The Quake Cities
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
A woman tries trying to find her way home in a world decimated by earthquakes, but there are people determined to stop her and harvest her DNA.
Alice wakes up in the Los Angeles Quake Zone in 2025 having no idea how she got there. As her memories slowly return, she finds she's being hunted by several armed groups intent on capturing her alive. At the same time, Este, a survivor of the quakes that destroyed Los Angeles, makes a living as a pathfinder for salvage teams in the city. Este rescues Alice from her pursuers and learns there is something not quite right about her, Alice is convinced it is 2003. Aided by Este's occasional boyfriend Wilfredo and her dog Casey, Este and Alice try to evade those chasing Alice and discover why they value her so highly, all while trying to reunite her with her family as the earthquakes around the world grow worse.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
At the start of this so-so SF thriller from Wheaton (Emily Eternal), a woman awakes in 2025 Los Angeles with no memories of who she is or what is going on; the city, along with most other major American metropolises, has been devastated by a series of massive earthquakes, leaving only desperate survivors scrabbling to find food and water. Just as a stranger urges her to get out of bed and flee the building, she remembers her name is Alice Rhodes. Alice's freedom is short-lived, as soon after she's betrayed by a woman who drugs her into unconsciousness in order to sell her. Things get even stranger after Alice is fatally shot, but somehow returns to life, a development that proves connected with her unwanted popularity. Alice is somehow able to reincarnate herself, making her body and, in particular, her unique blood, a precious commodity that has set bounty-hunters on her trail. The convincing apocalyptic scenario compensates only in part for thin characters. Readers looking for mind-bending plots grounded in relatable human emotions would be better served by Blake Crouch's Pines trilogy.
