The Lens and the Looker -Lory S Kaufman

The Lens and the Looker
Lory S Kaufman
The Fiction Studio, Mar 16 2011, $14.95
www.fictionstudio.com
ISBN: 9781936558025

By the twenty-fourth century, humanity has come a long way from the brink of extinction due to AIs creating a better world. One particular improvement to foster better citizenship is the History Camps, where the young are sent to learn from past mistakes during a realistic reenactment.

In 2347 CE in the New York Community, rebellious teen Hansum scores a 0 on a test so the school’s Dean Turkenshaw decides enough nonsense and enrolls the seventeen year old student for a two week session at the Deep-Immersion History Camp, which means his communication implant is removed to isolate him. Hansum looks forward to the lesson he plans to provide the enactors.

Hansum, fifteen year old Shamira and fourteen year old Lincoln arrive in 1347 Verona. The boys are apprentices to a lens-maker while the girl is assigned kitchen duty. The trio pretends to behave until the end. When the truth about the recalcitrant threesome surfaces, they are sent to Arimus who escorts them to the real 1347 Verona where they will behave or face real punishment.

The first Verona science fiction story is a terrific thought provoking tale as the History Camps are the futuristic boot camps to make recalcitrant students behave. The three teens are strong leads who just want to have fun their way in a society that has different expectations. The premise of learning from history’s mistakes with lens-making and cooking was never clear how that teaches life lessons as the time in the community and the camp was relatively limited. Still The Lens and the Looker is a super opening act that hopefully contains more events in the future at the Community and at the Camp.

Harriet Klausner