Captives by Jill Williamson

I have read other books by Jill Williamson, but this one, Captives, captivated me from the start.
There is an infection, or something that is contagious, and it has rendered the inhabitants of The Safe Lands relativity unable to have children. Well, at least children that aren't infected.

Out side of The Safe Lands dwell little villages of people, and these people are not infected. So Enforcers from The Safe Lands are being dispatched to go see if anyone wants to live in The Safe Lands. They aren't suppose to force them to relocate, just convenience them to come to a "better life".

This brings us to three brothers. Omar, who is very artistic. That happens to be shunned because they need hunters. This makes him very hard to match off for a wife. Levi, who is the oldest of the three brothers and soon to be wed. He is favored and his match of a wife is idea for him. Then there is Mason. He is studying to be a doctor, and like his brother Omar, he isn't in favor because of this. Women are doctors, what is wrong with this guy that he wants to to be doctor and not a hunter? His father and village elders have matched him off to a potential wife who does't like him and has a sharp tongue. She didn't want a husband who wasn't a hunter and instead has a different calling.

This is just the start of things! When the Enforcers come, life as everyone in this village has know it is changed forever! Levi comes back from a trip that Omar sent him on to find Jem, his fiance has been kidnapped, and Mason and Omar are now in The Safe Lands. A land that isn't so safe, if you ask me, and has deep secrets that Mason is working to uncover. His goal is to protect those he loves, and he is in a bit of a race for time as well. The girls have been put in Harems to be "Queens" while the boys get to choose to pretty much donate what is needed from their bodies, or die. "Liberation" is what they call death. These children raised Glenrock, in the Old Ways that include God are here to "save" a culture from the Thin Plauge. The reason for the plague will hit home with today's world.

And while our brave or misguided villagers choose to follow God and the older ways, or fall prey to the drugged and not what it seems life styles lived in The Safe Lands, including marks that are placed in the hands and on the forehead, love is not all lost. In fact, I was surprised and rather tickled to find some quotes from The Princess Bride mixed in here and there. I'm going to tell you have to read this book and see where those gems were tucked in.

A really good read, you will not be disappointed in the depth that Jill Williamson tucked into Captives.

Carol :)

The Safe Lands is a dystopian series in which earth’s population is divided between the infected and the uninfected; the infected live short, cushy lifestyles within walled cities of unending entertainment, while the uninfected live primitively off the land; when the virus mutates and becomes uncontrollable, the uninfected become the hunted; it is believed they hold the cure. Based on Daniel chapter one.

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Book one: Captives (March 2013)

One choice could destroy them all.

When eighteen-year-old Levi returned from Denver City with his latest scavenged finds, he never imagined he’d find his village of Glenrock decimated, loved ones killed, and many—including his fiancée, Jem–taken captive. Levi is determined to rescue what remains of his people, even if it means entering the Safe Lands, a walled city that seems anything but safe.

Omar knows he betrayed his brother by sending him away, but helping the enforcers was necessary. Living off the land and clinging to an outdated religion holds his village back. The Safe Land has protected people since the plague decimated the world generations ago … and its rulers have promised power and wealth beyond Omar’s dreams.

Meanwhile, their brother Mason has been granted a position inside the Safe Lands, and may be able to use his captivity to save not only his people, but also find a cure for the virus that threatens everyone inside the Safe Lands.

Can Mason uncover the truth hidden behind the Safe Land’s façade before it’s too late?

Captives - http://www.amazon.com/Captives-Safe-Lands-Jill-Williamson/dp/0310724228/  

Author’s website - http://www.jillwilliamson.com/

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