CenterForce

by T.A. Waters

Ben Reed was on the run through an America that had been turned into a nation of slaves dependent on and submissive to the power known as CenterForce.Ben Reed was on the run through a ravaged wilderness territory ruled by a savage rebel army of social outcasts and mutants who worshipped loveless sex and pure destruction.Ben Reed was on the run desperately racing against time to reach and try to save America's last island of hope and decency before it was submerged in the rising sea of rapacious violence, save it from...

Genres: Science Fiction

Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

Reviews

[Megan · Rating 1 out of 5]

The plot of this book had potential to be something really good, but the execution of this was really bad. We aren't sure if our main character, Ben, is a good guy or not. We don't really know much about him other than he loves his motorcycle. We don't really get much of anything in the way of supporting characters or a story that makes any sense. The book is written sometimes by Ben's point of view, sometimes random poems, song lyrics and transcripts. This makes the book really hard to follow and understand. It seems like this book was written by someone who was really high and didn't know anything about writing a book.
If you are looking for a good sci-fi book, it's not this one. 1 out of 5 stars.

[Khardiss · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m no writer and have no knowledge of how a novel is written. I’ve long imagined that after a basic outline of events, a writer might write a number of 1-2 page short stories in different styles and “voices” in order to work out how to set the correct tone for the novel, to learn more about the characters and/or places of his story before “beginning” the novel, or to note ideas that they may want to revisit later and maybe use somewhere in the novel. I imagine the novelist would then flush out the story from these pages and fill in details and such to write the actual novel.

I mention this because this book seems to be a collection of these hypothetical 1-2 page stories rather than an actual novel. The writing is all over the place in terms of story, style, etc. There’s a vague plot, kind of, but not at all flushed out and definitely not filled in with additional details.

I’m sure some folks may read this book and praise the author’s creativity, but I’m not one of them. I had a hard time even finishing the book.

[Rajesh · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bombastic, even considering the writing of the times. Some of the chapters are poems some of them are screenplays and some of them are hackneyed dialogue between uninteresting characters. Time has not been kind to this book. I'm literally going to set it on fire.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting view of the future from the past, and an engaging choice of formatting for the story structure.