Epitaph Road

by David Patneaude

Earth in 2097 is a very different place than it had been in 2067.  After Elisha's Bear, the plague that wiped out 97% of Earth's male population, women had to take over everything--government, research, teaching, criminal justice, medicine--everything.  And with their control came stability, drastically reduced crime, environmental improvements, reduction of hunger and poverty.  The few men left in the world had two choices.  They could live extremely tightly controlled lives in the high population areas, or they could escape to the wilderness and become "throwbacks" or loners.  Fourteen-year-old Kellen lives in Seattle with his mother, an important official in PAC, the Population Apportionment Council, goes to school, studies constantly to pass his trials so that he might have a chance at a good job and fulfilled life.  His father is a loner and a fisherman, whom Kellen sees only rarely.  And though she had promised Kellen earlier that he could visit his father soon, she now keeps putting him off.  Kellen is becoming suspicious that something big is about to happen, and has little reason to fully trust his mother.  Eavesdropping, he learns that Elisha's Bear will be planted in the area where his father lives.  By doing online research guided by an unorthodox teacher, Kellen and two girls in his class begin to learn the truth about the plague, and decide to escape to the Olympic peninsula to warn his dad about the coming danger.  They couldn't possibly realize how dangerous this decision will be, and the unknown terror they are heading toward.   Epitaph Road is a different take on a future world which had been pulled back from the brink of destruction.  ~reviewed by Mrs. Sams

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