The science involves an earth about a hundred years after a World War. The setting is a bare plain pockmarked with craters. The heroes are scavengers, but there is little time spent on details of their lives. In a rather thin plot device, the discovery of a box with “something” inside it starts the action. They don’t know what this object is, but somehow, they are convinced to take a multi-day trek to the nearest city for tech advice.

Once they leave their camp, there is no more technology. It’s knives and crossbows against the rare gun that still functions.

The trek involves a good deal of conflict with mutated animals, desperate humans, and deadly robots left over from the war. This makes an interesting trip, and it includes enough death and mayhem to restrict the readership to older teens.

Once they reach the city some old acquaintances are renewed, and the interpersonal relationships get interesting. Character development increases the interest, and the story fills out.

A kidnapping boosts the tension further, along with a potential showdown with the AI robots.

Inexplicably, the robots turn up to be less of a problem for the humans, but useful to the author for the purpose of killing off an expendable character and upping the suspense.

The last twenty pages are taken up by a careful wrapping up of all the loose ends and telling us everything we need to know to set us up for the next book in the series.

In total, it’s a decent story with good character interactions, but lacking in Sci-Fi appeal and a bit weak in the plot line for mature readers.

Three stars.