Taking the Knife

Botanicaust #1.5

by Tam Linsey

Even cannibals have a code of honor...

A wounded cannibal's enemy offers him a way out of his pain. A way to avoid the Knife. If he's willing to pay the price.

This short story takes place between Botanicaust books #1 and #2.

Genres: Post Apocalyptic, Ebooks

34 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Tam was the kid who took AP Chemistry and AP Biology her Senior year of High School. After winning a scholarship to a DOE camp at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, touring the superconducting supercollider, and karyotyping DNA from the HIV virus, she came to realize if she pursued biomedical engineering, she might never see the outside of a lab again.

Consequently, she earned a Bachelor of Science in English, and now writes about fictional characters who have taken biomedical engineering to extremes.

She is also an avid gardener, cook, fisherman and hunter, urban homesteader, and GMO labeling advocate in love with self-sufficiency. Her current residence is the great state of Alaska, where she was born and now lives with her husband and two wonderful children.

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Reviews

[Pavarti Tyler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review: Take the knife is a companion story to Ms. Linsey’s novel Botanicaust (read my review here) in the best way possible. It reads like a fascinating and fully developed world even in the short format of Taking the Knife, but if you’ve read Botanicaust, you’ll get so much more out of it, from who Ana really is, what her “Spirit Healing” is and how she came to be captured in the first place. I’m going to keep this review short because to say much more is going to give too much away. But if you’re looking for a story to make you think, question your morals and sense of right and wrong, and introduce a world as outlandish as it is possible, than you should read Taking the Knife. And once you read it (FOR FREE TODAY!) then you’ll want to go buy Botanicaust, because it’s even better.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

A friend of mine told me about Botanicaust, it sounded great and so I was
excited to read this short tie in. What a great taste ( no pun intended ) but
this cannibal story has me wanting to read Botanicaust asap.

Taking the
knife is an excellent intro. Cannibals, green skinned people, post apocalyptic
setting it's a combo that had me absorbed and forgot what was going on around
me.

The story is very well written and one not to be missed.

My fave line - Once he was standing, spine bent as if the weight of death already pulled him down, he focused his pain-blurred gaze toward the flame runna

[Leanne Herrera · Rating 5 out of 5]

This short story is one related to the book Botanicaust by the same author. I am not entirely sure that this is earth but from my understanding somehow a poisonous weed has taken over the land. It has killed anything edible in its track thus leaving the humans no choice but to eat each other. They have a protocol for this. They go for as long as they can and then have hunger time. During this time the weakest of the tribe sacrifices themselves for the better longevity of the tribe.

I am about to read the story this goes with this in order to wrap my head around the whole idea. While this little story is good, my problem is my inability to know the facts behind the story. I need to know more about what is going on, how they got that way and why the virus harmed everyone. So I will not be rating this until I read Botanicaust. I hope everyone can understand.

After reading Botanicaust I not only understood more but had to sit and evaluate parts of both books and how we would manage should we be faced with nearly insurmountable odds. I rated this 5 out of 5.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked "Taking the Knife", which is a short story. I went to bed early, but couldn't sleep. So, I picked up my Kindle and decided to give "Taking the Knife" a try. It was well written, the characters engaging and the plot interesting. It took me maybe an hour to read.

The story takes place in Earth's future where the ecosystem has been damaged due to a toxic weed that has spread out of control. The short story doesn't go into detail about it, but it appears that this has caused a shortage of eatable plants and animals.

So now humans have turned to cannibalism to survive. The humans in "Taking the Knife" live a primitive, tribal sort of existence. There are also green skinned humans who can manufacture their own food like plants do. The two races are in conflict.

"Taking the Knife" tells the story of what happens when one of the cannibals comes across a captive green skinned girl.

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick look into the Cannibals lives was just what I needed to get me back into the mind of Linsey. If you haven't read Botanicaust already this for sure would be enough to peak your interest. But, you probably would get much more out of it if you had some background first.

That aside.

It's like she takes you in and spreads the table for you laying everything out, I enjoy her writing so much.

I was given this from the author in exchange for an honest review.

[Zaz · Rating 3 out of 5]

This short story was a nice addition to the series, especially as it focused on Ana and some cannibal habits. For this format, it was enough complete but I found it lacked depth. The child abuse bothered me a lot, even if it wasn't directly described.

[Rebecca Trotter · Rating 5 out of 5]

This tale helps bridge the gap in Ana's story.

[Kriss · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review coming soon! Check out my FB page and profile for a special giveaway of this and the main book!