In an alternate present the minds of teen offenders are uploaded into computers for rehabilitation—a form of virtual wilderness therapy. Zach is a homo cognoscens, one of the new humans who can navigate the Fulgrid. Though still a high school student, he is indentured to the Fulgur Corporation as a counsellor. Laura is a homo sapiens. Their story is part . . .
more:
editor picks
· member picks
· popular
· worthwhile
· recently vetted
· all recent additions
or jump to a random listing
Marin Astoris had a vision a few years ago, of a mushroom cloud rising beyond the university’s iconic clocktower. A voice whispered in her ear, take a breath and wait to die. That vision never came to pass. Something else happened instead: an asteroid, a botched attempt to stop it from hitting earth, and a resulting cataclysm that left only . . .
The year is 2061. The Golden Age of empowered heroes ended in the cataclysmic fires of The Collapse. Costumed demigods brought the world to a dire precipice and individuals and institutions are still picking up the pieces, still walking the precarious tightrope of a world-shaking paradigm shift. The world is not as it once was. The relics of the . . .
Gabe is a clone of the greatest superhero in the world. He lives in the gutters of Houston, hiding from agencies that would liquidate him, and trying to live up to the legacy that Megajoule left behind. He bleeds in dark hallways, he breaks bones over little girls sold into sex slavery. He wonders: can he make a difference . . .
Kyle signed the contract because he wanted to join an exciting pre-release eSports tournament. But now, he’s stuck in an immersive virtual reality world, fighting in a competition that might take years to complete. Will Kyle and the other contestants work together to escape the contest? Or will the world of Infigeas devolve into a barren PvP Hellscape? What would . . .
Domina City. “The City of the Lady.” Built on a trash island in the West Atlantic by the labor of white-collar criminals, paid for by the United States and the Vatican, Domina was meant to be a beacon of hope and prosperity. A test, proving that criminals could be put to a better use than clogging up prisons. Thirty . . .
A communications specialist in the year 2185 is marooned in deep space by his ship’s assistant (a transgenic fish/humanoid). Stranded just outside the horizon of a supermassive black hole, he begins to send messages back to record his actions and observations. A radio astronomer in present-day Antarctica is listening. Something terrible is about to happen. . . .
In the near future, New Zealand is the Free Republic of Oceania. In a world of mega-corporations, where mankind has harnessed the computational power of the human brain, a golden new age of utopia is but a few elusive steps away. This is the story of the Agency that is working to stop it. . . .
In the year 2038, the city of North Brook is under siege by a malicious organization bent on revenge. One man, Jack Nomad, is determined to find the leader of this group as he looks for the answers regarding the disappearance of his friend. Other characters join along, including the quiet Kira Young, who has a secret of her own. . . .
Static Breaker is a series of episodic short stories set in a near-future China. Caleb Wenright is being observed. Someone known only as Lucidity has shown an interest in him. He has no idea why – he’s just a normal 16 year old – but he intends to find out. Is Lucidity a hacker, a corporate thief, or something completely . . .
Too Many Humans is a dystopian horror web serial which updates every Tuesday. It takes place in the near future where the results of over-population give rise to questions with brutal and disturbing answers. . . .
A daredevil performs his last jump: a leap into space. Everything has been planned out and prepped, but the universe has a way of waylaying us all. A geophysicist is winding up her last dig as part of a seismology and core-sampling project. So close to completion, she’s ready to head home and build on the success of her . . .
When Winnie was thirteen, her settlement taught her how to fire a rifle. Her school practiced drills in case raiders came, and the town grew crops in their greenhouse-adapted homes, which were the only places warm enough during the worldwide nuclear winter. The Lakiran empire invades—a corporate-born nation overseen by their corporate-born queen, Victoria Paladino. They ride silent planes . . .
Aug 30, 2010: "Listen, sugar, some things never change. Once a nigger lover, always a nigger lover. Only now they call them augers."
I have put off writing this review for the longest time. I finished Corvus at the tail end of 2009, and then had a few conversations with Lee, its author, not too long afterwards.
"What did you set out to do?" I asked.
May 18, 2018: Review of the first 12 chapters (episodes) and bonuses. NOTE: This review was written before the rewrite and therefore is not entirely accurate. Rewrite buffed the score from 4 to 4.5. Review adjustment pending.
IN SHORT: Inheritors feels like a solid entry into the arena of ‘vaguely young adult’ superhero web fiction. All in all, the fact that it operates so comfortably in the genre is both a positive and a negative. A strong beginning that I feel will only improve, [more . . .]