john g rees ‘Anoxic Zone’ Review

Written by: Paula Limbaugh

Anoxic zones are places without oxygen, the ‘an’ with without or not, an-oxic.

“The zone, which occurs naturally at depths greater than 200 meters, has no oxygen to support life or accelerate decay. This creates a unique environment for the preservation on ancient shipwrecks, as well as modern day detritus.”

Anoxic Zone by john g rees (lower case letters, the authors’ preference) is a sci-fi/horror story set in the future. Megacorp is exactly what the name says, a multi-national corporation that owns and runs just about everything in the world. Megacorp gets slave labor by employing reusables. A reusable is a person that can die and be revived to be used again. Think immortal, vampire.

The story focuses on Jake and Johnny who have been friends for over 100 years. The Industrial Age has come to an end and metals are a rare commodity.

Megacorp employs the two friends as salvage divers to bring up precious metals from shipwrecks located in anoxic zones. With a weekly shot of ‘juice’ made from the blood of Vlad Tepes, the guys are good to go.

Over time the two friends have become curious about their existence and end up discovering more than they wanted to know.  The story revolves around what they do with their new found knowledge and how to keep Megacorp at bay.

Moving 15 years ahead in part 2 of the story we find Jake and Johnny working the Black Sea, still salvaging and plotting a way to rid the world of their maker, Vlad Tepes.

Some great plot twists, a bit of gore and outright humor can be found within these pages. At times I found the dialog a little dry, but for the most part entertaining. john g rees has continued the story in Halocline (an occurrence when fresh water mixes with salt water e.g. the Black Sea) and then a third book, a pre-quel titled Black Tide which brings the story full circle. A forth novel added to the series last February, Out of Stone shows the reader that evil does not sleep, it waits!

Order it here.

Rating: 3.5/5