The Object Serial
The Object series, Books 1 - 3
Winston Emerson
Amazon Digital Services
Fiction, Sci-Fi/Suspense
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Description
Today, in Louisville, Kentucky...
Smart, shy Lillia lives with her brother Drake and sister Kate in foster care. Used to being treated like dirt by classmates and foster parents, she was barely phased
when the drunken, leering college boy tried following her home.
Danny woke up after an all-night bender on a stranger's doorstep, half-covered in his own vomit. His cell's almost out of juice, his friends are nowhere in sight, and
he's lost his wallet along with his short-term memory.
Meredith just started as a cop three days ago... three days that have made her reconsider her chosen field and city of residence. The other cops don't like her, the
citizens don't like her, and she just nearly ran over a citizen fleeing an attacker. And Day Three isn't even over yet...
Sherman lives on the streets, trying to avoid trouble as he begs for change from a population that considers him invisible, either because of his black skin or his
homelessness. When the rich aren't ignoring him or belittling him, street gangs are robbing him of the few dollars he manages to scrape together.
These lives, and many others, would weave through any normal day on the streets of Louisville, briefly entangling before going their separate ways. But then the Object
appeared. A great, looming sphere in the sky, something about it seems to bring out the worst in people. Within minutes, chaos consumes the city, panic gripping the
populace in waves of riots and shootings. Wherever the Object came from, whatever it wants, Louisville will never be the same...
A Kindle-exclusive title - no longer available for download.
Review
The first part in a sci-fi serial series, it promised dystopian paranoia and sci-fi mystery. (And, yes, it was free when I downloaded it.) Unfortunately, the sci-fi
part of the story hardly comes into play: in these first three parts, the object simply shows up and watches the chaos its arrival creates, without tangibly affecting
anything. That leaves dystopian paranoia to carry the day... a task at which it fails, owing to an utter lack of an actual story. Maybe Emerson establishes that in the
next installment, but this fragmentary introduction simply features a bunch of mostly-unlikeable people in miserable situations whose lives only become more miserable
due to circumstances beyond their control. There just plain isn't enough here to interest me, let alone convince me to keep following this listless, unpleasant slog
through the Object's shadow.
Since reviewing this title, it has - perhaps predictably - disappeared. Sometimes, I wonder if self-publishing hasn't become a little too easy, as people can start
projects like this without knowing how, or even if, they mean to finish them. It's frustrating for the general reading audience; anyone who enjoyed this title will
never find closure, and they'll be that much less apt to try this author's future books if they ever do get themselves together.