Review: Tracer by Brendan Deneen

Imagine Mad Max. Then have it make slightly more sense. Slightly. In Tracer’s future, most of humanity was killed by mutant flu. But not before somebody created a way to get oil from plastic.

The survivors now struggle in cities built on old plastic landfills, gathering plastic for energy, because apparently everyone who knew how to make windmills died in the plague. I said it made slightly more sense.

I was actually able to live with the hole in the worldbuilding, though, because this really will give you something of a Mad Max fix.

For Tracer was sold to President Bell, the head of PH City (we’re in California, although it barely matters) by the people who found her abandoned in the plastic, and trained as a special operative. Now, Bell wants her to take a pyrolysis (plastic to oil conversion) tech to a nearby city…in trade for a handsome man for Bell’s bed. She even lends Tracer one of her most prized possessions…a rare working car.

This has everything…dangerous roads, bandits, enclaves of civilization that are not remotely civilized, and a romance.

It’s fun is what it is. You might not want to think about the worldbuilding, but just enjoy the characters, their adventures, and the, well, violence. There’s a fair bit of that too.

Recommended for people who want another Mad Max movie.

Austin Creek by Kimberly S. Love

This is a very quiet and meditative book. If you want heavy plot and action…you won’t find that here.

What you will find is a thoughtful, and very Appalachian, work of Black magical realism that speaks of and to a family tied to the water in general, and to the titular Austin Creek in specific.

It’s ultimately about motherhood, to a less extent fatherhood in general, and about women’s magic and root working. And it’s very hard to review - it’s not entirely linear, written more in themes and vibes than story.

Either you’ll like it…or it won’t hold your interest, I don’t think there’s a middle road here. It’s definitely an intriguing work, if not quite to my personal taste (I do, in fact, prefer a bit more plot than this work offers).

Recommended if you want something quiet and thoughtful.

I was sent copies of these books for review or award consideration purposes.