some fashion? I don't know, but mostly I overlooked his crazy, creepy mind-games because the basics of the story were so well put together.
Borton has an excellent turn of phrase for events, but I found a lot of the dialog stilted and formal. I also felt a lot of the dialog was realistic, and in some cases both from the same characters, which is why I went four stars instead of five. With regard those events, they are about as realistic as any other example of the genre and having Mother Nature exacting revenge allows for all manner of crazy - and probably impossible - climatic events that keep the plot ticking over. Add in a number of on-the-run relationships, then a stronger set piece at the end, and for the most part the story arc is satisfying.
There is considerable repetition in the hero's thinking throughout his quest, and I can understand why other reviewers noted that. Probably Borton could have cut fifty or so pages without ill effect, but honestly, it's not a show stopper for me. The extra pages gave our hero that much more time to kill more cowards and save another damsel in distress.
Borton writes sufficiently well that I was engaged by "Without" from the first few pages and that interest was maintained until the end. His hero is crazy enough that he does not do all the obvious things, which adds quite a bit of tension and suspense to what is a very basic premise. There were some laugh out loud moments, so it was not all 'Oh woe is me' Bleak House; indeed, for the most part, the hero is anti-'Oh woe is me'. If you like EOTWAWKI this is definitely worth a read.
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Top reviews from other countries
JJ
A story of an apocalypse that focuses on the human disposition
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 30, 2017
Kindle Customer
Couldn't put this one down!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 25, 2018
