In the far future, gladiatorial combat is used as a method of execution. Convicts dropped off on a planet to kill each other and the survivor gets rewards and their freedom, with the entire thing screened for a baying audience.

Halfway between the Running Man and the Hunger Games, it isn’t entirely new ground but the sci-fi spin and the fact we learn early the game is rigged gives it a twist. The ending felt a little weak to me, after all the action and betrayals that had occurred before. This was largely because it hints throughout at a larger plot and background, but never gets a chance to explore it. Imagine the Hunger Games if all you saw was the game. No lead in, no volunteering, just a straight fight and eventual end of it with no details of what came after.

It is an enjoyable read, but a little too unoriginal to get a high rating. The problem is that what it does, it does well, but what it does has been done better before. (City of Wizards, by the same author, is a stronger work.)

A fast sci-fi action short story, with some neat twists.