My Friend, Freedom is a short story by emerging author Peter Eliot, set in futuristic, Dystopian London, following the life of Yakimoto, a Japanese immigrant, whose life is left in ruin after a failed attempt at blackmail with a shady corporation. In a time where money is everything, challenging such a huge power is certain suicide, but Yakimoto has had unusual dreams; telling dreams…

The grim sci-fi/cyberpunk setting is reminiscent of something between now and the setting of Blade Runner, with a feel of Noir without an observant detective but rather an aging, drug-addicted businessman stuck on the streets of an unforgiving London. Details are kept brief and concise as to push the story forward with only the background needed to progress, with interesting but just-slightly-disturbing newfangled and foreseeable tech’ being illustrated.

The majority of the story comes from the slightly warped viewpoint of Yakimoto with some other characters joining the narrative over time, and the mix of pseudo-science-bordering-spirituality against the harsh and careless technological empire evokes the classics of the genre without being derivative. Characters are believable despite their minimal characterization and sympathetic without too much deliberate motivation. The story follows dreamers against a grim reality and flows as such.

The story is very short but worth reading and I really look forward to seeing what else this writer might put out given a higher word count.

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