If you crave sci-fi and fantasy, look no further than Tor.com’s line of novellas. The Warrior Within (the debut novella by Angus Mcintyre) is one of the new titles from Tor to be published this year. Set in a futuristic desert like world scattered with remnants of past civilizations (which the population survives off of), The Warrior Within is a mind-bending science fiction adventure about a man named Karsman with many people living within his head. Karsman had basic modification surgery when he left home to cope with the conditions of the other world, except what the surgeons did was far more invasive than simple modifications. They managed to graft single skill artificial intelligences (such as Warrior, Dipolmat, etc) in Karsman’s mind.

The plot of this novella is pretty intriguing. Karsman presides over his current town as the "Mayor". It’s overseen by the Muljaddy (dominant alien beings) who run an ambivalent religious autocracy. Life is sustained through prayer and worship. Yet, this all changes when a group of commandos arrive, claiming to be in search of a woman they must assassinate (or so they say). When their searches prove fruitless, they begin to take more extreme measures, forcing Karsman to enlist the help of his intelligences….Karsman is forced with then protecting his town and a woman he might love from the commandos all while maintaining his personality and intelligences. Can he keep the Warrior under lock and key?

I was pleasantly surprised by this novella and its ending. If you loved The Gunslinger, Dune, or Ancillary Justice, you’ll probably dig this novella. The Warrior Within combines many Western and SF tropes into something wholly new that looks at what a post-human society might look like. I liked that the story wasn’t bogged down by exposition but rather Mcintyre gives us just enough information. An excellent debut.

Looking forward to seeing what Mcintyre might write next.
( )

We need more answers. ( )

This was an interesting and captivating short tale. We follow Karsman, and man who lives with 5 other personas in his head. I actually wished we got to see more of his personas but it really only focuses on two of them, which is fine but the exploration into the others could have been fun.

His lives in the post apocalyptic desert world, were he and everyone else works day and in and day out scavenging for metal and other such trinkets to turn into the Temple for food and water. We get a good explanation about what the temple is and who the “people” are that run it. It’s a fascinating little world.

Everything takes a turn though when 3 outsiders come marching in with a task of killing one woman. Slowly things start to change around the town and Karsman starts having issues remembering what he was doing or how he got somewhere.

There is just enough momentum going that it keeps you wanting to know what will happen next. Which of Karsman’s personas will take over, Will there be a fight, is someone going to die, what hidden technology is there. The world was simple but so interesting, I’m not sure if they lived on an earth like planet that was dried up, or if it was some other planet, but space was involved!

Karsman was s such a like-able character, the cast was small but the others weren’t so much the focus, so I never really cared to much for them. But Karsman I was invested in, like I said I really wish we could have seen more of the personas.

I felt like all my questions where answered and I’m not left with any feelings of emptiness, the story started out strong and continued pulling me in, and then it had a solid end with answers to all my questions. A fun, interesting tale. ( )