Brought to you by OBS reviewer Caro
Synopsis:
In a near-future world where the car is king and the people are divided between those who ride on a network of highways connecting the glittering hubs of the city, and those left on foot — the lowly “Peds” — who inhabit the lands that lie between them, Robert Balkoner has always believed these latter, even if disadvantaged, are well cared for by the city as a whole. These beliefs are shattered, however, when a freak auto accident thrusts him among the Peds, and he discovers a system more varied, complex, and sometimes horrific, than anything he might have imagined. Yet even here Balkoner also can find love, as well as a handful of rebels willing to barter their lives in a quest to improve conditions for themselves and their fellows. A novelette.
Review:
Futuristic stories always make us think of what is to come in years ahead, with all of the new electronic and scientific things in development every day; we can’t help, but think how they will be of use to us and how cool we will look. Flying cars, flying skateboards, flying shoes, we all want to see them some day in real life just like in the movies we watch and like.
But, what happens when all of these don’t work to our advantage as we had hoped for? That is what author James S. Dorr shows us in his short story,Peds, where the ones with money, are able to live a comfortable life and ride the highway of network cars that take you wherever you want without the need for one to drive manual and just like that be called a Rider.
On the other hand, he presents us the less fortunate people, the Peds, who had to giveaway everything they once had for a life now “suited” for their needs (if it can be called that way). They don’t live in a high society like the Riders do, but without knowing, they can actually fend better for themselves than what the Riders imagined. And, this is what the main character comes to discover after his accident.
When you start reading both sides of the story, the difference between the Peds and the Riders, you can’t help but think of similarities that we can see in our present society, but with a more complicated security system, where the Peds can’t even move out of their homes without being run over by a car. At first, I couldn’t understand why Robert just didn’t walk away and return to his own life, but later you realize that in this futuristic world no one else remembers you but yourself, clearing a mistake, is complicated. The ones Robert thought were his friends, didn’t even bother to look for him.
The author makes Robert’s new life seem like he is stranded in a deserted island, without the deserted part, and after a while he starts to become part of it. At the end he lets go of his dream to go back to his previous life to take in, an even greater one that it’s not his own but inspires him to fight for something greater.
Peds is a book that makes us think of the future and present, just like the rest in its category, well for reading at any moment to make us reflect and enjoy a good story of a small adventure in a deadly highway of network cars. It even has some art.
