What Came After by Sam Winston

About 50 years in the future, the government as we know it no longer exists, the pharmaceutical companies own everything, and nature took what PharmAgra didn't want. The rich got richer, the poor got poorer, and the sick dropped dead. Anderson Carmichael just wants a car. Henry Weller wants his daughter's vision. Carmichael's got the ultimate bargaining chip; access to medical care. This is the dystopian story of how far a father will go to see his child healthy.

There were big gaping holes in the story, as entertaining as it was... Little tidbits that weren't explained but maybe should have been. The Great Dying -- clues are dropped throughout the story and one can safely assume mutated food made people sick, less safely assume PharmAgra may have been responsible for it? but most definitely knew how to un-mutate the food. Branding-- little microchips implanted in necks, used to identify people. If you have a brand, you're a someone. If you don't, you live in the Zone. But what qualifies someone for a brand and which brand? and when are they implanted?

But the plot was interesting enough and I didn't mind the cliffhanger ending... I noticed a nicely drawn parallel between the first sentence and the last and I love story ideas that make you think. I also can't help but notice parallels between the fictional future Sam Winston thought up and the US's currently precarious economic standing. People are worrying about the affordability of food and people who can afford it are stopping to wonder about what's in the food they're so eager to buy.

Rating: 3/5

Original post date:

Dec 26, 12