A Calculated Risk: A Review of Go Outside

Title: Go Outside

Author: Adam Vine

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: March 1, 2021

Genres: Science Fiction

Length: 8 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 4 Stars

Blurb:

Cal has the opportunity to travel across the stars to the world of the enigmatic and enlightened Hosts… but doing so will mean leaving behind everything he has ever known.

Review:

Content warning: Grief. I will not be discussing it in my review.

What is the biggest risk you’d be willing to take?

This is one of those stories that works best if you know as little about the plot in advance as possible, so I’ll need to be careful about how I word this review. I did like the way the author gave the audience more information in small doses here and there. It made sense to write the exposition that way given what we learned about the main character and how busy he was with critical tasks when we first met him.

There were a few times when I wished the narrator went into more detail. Cal gave brief descriptions of his reasons for travelling so far away from Earth, what the Hosts were like, and what they hoped he could do for them. I certainly wouldn’t have expected the narrator to go into vivid detail about any of these topics given the short length of this tale, but I did find myself wishing I knew a little more about all of them so that this setting and these characters could become more vivid in my imagination. This was a minor criticism of something I otherwise enjoyed quite a bit.

The ending was well done. While I did still hope for more information than what it provided, it did answer my biggest questions in a pretty satisfactory manner. I also liked the way it balanced wrapping things up with leaving space for a sequel if Mr. Vine ever decides to write such a thing. There were certainly plenty of topics he could cover, and I’d be thrilled to read more about Cal’s adventures if the author ever decides to revisit this character.

Go Outside was a delightful glimpse into a unique corner of the universe.