However, being redeemable doesn’t mean he can be entirely redeemed in the eyes of the people affected by the person that he used to be. That doesn’t entirely excuse his choices, but he might be redeemable. Stalker, raised as he was, didn’t have too many options. In such a dark future, it would be the survival of the fittest and often the cruelest. Stalker’s a really complex character and thus far I like what Aguirre has done with him. It wasn’t his fault where he’d been born, or how he’d come up from brat-hood, but that didn’t mean I wanted him as more than a friend. Though I nursed no grudge, because I, too, was a realist, Stalker would never be my first choice. Though he wants her, she’s well aware of his flaws. There is a love triangle, depending on how you define them, but his interest in her is completely one-sided. So far, I can report that he is not a love interest from Deuce’s point of view. The romance has been perhaps the most discussed aspect of this series, largely because a number of readers cannot tolerate the idea of Stalker as a love interest, which I get. She’s never been cared for like that and the experience helps her understand how much her upbringing has affected her. Edmund and Momma Oaks treat Deuce like their own daughter, something which annoys and confuses her at first, but which really helps her grow ultimately. My favorite part was the relationship established between Deuce and her host family. I felt a good deal more connection to the characters in this one, if not on an emotional level. Now, though, humanity could truly be doomed. The freaks, though tough, were relatively easy to defeat, because they lacked strategy and cleverness. Well, in Outpost, they’re getting so smart that ethical questions might start arising soon.

In Enclave, they were already some of the scariest zombies around, since they move swiftly and showed signs of gaining intelligence. The most fascinating aspect of the world building lies in the development of the freaks. Though some of the ideas of Salvation are inherently flawed and upsetting, many of the townspeople show and open-mindedness and kindness that I can’t help but respect. First off, I really liked that Aguirre didn’t demonize the people of Salvation I was expecting a fairly generic cult twist for that town that didn’t happen. The gang (Stalker, Fade, Deuce and Tegan) is now living in Salvation, a small walled town where they intentionally live like it’s the colonial era, believing the plague and freaks were a punishment from God for modern sensibilities. From a plot perspective, Outpost gets quite a bit more interesting, albeit slowly.

Razorland trilogy