Beyond Here Lies Nothing

by Lee Guthrie, Dystopian/Post-Apocalyptic, Rating: 4 stars
Beyond Here Lies Nothing pays heavy homage to the Fallout Series of video games. The author acknowledges this by quoting Fallout New Vegas at the beginning of the book, so the reader can expect an experience that delivers the adventure and tragedy of wandering the wasteland.

The story follows protagonist Lily on her search for the fabled Haven, a promised land of sorts. Along the way she stumbles upon Operative 74, a deserter on the run from the Coalition. The Coalition is the big, bad military expansionist power intent on usurping the surrounding independent and fertile lands. The two are polar opposites but form an uneasy alliance in order to survive the dangers of the wastes.

The book picks up steam after it lays down the ground work of the story, and shapes up to be a real page-turner about friendship, love, survival and personal freedom vs. communal living. The prose and writing style are rock solid. The only potential flaw I feel may be the characters get stuck in different places longer than I wanted them to…mild sagging middle, but that may not be perceived as a flaw to other readers.

Beyond Here Lies Nothing is highly recommended for fans of the post-apocalyptic genre, especially if you appreciate Fallout.

This guest review was contributed by Lars Teeney. Lars focuses on fantasy and science fiction book reviews. He’s also a self-published author, himself.