Beautifully written throughout. This could be described as two related novellas, uneasily bolted together. The concept of the first half, the "IF" is an amazing, horribly believable dystopian near-future that rates 5-stars as a stand-alone piece, in its own right. But IMHO, the follow through, "THEN," doesn't work. It is neither grounded enough, nor quite bat-**** crazy enough to provide the closure, or the answers that the first novella cries out for. One of those times when I would say that it would have been better to leave the opening situation, and the characters and their plight, open-ended, and allow the reader to provide their own answers.

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