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The First Omega
Mad Max meets X-Men in this razor-sharp new dystopian novella by the Philip K Dick award nominated author of Velocity Weapon.
It doesn't matter what you call her. Riley. Burner. She forgot her name long ago. But if you steal from the supply lines crossing the wasteland, her face is the last one you'll see. She is the force of nature that keeps the balance in the hot arid desert. Keep to yourself and she'll leave you well enough alone. But it's when you try to take more than you can chew that her employers notice and send her off to restore the balance. Then she gets the latest call. A supply truck knocked over too cleanly. Too precise. And the bodies scattering the wreckage weren't killed by her normal prey of scavengers. These bodies are already rotting hours after the attack. Cowering in the corner of the wreckage is a young girl. A girl that shouldn't be there. A girl with violently blue eyes. Just like hers.
It doesn't matter what you call her. Riley. Burner. She forgot her name long ago. But if you steal from the supply lines crossing the wasteland, her face is the last one you'll see. She is the force of nature that keeps the balance in the hot arid desert. Keep to yourself and she'll leave you well enough alone. But it's when you try to take more than you can chew that her employers notice and send her off to restore the balance. Then she gets the latest call. A supply truck knocked over too cleanly. Too precise. And the bodies scattering the wreckage weren't killed by her normal prey of scavengers. These bodies are already rotting hours after the attack. Cowering in the corner of the wreckage is a young girl. A girl that shouldn't be there. A girl with violently blue eyes. Just like hers.
96 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 30, 2021
42 people are currently reading
476 people want to read
About the author
Megan E. O'Keefe
20 books1,301 followersMegan E. O'Keefe was raised amongst journalists, and as soon as she was able joined them by crafting a newsletter which chronicled the daily adventures of the local cat population. She lives in the Bay Area of California, and spends her free time tinkering with anything she can get her hands on.
Her fantasy debut, Steal the Sky, won the Gemmell Morningstar Award and her space opera debut, Velocity Weapon was nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award.
Her fantasy debut, Steal the Sky, won the Gemmell Morningstar Award and her space opera debut, Velocity Weapon was nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
August 16, 2021
I’m always up for a good old-fashioned badlands dystopian. But The First Omega spices things up by adding superpowers, futuristic weaponry, in a beautifully realized Mad Max type world. The result is a short book I feel like I haven’t read a thousand times already – and a decent one at that. And while it does suffer from some frustrating character choices that left them feeling flat, it’s nevertheless a fun way to spend 2 hours or less.
Full review to come on my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/hollyheartsbooks
Full review to come on my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/hollyheartsbooks
July 26, 2021
The publishing industry has undergone a sea change in the twenty-first century. Amazon, of course, has upended the traditional dominance of the mainstream publishers. But an even more significant shift lies in the advent of self-publishing. New online tools allow authors to sidestep publishers altogether. According to the latest available figures, 1.7 million self-published books hit the market in 2018, an increase of 264 percent in five years. And no literary genre has been more deeply affected than science fiction. Of course, most self-published books should probably never have seen the light of day. But there are exceptions. Megan E. O’Keefe’s engaging dystopian novella,The First Omega, is a prime example.
O’Keefe’s story is set in the American Southwest in what appears to be the twenty-second century. The action unfolds on and around the “six-six,” apparently a reference to the fabled US Route 66, the Will Rogers Memorial Highway, which slices through Southern California, Arizona, New Mexico, North Texas, and Oklahoma, and then turns north toward Chicago. The locale in The First Omega seems most likely to be in Arizona or New Mexico. It’s hard to imagine a more apt setting for a dystopian novella.
This dystopian novella paints a predictable picture
In O’Keefe’s imagined future, climate change has wreaked havoc on the United States. Vast stretches of the West lie baking under an unforgiving sun. Agriculture is no longer possible on any but the smallest scale, and the population has fled to the coasts. But in the coastal cities, life isn’t much better. Tyrannical corporations based there ride herd over the survivors as the oceans steadily encroach on more and more of the land. This is dystopia, pure and simple.
One of those corporations, Pac-At, links its facilities on the East and West coasts with shipments sent across the countryside in self-driving “ghost trucks.” To protect their precious cargo, Pac-At has placed augmented mercenaries along the major highways. They’re no longer entirely human. Augments give them superhuman vision, speed, and strength—and the ability to kill with a single touch of their hands by raising the temperature of their victims to the point of ignition. In the novella, we meet one such killer, a woman known locally as Riley. Some in the region call her “Burner.”
Omega, we learn, is a fourteen-year-old woman
Riley comes across an overturned Pac-At ghost truck surrounded by the corpses of armed soldiers. Half the cargo is missing—but only half. Because that cargo consisted of two augmented killers like Riley, and one of them lies inside the truck. Her name is Omega. Her sister, Alpha, appears to have been carried away by the soldiers who survived Alpha’s attempt to defend herself and Omega.
Both the new mercenaries are teenage women. Omega is about fourteen or fifteen, her sister perhaps a year older. And she appears to Riley to be timid and far from ready to use the weapons she’s been equipped with. Unaccountably, Riley then decides to lie to her handler at Pac-At when she’s ordered to recover both young women and return them to the company. Taking a great chance that Omega will follow, he sets out to locate Alpha and the soldiers. The action that ensues is full of surprises. It turns out that what society expects us to do and what we choose instead may be very different.
About the author
Megan O’Keefe is the author of seven science fiction and fantasy novels in two series as well as a half-dozen short stories and this dystopian novella. She lives in the Bay Area.
O’Keefe’s story is set in the American Southwest in what appears to be the twenty-second century. The action unfolds on and around the “six-six,” apparently a reference to the fabled US Route 66, the Will Rogers Memorial Highway, which slices through Southern California, Arizona, New Mexico, North Texas, and Oklahoma, and then turns north toward Chicago. The locale in The First Omega seems most likely to be in Arizona or New Mexico. It’s hard to imagine a more apt setting for a dystopian novella.
This dystopian novella paints a predictable picture
In O’Keefe’s imagined future, climate change has wreaked havoc on the United States. Vast stretches of the West lie baking under an unforgiving sun. Agriculture is no longer possible on any but the smallest scale, and the population has fled to the coasts. But in the coastal cities, life isn’t much better. Tyrannical corporations based there ride herd over the survivors as the oceans steadily encroach on more and more of the land. This is dystopia, pure and simple.
One of those corporations, Pac-At, links its facilities on the East and West coasts with shipments sent across the countryside in self-driving “ghost trucks.” To protect their precious cargo, Pac-At has placed augmented mercenaries along the major highways. They’re no longer entirely human. Augments give them superhuman vision, speed, and strength—and the ability to kill with a single touch of their hands by raising the temperature of their victims to the point of ignition. In the novella, we meet one such killer, a woman known locally as Riley. Some in the region call her “Burner.”
Omega, we learn, is a fourteen-year-old woman
Riley comes across an overturned Pac-At ghost truck surrounded by the corpses of armed soldiers. Half the cargo is missing—but only half. Because that cargo consisted of two augmented killers like Riley, and one of them lies inside the truck. Her name is Omega. Her sister, Alpha, appears to have been carried away by the soldiers who survived Alpha’s attempt to defend herself and Omega.
Both the new mercenaries are teenage women. Omega is about fourteen or fifteen, her sister perhaps a year older. And she appears to Riley to be timid and far from ready to use the weapons she’s been equipped with. Unaccountably, Riley then decides to lie to her handler at Pac-At when she’s ordered to recover both young women and return them to the company. Taking a great chance that Omega will follow, he sets out to locate Alpha and the soldiers. The action that ensues is full of surprises. It turns out that what society expects us to do and what we choose instead may be very different.
About the author
Megan O’Keefe is the author of seven science fiction and fantasy novels in two series as well as a half-dozen short stories and this dystopian novella. She lives in the Bay Area.
July 4, 2023
This is one of my favorite novellas I’ve read recently. It has a clear storyline but the world-building was still very vivid despite the limited time she was able to put towards that. And the same with the character development. You can tell she was very purposeful with everything that was put into this book and I liked the moral considerations of the MCs. They way it was wrapped up was also very satisfying.
December 13, 2021
Short and spikey, a little more depth and length would have nicely round this out to a 4 star read I think. Writer to watch for.
Read
April 16, 2024read this as a sample for a job application, actually thought it was pretty damn good even though i never read this genre
June 26, 2025
This was just what I needed after a plot slump! 4 stars because of some frustrating character choices and inconsistent narrative voice that bothered me.
March 30, 2021
Described as “Mad Max meets X-Men”, but nothing original and more like a cross between Ishiguro’s (itself not terribly original) “Never Let Me Go” and any of the horde of “faceless inhuman (and in-humane) corporate dystopia” science-fiction books.
June 1, 2021
I received this novella from Orbit Books, through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review: my thanks to both of them for this opportunity.
I discovered Megan O’Keefe through the first two novels in her Protectorate space opera series, so once I saw the notice for this post-apocalyptic novella that promised a Mad Max-like setting, I had no doubt that I would sample the author’s change of narrative tone: brief as it was, it turned out to be a very intriguing read, and my hope is that Ms. O’Keefe might decide to expand this small seed into a full-length novel, one of these days.
Climate change, or some other upheaval, transformed the face of the Earth, and what once was habitable land has turned into a deserted waste, crossed only by the automatic trucks that carry goods and supplies over the old Route 66, that still connects the East and West coast of the United States. Pirates, or desperate people (it would be hard to set the difference in this time and place) constantly try to steal from these trucks, so the corporation running them, Pac At, set up a sort of policing system through bounty hunters: Riley is one of them, her territory in the arid west, toward the end of the line.
Riley is not her name, she has forgotten it and uses it only because the cranky Ma Rickets calls her thus, for no reason she can understand. To everyone else, especially the desperate people trying to eke out a meagre living in the desert, she is Burner, because that’s what her touch does to you if - or rather when - she catches you. On her latest assignment, however, Riley is surprised to find the attackers already dead, their bodies decomposing although a very short time elapsed since the assault, and in the truck only one living person: a young girl with too-bright eyes that look uncannily like Riley’s own eyes. Her name is Omega…
Given the shortness of this novella I would not feel comfortable sharing any more details, for fear of revealing too much. What I can offer is that this is a story focused on identity and growth, of conditioning that goes beyond its intended programming and the meaning of justice when lawlessness is the only rule in no-man’s land. The few (too few…) pages of this story manage to flesh out Riley’s character in a very interesting way, and to reach moments of poignancy I would not have expected from such a harsh, unforgiving setting and merciless environment.
The narrative style is quite different from what I was used to in O’Keefe’s Protectorate series: like the desert where it’s set, it’s a bleak, stark prose that paints Riley with a sharp and cutting economy of words that leave no room for kindness and yet highlight a character of surprising depth and humanity, one that simply begs to be explored with more detail and more backstory. Hopefully one of these days the author will come back to this world and give us more…
Originally posted at SPACE and SORCERY BLOG
I discovered Megan O’Keefe through the first two novels in her Protectorate space opera series, so once I saw the notice for this post-apocalyptic novella that promised a Mad Max-like setting, I had no doubt that I would sample the author’s change of narrative tone: brief as it was, it turned out to be a very intriguing read, and my hope is that Ms. O’Keefe might decide to expand this small seed into a full-length novel, one of these days.
Climate change, or some other upheaval, transformed the face of the Earth, and what once was habitable land has turned into a deserted waste, crossed only by the automatic trucks that carry goods and supplies over the old Route 66, that still connects the East and West coast of the United States. Pirates, or desperate people (it would be hard to set the difference in this time and place) constantly try to steal from these trucks, so the corporation running them, Pac At, set up a sort of policing system through bounty hunters: Riley is one of them, her territory in the arid west, toward the end of the line.
Riley is not her name, she has forgotten it and uses it only because the cranky Ma Rickets calls her thus, for no reason she can understand. To everyone else, especially the desperate people trying to eke out a meagre living in the desert, she is Burner, because that’s what her touch does to you if - or rather when - she catches you. On her latest assignment, however, Riley is surprised to find the attackers already dead, their bodies decomposing although a very short time elapsed since the assault, and in the truck only one living person: a young girl with too-bright eyes that look uncannily like Riley’s own eyes. Her name is Omega…
Given the shortness of this novella I would not feel comfortable sharing any more details, for fear of revealing too much. What I can offer is that this is a story focused on identity and growth, of conditioning that goes beyond its intended programming and the meaning of justice when lawlessness is the only rule in no-man’s land. The few (too few…) pages of this story manage to flesh out Riley’s character in a very interesting way, and to reach moments of poignancy I would not have expected from such a harsh, unforgiving setting and merciless environment.
The narrative style is quite different from what I was used to in O’Keefe’s Protectorate series: like the desert where it’s set, it’s a bleak, stark prose that paints Riley with a sharp and cutting economy of words that leave no room for kindness and yet highlight a character of surprising depth and humanity, one that simply begs to be explored with more detail and more backstory. Hopefully one of these days the author will come back to this world and give us more…
Originally posted at SPACE and SORCERY BLOG
May 25, 2023
This was awesome (and I use this word very rarely) !
I am neither a fan of novellas, nor of dystopian fiction per se, but this was an immensely pleasant surprise.
This short book is written from the viewpoint of Riley, who turns out to be a (genetically) modified being, killing off pirates who prey on the cargo trains in a dystopian desert landscape. That much, I got from the cover blurb. The pleasant surprise was the introspective viewpoint of Riley, without turning into melodrama or preaching. And while it was a dystopian setting with a repeated "it will all end in blood", there was an amazing amount of love towards the land and optimism in the story.
Riley's self-view reminded in a positive way of the "Murderbot" stories... how somebody obviously non-human declares a certain humanity for herself.
The world-building was superb and perfectly fitted to a novella: while it was clear that there was a wider world out there with a certain history behind it, there were no info dumps and the information provided served simply to move the story along.
And while the ending was not a "Happy End" in the Hollywood definition, it did not leave me depressed as many dystopian novels seem to consider important. Rather the contrary.
(While I liked velocity weapon, I did not read the following book. This novella changed my mind and I need to read more from O'Keefe.)
I am neither a fan of novellas, nor of dystopian fiction per se, but this was an immensely pleasant surprise.
This short book is written from the viewpoint of Riley, who turns out to be a (genetically) modified being, killing off pirates who prey on the cargo trains in a dystopian desert landscape. That much, I got from the cover blurb. The pleasant surprise was the introspective viewpoint of Riley, without turning into melodrama or preaching. And while it was a dystopian setting with a repeated "it will all end in blood", there was an amazing amount of love towards the land and optimism in the story.
Riley's self-view reminded in a positive way of the "Murderbot" stories... how somebody obviously non-human declares a certain humanity for herself.
The world-building was superb and perfectly fitted to a novella: while it was clear that there was a wider world out there with a certain history behind it, there were no info dumps and the information provided served simply to move the story along.
And while the ending was not a "Happy End" in the Hollywood definition, it did not leave me depressed as many dystopian novels seem to consider important. Rather the contrary.
(While I liked velocity weapon, I did not read the following book. This novella changed my mind and I need to read more from O'Keefe.)
April 3, 2021
At just under 100 pages, The First Omega builds and builds with O’Keef’s wonderful phrases. I could highlight multiple passages on every page, which is exactly what I remember from my time with her novel Velocity Weapon. And the secondary characters where definitely a plus… Ma Ricketts, the gritty proprietor of the local diner and Ratta, the leader of the desert clan. All have a role to play in this immersive setting.
But there is one character who isn’t fleshed out as much as I would have liked… That is Riley’s opposite, the villain Alpha. The book is told in first person from Riley’s POV and most of the characterization of Alpha is explained or told through her eyes. I needed her on-page more… I wanted to see and experience her action and her power. There are only a couple short scenes with her in it, but she is much more pivotal to the plot than those few pages.
Overall, The First Omega is good short story with a compelling speculative premise. It’s not perfect, but I was happy to read it through in one sitting.
3.5 out of 5 stars.
For my full review: https://paulspicks.blog/2021/04/03/th...
For all my reviews: https://paulspicks.blog/
But there is one character who isn’t fleshed out as much as I would have liked… That is Riley’s opposite, the villain Alpha. The book is told in first person from Riley’s POV and most of the characterization of Alpha is explained or told through her eyes. I needed her on-page more… I wanted to see and experience her action and her power. There are only a couple short scenes with her in it, but she is much more pivotal to the plot than those few pages.
Overall, The First Omega is good short story with a compelling speculative premise. It’s not perfect, but I was happy to read it through in one sitting.
3.5 out of 5 stars.
For my full review: https://paulspicks.blog/2021/04/03/th...
For all my reviews: https://paulspicks.blog/
April 7, 2021
I am not a huge fan of short stories, I feel they only have space for one idea. This book falls directly into that trap. On top of this the author decided to use chapters 18 Chapters in 78 pages. I like the world building which was done but that was the main element which comes out of this short story. I would not be surprised if this world is featured in a future novel as there is a lot of content to work with. This story falls into a bit too much reliance on tropes. All in all it was a quick read.
One editing mistake (besides the too many chapters). page 46 Ch.12 seem was used instead of seen. Counting that this book is digital only I am sure it will be fixed soon.
OK onto something a little more different from my usual. Back to the world of Dust.
One editing mistake (besides the too many chapters). page 46 Ch.12 seem was used instead of seen. Counting that this book is digital only I am sure it will be fixed soon.
OK onto something a little more different from my usual. Back to the world of Dust.
September 15, 2021
A SIMPLE MAN'S REVIEW:
Like so many good things - way too short!
This story has a distinct Murderbot vibe and I'm all for it. The protagonist is a "born" killer but developed a conscious at some point along the way. Her latest job takes a revelatory turn and finally provides her a few answers she didn't even know she needed.
It's a super fun (and short) read and you'll be wanting more. I'm not sure how a sequel would work, but maybe how they do it in Dr. Who?
Read it!
Like so many good things - way too short!
This story has a distinct Murderbot vibe and I'm all for it. The protagonist is a "born" killer but developed a conscious at some point along the way. Her latest job takes a revelatory turn and finally provides her a few answers she didn't even know she needed.
It's a super fun (and short) read and you'll be wanting more. I'm not sure how a sequel would work, but maybe how they do it in Dr. Who?
Read it!
June 22, 2025
Riley is a gender-swapped version of Mad Max. She guards “ghost trucks” traveling through her patch of the badlands. She has augments and implants that give her a way with fire, and she drives a badass truck. The true dystopian nature of her corporate world is finally revealed when she rescues a 14-year-old waif named Omega from a band of pirates. At that point, O’Keefe gives this tight little story a twist that reminds us that she has been a finalist for the Philip K. Dick Award.
December 25, 2025
I enjoy sci-fi short stories and this one was very interesting. The setting is post apocalyptic/dystopiann with climate sci-fi elements. There is commentary on corporations and their exploitation. I don’t know if this was a story I connected with. The narrator voice was interesting. I am not sure that all authors have the ability to weave a complicated world building, characters, and plot into less than 100 pages, but O’Keefe is able to do this.
May 30, 2022
sci-fi novella
"Riley" hunts road pirates for the shipping company. Trucks are automated now, and tracked, but their goods are sometimes hijacked by "pirates".
Riley is tasked to find the latest hijacked truck, and goods and to kill the pirates. But, she finds an augmented girl hiding in the truck.
"Riley" hunts road pirates for the shipping company. Trucks are automated now, and tracked, but their goods are sometimes hijacked by "pirates".
Riley is tasked to find the latest hijacked truck, and goods and to kill the pirates. But, she finds an augmented girl hiding in the truck.
November 6, 2023
Really enjoyed the book but felt it was a bit too short but that’s only because I wanted more. But I can see how it couldn’t be any longer if the OC died at the end. You’d have to change the whole tenor of the book to make it into a ‘I’m gonna get the bad guys and stop them’ kind of book etc.
Overall enjoyable though. Writing was easy to read and flowed quite well.
Overall enjoyable though. Writing was easy to read and flowed quite well.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 4, 2023
Extraordinary
Really sharp writing - could easily have been stretched into a full novel but would have been worse for it. As a novella it’s just about perfect. Best thing I’ve read in years
Really sharp writing - could easily have been stretched into a full novel but would have been worse for it. As a novella it’s just about perfect. Best thing I’ve read in years
September 6, 2023
I think I would have enjoyed this a lot more as a full length book. I was incredibly intrigued by the world with its superb Mad Max vibes, and I'd have liked to see much more of it! Sadly I didn't care about the characters at all - I think the story was just too short for me to become invested.
April 15, 2021
A 2.5 starrer. It was fine, it was ok, it just didnt have enough to tilt the scales for me
July 1, 2021
Not bad. Needs more development.
June 27, 2022
Great story. I was in the mood for some quickly digestible scifi and this fit the bill perfectly. I will check out her other books soon, as they were recommended to me by a friend.
July 2, 2022
Ok short story
May 7, 2023
A near perfect novella.
December 4, 2023
Short, vividly told story of a bleak future. A great little book.
March 28, 2024
This was a great novella. A dystopian world with an interesting set up.
September 29, 2024
Good but short. Left me wanting more. A good introduction to an interesting world.
July 21, 2025
Fun and fast, enjoyable read
August 31, 2022
Supply lines droid, humanoid
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews