THE DAMAGE DONE

Science fiction often asks the listener to suspend disbelief. And here, J.D. Jackson and an able crew of narrators ask listeners to entertain an amazing and culturally loaded premise: What if there were no murders, no torture, no gun violence? As the story is told through the voices of a poet and political prisoner, an abused wife, the brother of the last victim of violence, among others, we hear how the characters' lives are forever changed by a future in which there is no threat of being physically hurt. Although the author often explains rather than dramatizes in these connected stories, the narrators keep their voices full of youthful energy, curiosity, and hope while doing what science fiction does best--asking the seemingly impossible. B.P. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine [Published: JUNE 2022]