Title: Atom
Author: Stephen C. Sutcliffe
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 978-0-595-21601-7
Pages: 178
Genre: Mythology, Folktale, legends
Reviewed by: Jennifer Weiss
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In his novel Atom, Stephen Sutcliffe explores the intrigue, fear, and paranoia that would follow any sort of apocalyptic event such as the atomic bomb. Living in the nuclear age that follows the atomic bomb, Michael Brethren and his friends refer to themselves as the Children of Atom. They formulate a plan to build and unleash a bomb of their own on their town to prove a point. While the group of friends have limitless funds from their parents and money from their own drug deals, they are still a long way from being able to purchase the massive amounts of plutonium they need, so what better plan than to steal from a drug kingpin. Surprisingly enough they accomplish their heist without little repercussions.
Spanning a wide range of territory, this story takes the reader on a crazy train ride. The story takes place in about 1974-1975, a time when the fear and panic about the atomic bomb and nuclear weapons was surmounting. Stephen Sutcliffe is able to capture that fear and panic within his writing. He makes the readers feel every emotion associated with those fears. The book is well written and engaging. The readers will find themselves immersed into the story and feeling as if they too are a part of the Children of Atom group. The action scenes are intensely vivid and descriptive. It is so easy to picture the setting, the sounds of each conflict, the inflection of the character’s voices when they are angry, the scent of the post nuclear war air. Sutcliffe does such an excellent job at describing all of this in a way that doesn’t overpower the story.
Michael and his friends talk immensely on nuclear policy, rants on the worship of the god of nuclear power: Atom. Sutcliffe writes these interactions with clarity and knowledge, showing he did the legwork needed to provide readers with something that is easy to understand. Michael and the other Children of Atom have very intense and in depth questions that challenge the readers to think about their own beliefs about war, religion, and national policy. With the use of the God Atom, Sutcliffe creates his own mythology that seems plausible. He creates a belief system that stands out and contends with the other mythology of the Greeks and Romans.
Atom has an interesting concept that has not been attempted before. While it covers a lot of information, it flows well together. The only struggle in this book was the characters have similar speech patterns, which makes it a little difficult to distinguish which character is speaking at a given time. Their conversations tend to run together and almost become a deterrent from reading. Overall the story has huge potential and market. Mythology and folklore fans will enjoy the Atom mythos. Post apocalyptic fans with enjoy the post nuclear war aspect. Suspense and thrill fans will enjoy the Children of Atom’s plan to steal from the drug dealer. It has a little something for every genre to enjoy.
