Finbarl works as a guard in the walled city of Athenia, an isolated oasis on a ravaged, destroyed planet. His job is to keep the population safe from the perils of the derelict world outside and to ensure that the citizens follow all of the rules that have been developed for their protection and for their continued happiness. Outside the walls roam the “imprisoned’, wild, desperate and dangerous. Inside the population is “free”. Indoctrinated in the ways of Athenian civilization from birth, Finbarl is committed to his role and loyally plays his part in maintaining the status quo. When Finbarl is reacquainted with a mother he had previously saved from a bully, he begins to realize that things may not be quite what he had been led to believe. As circumstances conspire to make him doubt the system that he had been so faithful to, Finbarl’s world begins to shatter and what once offered safety and security now seems to be crushing and confining. There is no option but to rebel and to search for the true freedom he has never known.
LIBERTY BOUND is the first in a proposed trilogy of books that will build into a saga focusing on the concept of liberty and freedom. In this first novel, Nathaniel M Wrey uses the genre of dystopian fiction to interrogate ideas of responsibility, personal choice and autonomy. Like the best progressive sci-fi, Wrey’s landscape is a recognizably close relative to our contemporary world, his often thrilling story of the disenfranchised guard an allegorical tale for today. Wrey’s world building is impeccable with an attention to detail that is matched by an inherent logic in both the mechanics of the society and the absolute plausibility of the way that it functions. What makes LIBERTY BOUND particularly engaging is that Wrey has managed to meld the more familiar tropes of dystopian novels with a well conceived and sympathetically executed central relationship that humanizes the frequently harsh conditions in which the characters find themselves. By adding emotional peril to the physical dangers, Wrey provides a human heartbeat to proceedings. A pulse of life to protect. This relationship becomes as integral to this novel as that of Winston Smith and Julia is to the granddaddy of all dystopian novels, George Orwell’s 1984. Though occasionally lacking in pace, and once or twice Wrey threatens to drift into the the lumpen prose and needless verbosity of so many sci-fi and fantasy novels that mistake page count for gravity, LIBERTY BOUND remains on course to the end.
With relatable, well developed characters and enough twists and turns to propel the reader through to the finish, LIBERTY BOUND is a modern dystopian novel that raises pertinent questions about our contemporary society. Nathaniel M Wrey’s eye is unwavering in his examination of cruelty and oppression and of the importance of freedom and personal choice.
~Kent Lane for IndieReader