A Review of Prepare by Geoffrey Germann

A mysterious stranger seemed to show up at just the right time. A stranger who seemed to be invincible. In a crime ridden section of the city called the Orchard, an attempted robbery of a convenience store is interrupted as the night clerk Nikolai can do nothing but watch as the stranger takes out the thugs who were not only going to rob him but cause him bodily harm if not kill him outright.


At Mercy Hospital, resident Corinne works in an ER that more closely resembles a scene from MASH. As she leaves at the end of her shift a mysterious fighure stands in front of her as gangbangers charge into the waiting room to finish off a rival waiting for medical attention.

What follows is a new type of superhero who stops criminals in their attacks on innocent inhabitants of the Orchard who live their lives in fear of gang activity. There is cat and mouse games drawing out gang members and basically running them ragged as they try to catch up with this taunting mysterious figure.

By day he returns to his home to rest and prepare for another nights activity. Vigilantism is of course frowned on by the local authorities and this stranger becomes very much a person of interest.

Darren is a scientist/technician of micromechanical engineering and teams up with fellow collegue Adam in devising the suit and the technologies that make its wearer impervious to most forms of attack. They sell their company which gives them the resources to carry out their crime fighting agenda.

We also learn at the end that this crusader has a secret lab that escapes the self destruct expolosion that Darren uses to destroy the evidence that is apparant to the police as they close in on him.

I would like to have seen a little more of Adam and his role in this story. I am a bit curious as to how the second gang could have discovered Adam's role in the vigilantism and where their center of operations was located. Other than Adam was executed by the second gang we don't know the particulars. Walter's role at the end and how much he knew was somewhat explained but I not sure it was adequate for me to be believable.

In spite of my few little quibbles with this book, I still found it a fast and enjoyable read. Everything does not have to clearly resolved in order to have a pleasurale experience. If you do find this book and went along for the ride the ending left a door open to further adventures of Darren. As I understand it there is a sequel in the works.