Paul L. Bates Imprint

A post apocalyptic thriller seen through the eyes of someone learning what really makes this strange strange world work. Much of the population willingly embraces selective amnesia, while the hero struggles to remember "everything," find his missing girl friend, and cure the strange malady that makes parts of his body melt away when he sleeps.

Imprint

Paul L. Bates

Five Star, July 2005, $25.95, 315 pp.

ISBN 1594143129

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 loves 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