indiebookreview: TITLE: “Would You Open the Time...

indiebookreview:

TITLE: “Would You Open the Time Capsule?“ 
Author: Erika D. Price
Website: ProcessProduct.Tumblr.com
Publisher: Thunderune Press
Demographic: General readership
Pages: 23
Format: E-book
RATING: READ (¾)

The best advice I ever took to heart was "write what you know.” Unfortunately, it is the most vague advice any writer will ever receive. It is a pleasant surprise though when a writer explores their knowledge of a subject to truly bring a story to life. Erika Price does just that in Would You Open the Time Capsule. In a turn that has touches of Philip K. Dick, she brings to bear her studies in social psychology to present a stark question that will have the reader thinking after the story itself is over.

Though this story occurs in 2025, it is not an abuse of science fiction, but makes small speculative guesses at the world we will experience in the near future through the eyes of thirteen year old, Mason, who, for his birthday has been given the password to a secret email account where family, friends, and strangers have left messages and advice. 

It presents with a clever conclusion to speculation on how we are living currently in modern American society, taking for granted the conversations of Obamacare, sequestration, wars, and other polarizing sociopolitical themes. To consider being a child who has to live in the future we have created seems daunting. Amidst the wave of childhood frustration, compounded by divorce, and the absence of parenting, Mason’s voice is clear. He wants more out of life, he wants more from his absent father and absent-minded mother.

This E-short makes for good fiction, but leaves the reader desiring for more of Mason’s world, and leaves the reader with uncertainty about the days ahead. 

For me, the question was not “would I open the time capsule?” but rather, “would I want to live in a world that required it?”

“Would You Open the Time Capsule” makes for a good evening read, and I recommend it for fans of speculative fiction, sci-fi, and modern fiction.

Available: Amazon; Nook; or on the publisher’s website (epub, mobi, pdf, lit formats). 

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