An imaginative debut novel, The Earth is My Prison by Richard Sean Clare is a dystopian delight! After an alien attack has ravaged the planet, the inmates of Highgate have made a life inside the relative safety of the prison. Chris ‘Tag’ Anderson is just turning 21. That means he’s seen only the inside of the prison’s walls for 21 years. A string of poor choices leaves Tag feeling less than content with his prospects. With nothing to lose, Tag does what he’s known for… he runs! Hoping to get some answers and find his peace, Tag does something that nobody at Highgate has ever done before. In the process, Tag gets a taste of what life has been like for the last several decades on Earth and encounters more enemies than he ever thought possible.
A cross between The War of the Worlds and Wool, The Earth is My Prison is a chilling tale with an intriguingly vague back story. Prison life is aptly depicted as gritty and disparate with plenty of power-hungry and grudge-filled antagonists to keep the story moving. As the plot progresses, we discover imaginative new lands, resilient post-attack groups with unique survival techniques, and a massively unexpected ending. Unfortunately, there were some critical errors in the edit. One chapter even regressed at a critical moment in Tag’s development. With a little work, Richard Sean Clare will be able to polish this novel into a gem of sci-fi lit.
