Reviews by Susan St John, former World Literature, American Literature, and Writing Composition Instructor and contemporary author.
The City Below the Clouds
What is it like to live in a world destroyed by pollution? To have human life expectancy maxed at age 40? To slave each day struggling to earn enough pay for a single night inside a unit with no comforts, not even a bed, and to exist on a bowl of rice? These are the issues T.S. Galindo’s novella tackles in The City Below the Clouds. It’s a fast read, descriptive, and while the reader has a believable character to root for, the themes, while all true, are a tad heavy-handed and predictable. I was left wishing for a less obvious ending and for the main character to go for the win. What I found most interesting was the character’s inner search for what it meant to be human. Although I found the plot twist both unbelievable and unsurprising, it kept my interest to the end. I confess I enjoyed the cyberpunk novella. ***