The world as we know it ended. The world left behind has now begun.
The Waste is a strange place. Long gone is the old world with buildings taller than trees and massive cities home to millions. Now The Waste is a world of the barest survival where bullets are used as money and ownership of a single book is a sign of great wealth. But especially in the bleakest settings, a person must always be aware of death. This time, death is flowing over The Waste in unstoppable hoards of vicious killers on horseback… And only a single man and woman can stop it. But he doesn’t care. And she cares too much.
Excerpt
Before you click "download"...
One autumn evening mid-2014 some friends and I started talking about what the world would be like 100 years after civilization-as-we-knew-it was destroyed. We weren’t interested the panic and terror of the day after the "bomb dropped", but instead wanted to know what life would be like 100 years later, as mankind attempted to rebuild its lost world.
Some ideas were:
- People would have abandoned the cities and reverted to living in tribes, moving from one place to another looking for safety in numbers.
- No infrastructure, mass power-generation or worldwide economy meant people would forget how to manufacture things. Societies’ knowledge might revert to what it was in the 17th and 18th centuries.
- Some people, as they traveled in their mobile tribes over the landscape, would hold onto things like appliances as memories from the "old world" and power them using left over solar panels and batteries. But these remaining appliances (toasters, ovens, blenders, bread machines...) would be signs of wealth, not necessities. And since the people of this world wouldn’t have the ability to make new parts for broken appliances there would be fewer and fewer of them remaining in usable condition year after year.
- There would be guns since they don’t wear out or break easily, bullets too, though bullets would be scarce, and growing scarcer by the year as shell casings wore out and became useless. This unique combination of scarcity and utility would ensure bullets would likely function as some type of money or currency.
- And books! Books would contain memories of a past great world as well as knowledge, and as we all know, knowledge is power!
We spent hours that night discussing the ins and outs of this potential future world. Somewhere in those late hours I gave this world a name, a name that made perfect sense to me then, and still does today, it became “The Waste”.
What would motivate the people in the Waste? How would they survive? Would they hold on to those elements of civilized society or revert to the feral life of the wild?
Days after this conversation I still couldn’t get the idea of “The Waste” out of my head! I had so many questions, so many ideas on how it could have evolved and how it could be destroyed. In my mind’s eye I saw the heroes of The Waste and its villains, its strength's and its follies.
Finally, I couldn’t postpone it anymore. With a thousand questions in my head, I sat down at my desk and typed those two fateful words, those two words that have begun so many personal journeys.
Those words were:
“Chapter One"
What followed over the months became RazorWire.
If this sounds like the sort of tale you would like I would love to share it with you. But if you read it, please remember:
RazorWire has guns in it. But it's not a story about guns.
RazorWire has survival in it. But it's not a story about base survival.
In-the-end, RazorWire is the story of people, the story of humans and the depths they are willing to go to for one another. It's about loyalty and it's about desperation. It's about apathy and it's about hope.
If this sounds like a story you would like then I hope you enjoy it. if it doesn’t I’m even happier to have saved you the time.
Thanks in advance, and tonight, let's raise a glass or bottle to the hope that the Waste will only ever be found in the words of a book.
T.H.
Professional Reviews
One of the best stories I never knew about!
I have to say, I am so glad I happened upon this book. I was intrigued when I read the description and excited to see if the book would live up to my expectations. It not only lived up to them but it far exceeded them! It's very well written with complex characters. Troy doesn't just lay all their history out there from the beginning but does an excellent job with giving you more and more depth as the story progresses. Each new bit of information blends seamlessly into the narrative and makes you look back at things the characters have said in a whole new light. It's also very well paced, there wasn't a single point at which I grew bored or in any way disinterested, it kept me hooked the whole time just waiting to see what happened next. Then it got even better when I learned it was just the first of a series! I have read the first and the second (all within about 3 days) and am now going back through the first one to see what I may have missed along the way and even knowing the outcome of each book, I am amazed to see how many little hints and key phrases he managed to work in that slipped right past me without giving away what was to come. I definitely recommend picking up a copy of this book and I would also recommend getting the audio version so you can hear troy tell his story in his own voice! He does an excellent job of narrating the story! I will most definitely be buying a complete set of print versions once they're available and putting them in a waterproof bag to keep them safe so I can read them over and over and keep them nice and safe ;-)
Throughly enjoyed this book
Throughly enjoyed this book!
The world building was excellent. I felt like I was stepping right into The Waste. The story is action packed! The plot is developed well and the characters all brought something important to the story. Even though Rock himself is a man of few words, his character has depth and you can't help but root for him to see there is more to life than being a Wanderer.
I even laughed several times and I got teary eyed once. (Poor Matthew)
Quite the adventure! I'm definitely interested in what will await Rock and Caroline now that they have reached the Wall-Without-Walls.
Good stuff. Immediately hooked.
I listened to the podcast/audio version of this Troy made available and IT IS AWESOME! I was hooked in the first couple of minutes (as were my kids.) The story moves fast, I probably would have read this in a day, nevertheless the audio version is really well done, great voices, just excellent. I am looking forward to reading more Troy Hallewell, I always love finding a new writer with (hopefully) many books ahead.
When I wrote ths book in 2000, I was concerned about children having access to the Internet and to chat rooms where "you can be anyone you want." Here we are many years later and the situation with children talking freely to stangers on the Internet
