A Touch of Death by Rebecca Crunden (The Outlands Pentalogy Book 1)

Rebecca Crunden is a new author to me, but lately I have heard nothing but good things about her, so I decided to check her (well, her stuff) out. This review is going to be a twofer, not just A Touch of Death but also the short story The Man and the Crow, so let’s start with that.

A Man and His Crow

This is a really quick read, taking maybe 30 minutes to power through it. It’s also weird but in a good way. A woman returns home to her apartment to discover a man has murdered her rather strange flatmate. It turns out the man is hunting witches to turn his crow friend back into a human. There isn’t really much more to it than that and, while I liked the story, I’d like to have read a lot more about the main characters. Still, read it – it is fun.

A Touch of Death

This has far more meat on its bones, but it’s still a fast-paced story, despite a distinct lack of action. In a post-apocalyptic totalitarian future, Catherine lives a life of privilege amongst the other rich people, oblivious to what is really going on in the world. When her future husband Thom is arrested for saving his rebellious brother Nate, Catherine and Nate flee the city to avoid joining Thom in his fate.

There is an element of romance in this story, with Nate regularly professing his love to the less-than-willing Catherine. This is less about a will-they won’t-they story and more about Catherine discovering she’s been living a lie. They flee to the countryside, but Nate catches a fatal disease that sidetracks their journey so they can seek out a cure. The story is very enjoyable, the main characters are likeable and the author does an excellent job of masking the motivations of the various people they meet on the way, keeping us on our toes. While this is set in a future earth that was essentially destroyed a millennium ago, and the few survivors moved underground. The descendants of the survivors, when they returned above ground, set up the dictatorship currently in effect. Any knowledge of the past is illegal, questioning the authorities about anything is also against the law. If I had one gripe, it was hard for me to get a handle on what type of world they lived in. One minute it seemed like a medieval fantasy with them riding horses, while in another they are using flying cars. This is a small gripe, as the story was engaging throughout and reached a very satisfying climax, considering this is the start of a five-book series. Well done, says I.