thejdizzler 's review for:

The Visionary: A Dystopian Sci-Fi by J.C. Gemmell

3.0

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The prose and descriptions of this short post-apocalyptic fiction were beautiful, some of the best I've seen from self-published work. However, the structure and pace of the story just didn't do it for me. In 77 pages we cover a span of nearly 50 years, which doesn't give the characters time to develop and makes hypothesized future events, such as the building of concentric spheres above the earth's surface to replace land, or the creation of artificial consciousness seem crazier than they already are. Maybe I've been reading too much energy non-fiction and collapse fiction, but I have a hard time believing in these techno-optimist futures anymore. The events are also rushed, so it is difficult to really get a a sense as to what is going on globally in the time period of each vignette. However, it was a quick read, and I would be excited to see more longer fiction from this author.