Welcome to the Apocalypse, Book One: Pandora by D. L. Richardson

CreateSpace, 2016

ISBN: 9781370736201

Available: Paperback, eBook(Kindle, Smashwords)

Want to get away from it all but don’t have the time?  Want to experience an apocalypse firsthand?  Want to be a hero and save people from zombies or aliens?  Then welcome to the apocalypse!  In this science fiction thriller, the Apocalypse Games are the latest in virtual reality simulation gaming; twenty-four hours of simulated terror in a fully immersive virtual world where anything can happen.  Using the latest technology, players are attached to a pod with a neural network that enables them to feel, taste, touch and, smell everything they encounter.  Each player starts alone and empty-handed.  Each must find a weapon, find the enemy, find safe zones, and find survivors.  It is survival of the fittest, in a kill-or- be-killed world.

Welcome to the Apocalypse, Book One: Pandora has a really good premise, and I was really looking forward to it.  Unfortunately, it didn’t deliver what I had hoped for.  While the plot and setting were laid out well at the start, as the story unfolded it became harder to sort out what was going on.  The ending was really abrupt, and I still wonder what happened.  The descriptions and action parts were generally well-constructed, and flowed nicely.  The characters were pretty distinctive and easy to keep straight.  The fun part of them was that some were virtual reality characters and some were real people.  The author had several instances of telling instead of showing, and there were many instances of poorly worded sentences that were confusing and hurt the flow of the story.  The story could also really use some help with editing. Spelling and duplicated or missing words throughout the made it really hard to stay immersed in the plot, and this really made the story fall apart for me.  I have not read this author’s work before.

Reviewed by Aaron Fletcher