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Benevolence
If you were sentenced to death, wouldn't you jump at a chance for life? Even if that reprieve meant leaving Earth to live on a spaceship full of freaks, the hideous survivors of a DNA altering plague?
Arlen Rowell took that chance and found the freaks were a finer stock of folks than the ones who shunned them from their home planet.
On the ship Benevolence, Arlen found integrity, courage, danger, and...love. Then he found a way to contact the other nine Freak Ships with the idea that 50,000 freaks could seek a planet to call home.
Arlen Rowell took that chance and found the freaks were a finer stock of folks than the ones who shunned them from their home planet.
On the ship Benevolence, Arlen found integrity, courage, danger, and...love. Then he found a way to contact the other nine Freak Ships with the idea that 50,000 freaks could seek a planet to call home.
109 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 15, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 25, 2019
If you are a fan of what I would call “situational science fiction”, the kind of stuff television shows like The Twilight Zone used to great effect, then you will love this book. Arlen Rowell is in trouble. He’s in so much trouble that he has been sentenced to die. But – he has a way out of the hangman’s noose. It’s not an easy way out and he might end up dead anyway. That’s exactly what has happened to everyone else assigned to Arlen’s new task. He’s tagged to be the new Liaison Officer for the city/ship Benevolence, the home to thousands of people suffering from a wide variety of mutations brought on by a DNA-altering plague. People back on earth think these folks died. The government knows better.
As I read this book, I kept visualizing everything in black and white, playing across an old 23-inch glass television tube with Rod Serling giving me the play-by-play. It really does have that “Golden Age” sci-fi flavor. It has something else as well. Benevolence is a cautionary tale about the marginalization of humans based on differences that might appear unseemly to some or that might make people at large uncomfortable. However, these people are still very much human. They have hopes, dreams, goals, and feelings. They don’t deserve to be warehoused like second quality goods. Arlen learns these things quickly, as he is an outcast himself. He identifies with the “freaks” and gains their trust. The story that follows is both intriguing and entertaining. The book is a quick read and lingers in the reader’s mind long after the last page has been digested.
NOTE TO PARENTS: This is a book written for adults. There is a sprinkling of profanity, including the big guns like f***and g**d****. It's not gratuitous by any stretch and the level of profanity suits the characters using it, but it is there. My estimation is that the suggested audience be aged 16 and up.
As I read this book, I kept visualizing everything in black and white, playing across an old 23-inch glass television tube with Rod Serling giving me the play-by-play. It really does have that “Golden Age” sci-fi flavor. It has something else as well. Benevolence is a cautionary tale about the marginalization of humans based on differences that might appear unseemly to some or that might make people at large uncomfortable. However, these people are still very much human. They have hopes, dreams, goals, and feelings. They don’t deserve to be warehoused like second quality goods. Arlen learns these things quickly, as he is an outcast himself. He identifies with the “freaks” and gains their trust. The story that follows is both intriguing and entertaining. The book is a quick read and lingers in the reader’s mind long after the last page has been digested.
NOTE TO PARENTS: This is a book written for adults. There is a sprinkling of profanity, including the big guns like f***and g**d****. It's not gratuitous by any stretch and the level of profanity suits the characters using it, but it is there. My estimation is that the suggested audience be aged 16 and up.
December 3, 2017
Marvelous read
Can't say enough how satisfying this book was. I felt like I was in this world of freaks and rooting for them in their quest for normal lives. Another stellar work by this author.
Can't say enough how satisfying this book was. I felt like I was in this world of freaks and rooting for them in their quest for normal lives. Another stellar work by this author.
December 19, 2021
What a trip!
In a future dystopian world, Arlen Rowell is given the choice of death (for a murder he would probably not be convicted of in a fair system) or living on a Freak Ship called, Benevolence. The place is anything but benevolent, but Arlen quickly figures out that he could make things better for these deformed people, struck by a plague back on Earth. But will he be able to? The odds are against him. It's an absorbing, well-told tale.
In a future dystopian world, Arlen Rowell is given the choice of death (for a murder he would probably not be convicted of in a fair system) or living on a Freak Ship called, Benevolence. The place is anything but benevolent, but Arlen quickly figures out that he could make things better for these deformed people, struck by a plague back on Earth. But will he be able to? The odds are against him. It's an absorbing, well-told tale.
March 5, 2024
Sentenced to death, or to service on a “freak” spaceship containing captive human mutants, Arlen chooses the latter….and ultimately lead them to freedom and a new home planet. This is a comfortable sci-fi read, a non-moralistic exposé of good and bad human behavior. The main character, Arlen, is well-described, and the pace is fast and furious from the get-go. Largish font and a straightforward story makes this book ideal to take and read on a several-hour plane ride.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews