REALITY WORLD

Lares’ debut novel and series-starter follows a group of humans who are transported to a distant planet and forced to compete in a deadly alien reality show.

Carl Leighton is a 43-year-old former United States Army staff sergeant who saw action in Iraq and Afghanistan and now owns his own transportation company (composed of one truck) in Arizona. After experiencing bizarre nightmares that placed him in a survival reality show (called Are You Civilized?) set on an alien planet, Leighton is shocked when the dream becomes reality. Another shock comes when the Army vet discovers that his recent high school-graduate son, Jacob, is with him on the planet, which is called Diversity. After joining up with other humans—who include a woman who used to work with Leighton and hates his misogynistic views, two samurais-in-training, an America-hating Islamic radical, and a conniving British politician—the father and son realize they’re sharing the planet with multiple alien civilizations bent on annihilating the newcomers. One advantage the humans have is that Leighton came prepared—he’s loaded with ordnance. Lares’ novel is a highly palatable blend of SF, military thriller, and twisted reality show. The work’s most compelling aspect is the mutability of the perception of Leighton’s character: In America, some perceive him as a foul-mouthed, “white gun owning male nazi, fascist,” but on Diversity, he’s a hero, a potential savior of the human race. And while some readers may be turned off by his blatant objectification of women (a blue-skinned alien female, for example, is described as having a “really nice ass”) and his prickly demeanor, they fit perfectly into the tone of the story. The one glaring flaw is the plethora of grammatical errors, which negatively impact readability and could have been easily remedied with editing.

 A wildly entertaining take on reality television that will delight some readers and infuriate others.