Faller

Faller by Will McIntosh
On Sale October 25, 2016 by Tor Books
Rating: ★★★★

A man wakes up in the middle of a street. He has no idea who he is, where he is, or what has happened to him. He's on a strange island that looks like a slice of urban jungle floating in the air. There are other people on the island with him, but none of them remember anything, either. The landscape is dotted with strange machines that no one remembers how to operate. Food only comes from cans found in abandoned homes and apartments-- and it won't last forever. This is Day One. And it's brutal. The strong band together in clans, hoarding cans for themselves. The weak, including almost all children, get tossed over the edge.

The man checks his pockets for clues to his identification. Others have found strange plastic cards with their picture on it and what they can only assume was their name before Day One. But all that's in the man's possession is an odd combination of a toy parachute man, a piece of paper marked with weird symbols drawn in blood, and a picture of himself with a woman. As far as he can tell the woman is nowhere in his world, but he longs for her regardless. He's convinced these items from his pocket are the key to discovering the truth about who he really is... if only he could figure out what they mean.

When Faller falls off the edge of the world, it's an accident. But it's also the begining of a discovery of who he is and what happened to him. He finds other world below his, other floating islands, each with a unique society that has dealt with the transition from Day One in its own way. Faller can't believe his luck when he finds the woman from the photograph. But just like there's more than one world, it seems there's more than one of this woman. From island to island, Faller continues to come across familiar faces.

What the heck is going on?

And as if things couldn't get more complicated for Faller, he starts to suspect someone is out to kill him. But who would want him dead? And why?

I'm not an avid reader of science fiction, but I really enjoyed this book. It seemed like every chapter added a new layer to the story. Just when I thought things couldn't get more freaky, something would happen that threw me for a loop. At first, I was annoyed that Faller's story was interrupted-- right after he fell off the edge of the earth, no less!-- with the story of some guy named Peter. But then it becomes clear that Peter and Faller have converging story lines. That said, I never warmed to Peter and preferred Faller's chapters.

I can't give this book a full five stars, because I was left with too many burning questions. Everyone had their memories wiped clean but has some muscle memory that allowed them shoot guns and open cans. Why couldn't that same principle apply to cars? It just seemed a little random what people could and couldn't remember post Day One. I also didn't like that Ugo was transformed from a complex character into a superhero villain. That's a complaint that I would apply more broadly over the entire plot as well. As the book went on, it definitely took on a quasi comic book feel. Less mind-blowing world building and more good vs. evil action scenes. Luckily, however, the book pulls back in the reigns towards the end.

I can't talk about most of the logic issues I had with this book without ruining it. So I've hid them in a spoiler (click at your risk):

How did everyone seem to know that Faller is the real Peter? How come all the worlds were English speaking? If so many people died during the war/apocalypse, how did so many of the duplicates survive? Where are they getting all the ammo? Why would Ugo chose to clone a bunch of Peters to kill Peter instead of a bunch of Ugos? Why did some of the Peters understand physics, but Faller didn't? How did the orignals, except Peter, avoid getting the black out virus?

This book is definitely worth a look for fans of post-apocalyptic sci-fi.