Prepare to Die / Paul Tobin

Prepare to Die

(seems to be 1 of ...)

by Paul Tobin

fantasy, young adult

copyright 2013

read in January 2017

rated 6/10: read to pass the time

This is very much a escapist wish fulfilment for young adults. As long as they are male. The hero is super strong and reasonably smart. And he gets a lot of sex.

It's just as a young man would wish: Sex is everywhere, all women are willing, all men are able. There's no embarrassment. There's no doubt. There's no guilt... just a lot of pleasure. And of course the hero -- the super-hero -- gets super sex.

Oh, but he still gets excitement from the sight of a woman's breasts. She's a lesbian, you see, so she does not mind flashing her breasts at a man. No interest, you see. Oh yeah?!

Oh, and drugs are available. Soft, harmless. Non-addictive. Of course.

So where is this utopia? It's in a small town. Sure, in the big cities, life may be more complicated. After all, that's where most of the target audience will be living. They know the embarrassing, the guilty, the frustrating reality. Surely, they hope and believe, sex could be a lot better. And probably is... somewhere else.

And yet... The hero and his girlfriend have never had sex. The hero, well, yes, it's part of his job description to have sex. But that doesn't count. It's just a requirement of his role. Just something to do, in between episodes of saving the world. And his girlfriend is a virgin-by-choice. (Almost a virgin. Let's be realistic.) And yet, she really is saving herself for him!

The rest of the book is pretty much at that level. Lots of pleasure, lots of suffering, high levels of moral behaviour -- by the good guys.

The villains, however, are completely amoral. After all, if you have the power to do anything at all -- you may as well do, anything at all. And you know what's really surprising? As the super-villains run rampant -- civilian life just carries on.

Any life could be snuffed out at any time. Individuals... towns... entire cities are wiped out suddenly, on a whim. Yet the remaining people go to work, go to play, carry on regardless. To be destroyed -- or occasionally saved -- by the super-powered minority.

Speaking of destroyed: People are not just killed. Plenty of people are, just killed. But not all. Many of the deaths are particularly cruel. This is something that I do not enjoy, in these "young adult" books. Sure, it's cartoon-level violence. It still leaves a nasty taste in the mind.

The story -- in between the wouldn't-it-be-nice sex -- jumps all over the place. After a while, it starts to make sense. The jumping is deliberate, a way to gradually reveal the plot drivers. Though a lot of the references are never explained. They are back-story and scene-setting. Complicated but quite well done. Never boring.

The book is quite fun. Nasty in spots. Unbelieveable fantasy... and I mean the attitudes to sex, not the super-power stuff :-)

I quite enjoyed it.

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Dr Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper
Agamedes Consulting / Problems? Solved.
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"Before your dreams can come true, you have to have those dreams" … Dr Joyce Brothers