A review by wandering_not_lost
Across the Dark Water by Richard Kadrey
2.0
[Read for free on the Tor.com site.] I liked some of the atmosphere here, but in the end there were too many things that left me scratching my head for me to really get into it. In particular, I had a hard time getting into the main character's head. I get that he's desperate and somewhat compromised, but he starts on his journey fairly underprepared, not asking seemingly reasonable questions of the guide about what he'll need. His reactions through the novella also seem a bit off, as if he's reacting in place of the reader, who hasn't been living in a post-apocalyptic hellworld. For someone who IS in a post-apocalyptic hellworld, some of his attitudes seem strangely, recklessly altruistic, as we don't know much about the thief's background and what his life has been like. Is he still relatively privileged? Is he living with some level of normalcy and this jump into the wasteland is new to him? It's not easy to tell, and thus he seems disconnected from the world around him. Also, the made a great plot device, but it was hard to see how any military would think that they were a good idea to make.
And finally, I didn't really feel the ending flowed from everything else. In the end, it just didn't gel for me.
Spoiler
biomechanical horror beastsAnd finally, I didn't really feel the ending flowed from everything else.