There Will Always Be a Max

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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It's not often that I do prep work before reading something – especially a 26 page story. But I wanted to fully appreciate this, so in the weeks leading up to the release (and one week after – hence the late review), I watched the Mad Max films – I'm not sure why, but they never appealed to me back in the 80s, and while I was curious about Fury Road, I hadn't gotten around to it yet. While I'm very underwhelmed by the first two, the third was okay, and I really liked the latest. So finally, I felt ready to read this story.

So, so glad that I watched the movies first – I'd have been okay without it, but there were nuances, etc. that you pick up with the right background.

So we're in a post-apocalyptic area, very much out of the Mad Max movies. Angstrom King is the only Genrenaut involved here – for reasons well explained – but Roman overshadows everything. I really appreciated this approach. I've been curious about the hints that Underwood dropped in The Absconded Ambassador about Roman and am glad we got more here – tho' I'm still looking forward to getting the whole story eventually. It was good to see King doing more than commanding a mission, it was good for the character to get in the thick of things.

Underwood's treatment of “The Max” idea/character is well done. The story, while brief, is full and exciting. Not much more to ask from 26 pages, really.