Review: The Law & the Heart: Speculative Stories to Bend the Mind and Soul [Kindle Edition]
Kenneth Schneyer’s “The Law & the Heart” is a great collection of short stories that lead the way to our future. The book is set up into the sections: The Law, the Heart, and The Law & the Heart. Though there is a combined thread that runs through every story linking to our future, I will quickly mention each category since the author chose to section the book.
In the first section, “The Law”, all of these stories deal with legal matters and how decisions made now can forever change the future. The fallacy of going to the past to try and change the future may give us insight on why the Civil War happens, but it ultimately shows that you cannot change the past without extreme consequences. Other laws, based on future medicine and technology, may not work the way we expect them to either.
I particularly loved the EULA for our Body… I knew that I forgot to read something before I was born… Darn!
The second section, “The Heart”, is obviously geared more toward futuristic stories that show us love, relationships, and how even in the future your heart will be conflicted. This section left me with two burning questions: If someone you loved lost twenty years of their memory and no longer knew you or loved you… could you let them walk away without fighting? Also could you kill a child (directly or indirectly) who trusts you in order to save other lives?
The third section combines the two: “The Law and the Heart.” There are only two stories in this section: One asks if you can betray your planet over your heart, and the other walks us through a future where medicine has given us extended lives while at the same time the law has taken our freedoms.
All three sections combined how love and law both change and remain the same… the outside coverings may be different, but the motivations are ultimately the same. Though I received this book free in exchange for an honest review, I am very impressed with the author and will most likely read additional books of his in the future.
The Kindle version of "The Law and the Heart" can be found at Amazon for $5.99 at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00K9SFLQ6/?tag=shasworofboo-20
