The Burn Zone
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4.8 • 5 Ratings
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
Plagued by overpopulation, disease, and starvation, humanity was headed for extinction—until an alien race called the haan arrived. And then the real trouble began.
It’s been a rough day for Sam Shao. As part of a program that requires humans to act as surrogates to haan infants, Sam has been genetically enhanced to bond with them. So when three soldiers invade her apartment and arrest her guardian for smuggling a dangerous weapon into the country, Sam can sense that something isn’t right. One of his abductors is a haan masquerading as a human, and the supposedly fragile haan seems to be anything but.
Racing through the city slums, trying to stay one step ahead of the mysterious haan soldier, Sam tries to find the man who, in her twenty years, has been the only father she’s ever known. Could he truly have done what he is accused of? Or did he witness something both human and haan would kill to keep hidden? The only thing certain is that the weapon is real—and lost now somewhere in a city of millions.
Fighting the clock, Sam finds an ally in Nix, a haan envoy devoted to coexisting with humans, or so it seems. But what she really needs are answers. Fast. Or else everything she knows—and everyone she loves—will burn.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The future of humanity looks bleak in Decker s debut novel, in which a population stretching toward 15 billion has strained the Earth s resources to the max. In the city of Hangfei, 20-year-old Sam is foster-mother to a child of an alien race called the Haan. When a group of soldiers brutally take her adoptive father from their shared apartments, Sam sets out on a mission to rescue him. Her subsequent adventure is frenetic, and stretches credulity; she s tiny and malnourished, with no investigative training or combat skills, yet she takes on the combined might of a military force and a powerful alien. The resulting action is stuttering and out of sync. In a confusing and frantic scramble to the end, all is revealed in a twist that feels too much like an attempt at cleverness or a setup for a sequel.
Customer Reviews
Fascinating take on first contact
I greatly enjoyed James Decker’s “Reviver” trilogy, so I was very excited to learn that he was still writing, albeit under his true name. I immediately picked this up.
I am a sucker for first contact stories, so I found this mash-up of apocalyptic distopia, future noir, and first contact to be irresistible. I read it in two sittings.
This is a great adventure, mystery, and social commentary wrapped in an apocalyptic horror story.
How much of what you see and think of people is tied to how they appear? How alien is alien if they share similar concepts of good and evil? These fascinating questions form the core of this story,
Amazing story, great characters
This is a fast paced story about future earth. It describes a gritty tough world and has an amazing protagonist. Recommend this and the prequel novella, Ember.